Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to another skill share class. Today we're going over five tips and tricks for using a habit tracker to increase your productivity and simplify your work schedule in this quick class, we're gonna go over five tips for how to simplify your planner or to do list using a habit tracker and how to use it effectively to keep yourself motivated throughout your week.
2. Tips for Using a Habit Tracker Effectively: Okay, so starting off, we're gonna talk about just how I have mine set up. I have printed out I have a tracker template from online. There are a ton of them in different styles that you confined just by googling it. Or you can draw your own. I know some people like to use like a bullet journal. I don't personally, I like using notebooks, but I don't want toe take the time to, like, draw the lines and stuff. So I printed out 12 of these and copied them into my like year notebooks. They're all pasted in there for each month of the year. So this is the finish July 1. And basically, I keep most of the same habits on here, and I switched a few up every month. If I find that something didn't work well for me like this writing one here did not work well for me. As you can see, it's barely filled out so that when I am a limiting for August, but that one didn't work out. But then other ones all shift around. I keep, like, consistent wake up time Gratitude journal. Just keeping a journal, making my bed things like that are pretty consistent months a month. I recommend that when you go through and choose your tasks on here that you make sure everything is, for the most part on under 55 minute goal. The only things on here I have it take more time than five minutes are a workout and my 15 minute reading goal. But everything else here filling out my gratitude journal, making my bed posting instagram posts, flossing, that sort of thing are all under five minutes, for the most part. So I recommend keeping everything simple and using this to keep up with habits that you've already developed and then adding in a few new ones every month to increase and learn and try out new things. What I love about have a tracker is that my normal weekly planner isn't is filled up with all of these short tasks. I don't wanna have to write down a reminder every day on my planner to do an instagram post or make my bed or journal. So what I do is I have it on here instead, and it's all in one place. I referenced this multiple times throughout a day but it keeps my normal weekly planner more clear, or even if you have a to do list is going to keep it shorter and more simple. So by using this in conjunction with its to do list or planner, you're going to save yourself time. You know, I could have to write out as many little things your to do list and planner are gonna look is overwhelming because you're not gonna have a many small tasks listed on there. And what's really nice about this is looking at this after you've done it for a couple weeks or a month, you can look back and you can really see areas that you're good at. So, for example, I only missed making my bed at once this whole month, which is really good. So I can tell that habit is more deeply ingrained now, whereas other ones that I've recently added, like last month before July and June, I introduced making sure flossing every day, so that was a really good one. I struggled with that habit at first, but then this month I've done it much more consistently, so I usually keep those habits on for a few months to really ingrained them. Certain habits I've kept on here since the being the year, like the Gratitude Journal and like making sure I'm waking up at the same time. I like to track those to see if there is a pattern in how earlier wake up if there certain times of the month and I'm waking up earlier and easier and so certain months or times of the week that I am failing at that. Things that keep consistent, like working out Instagram posts reading. I always keep those on there. I really want to make sure I'm doing those every day. So I get a little bit of a thrill filling them out each day that I have done them. And it's nice to look back at the end of the month and see that I've done reading almost everyday this of this month, which is really good when I want to suggest to you if you are new, it have a tracking is to not be afraid to adjust your habits each month. There may be some that just did not work out for you that you realize you know what? This habit isn't as important as I thought it was going to be or I don't enjoy this habit. It's not bettering me something like that. Don't feel afraid to nix that the next month and switch it out for something else. I'd like to try to introduce two new habits a month, and I find that that's pretty helpful and it helps me to stay consistent with. The habits have already developed, like waking up at a certain time, making my bed, that sort of thing. So I'm still saying, consistent with old habits that I've learned. But I'm increasing and learning some new ones each month as well. I do recommend if you're new to this and maybe having a hard time getting started, you can schedule a reward for yourself, even if you are new to it. If you know if I do this this month, I will bake a cake for myself or I'll have a nice night out with my husband or a watch, a funny movie or take a bubble bath. Anything to motivate yourself. You can definitely use that, and that will be helpful for you. What I also like to do on top of my habit tracker is my life. Teoh set up a monthly page
3. Track Successes and Stats: behind each of my habit trackers. This is a new one. I'm just starting for August behind each of habit trackers on the back page. I like to take notes about the month. So if I hit a new milestone, if I had something exciting happen if something good happened, if a surprise, anything like that, if I accomplish something specific at work that I'm proud of, that sort of thing, I'll jot it down here because it's already been nice to look back at the beginning of the year and see what happened in February and what was something fun that happened. And I also like to write down stats. So for me, I write down my YouTube and Instagram and counts in terms of followers. And this is really motivational, because I can go back to the very beginning of the year and see that I was at 763. Where is right now? I'm already almost double that. So it's really motivational for me to have that recorded and here with my habits, and I can look at that and I'll usually reference the note page a few times a month just to see If there's anything I want to add in, you know, Did I hit any milestones that I wouldn't award for something? Did I, you know, hit a new milestone of my fitness or my savings, or YouTube or skill Share anything like that. So I like this. It's very motivational, It's encouraging, and it's really nice because you have a a brief overview of some really great stuff that happened to you during the month. So it's a really good way to also feel grateful for what happened during the month and what you have accomplished or what new things have come into your life. So it's just a nice way to record any monthly wins for yourself. I highly suggest this. I think it's really fun. Maybe if you don't do with your have a tracker, you could have a page in your journal for each month, that sort of thing. I think it's a really nice habit that really leads you to feeling great about what if you are doing
4. News Habits & Habit Stacking: So this is my next month. Have a tracker. It's not filled out yet, so I haven't hit the first day of August yet. That's actually gonna be tomorrow. But as you can see, I've kept most of the same habits the wake up, journaling, different chores, working out the Instagram's nobody that you things that I've changed our checking still share every day and adding in I want to track to see how many days of the week I'm actually eating vegetables because sometimes I feel like I'm doing really good with that. Sometimes I feel like I'm not, so I want to make a habit out of eating vegetables every day. I know I'm much better with fruit and vegetables can sometimes be a personal falling for me with my diet. So I want to make sure I'm tracking that to see how many days I'm actually eating vegetables. And again, if there's any patterns, that's what the habit tracker is really great for. Did you see patterns? You see patterns within your own self, your own motivation, your own like days of the week that maybe you're better about doing certain things like your gratitude or your Journal and then other days that week. Or maybe you're always behind, and that's why you're not doing it. And this gives you a tool to look at those patterns and be like, You know, why is it that at the beginning of the month, I'm not very good this or on Mondays? I'm always doing behind on this, and I can help you, too. Figure out any shortcomings so that you can improve upon those habits and continue to improve your life.
5. Keep It Simple!: Okay, So quick tips. If you are someone who is totally new, the habit tracking, I suggest only working on anywhere from maybe 1 to 3 habits at a time. Don't make a giant list of 15 things. You want to learn it all at the same time, cause that's going to make it very difficult. It's hard to break a bad habit or to start a new habits. You don't want to overwhelm yourself too much. Another tip, I would suggest is to lump habits together. For example, I lump in waking up, doing my gratitude journal, my normal journal, and making my bed all in one chunk of time usually and what what happens with that is, if I remember to do one of those habits, I'm already thinking about the other three. So if you can learn to habit stack were you add on habits to another habit that you're already ingrained to dio. That's gonna make it way easier for you to do these habits. So you wanna roughly think about maybe what time of the day that you would do most of these habits? Or that you would do certain habits? So if you can learn to stack habits on top of each other. Take a habit that you're already good at. Say you're good at making your bed every morning, and then every day you make your bed a lump in doing your gratitude journal. Or, you know, brushing your teeth or whatever it is that you're trying to track and have a tracker is great because you can really use this for all aspects of your life. Whether it's you know, something like eating more vegetables or working out those air like fitness goals or no instagram, that might be a social job goal. Waking up that's just good for your health and may be your motivation. So you can really use this to add on a bunch of habits that are all in different areas of your life. But you can have them all on one page so you can see all these habits at once so that you're constantly thinking about what habits you're working on, something that might be helpful to if you find that you are struggling with certain habits is maybe it. Take a post it note and on days where you don't complete different habits that you're trying to learn. Maybe make a note of why you didn't do that. Have it? Are you feeling down? You know, are you? Did you eat too much? And it's hard for you to work out now because you're really stuffed. Write down little notes to yourself about why you missed a habit. If you keep missing it for a while, and then you can rethink what it is that's causing you to fall short of that habit. I definitely recommend starting with baby steps. A swell. You don't want to go in again like 15 new habits. Take on a few to time. And if you're having trouble, say your goal is to work out for 30 minutes a day. Well, if you're having trouble with 30 minutes a day, start with 10 15 minutes a day and then build on from there. Because once you've started the habit, it's gonna be a lot easier for you to expand upon a habit you've already learned than to create a brand new, hard, difficult habit for yourself. So if you struggle with a habit trying to see if you can do half of that, if can you, you know, for me. I I was really failing at waking up in a certain time at the beginning of the year, but now it's a lot easier. So if you can, you know, push back your wake up time. 30 minutes. You know, short in your work out. Make your rules a little more flexible so that you're less likely to feel so that you feel good about it. And you start to do it on a daily basis, and then you can expand upon it. You know, bring your wake up time. 15 minutes back at on. 10 more minutes of a workout, etcetera, so that those are my tips and tricks for that.
6. Quick Roundup & Conclusion: overall. I really do recommend have a tracker. It has helped me immensely with habits and just tracking things on a daily basis. I've gotten way more consistent with a lot of things because of my habit tracker, So I definitely recommend it again. Like I said, I printed this out and just what had taped it into my journals. I wouldn't have to draw out the habit tracker because I do not like to measure out straight lines. I'm not very good at it. And then I just filled this in with a little bit of color at it, a couple of motivational stickers, which you can see I did with my other pages to a kind of color themed the pages. But that just gives me a little bit of color, and then I just start to fill it, and I get all this beautiful color in here, and I just really motivational for me, and I definitely recommend trying the page at the end of the month. Go ahead and just film in anything exciting that's happened to you. I like to fill it in as the month goes on. That way, don't forget about anything, and then you can do an encounter with, you know, social media following. If you're trying to lose weight, you can write down your weight or measurements. If you're trying to increase your income every month, you could write down how much more money you made then what your base income is or something like that. So it's just really inspirational. It keeps me on focus, so I definitely recommend those two tricks. They really have helped me. This year has been a lot better with this habit tracker. I've gotten so much more out of it than I thought I would. So I highly recommend giving in a month and seeing what you think of it. Oh, right, class. So for the end of this class for your project, go ahead and take a picture of your habit tracker and let us know what kind of habits you're trying to develop. And if you have any tips or tricks for habit development, let us know. I'm sure we would all be interested in your tips and tricks. I know I'm always looking for ways to improve upon my life. So have a tracker has been one of those things that has really helped us out. So in the projects leave us a comment with what habits you're trying to improve upon and what you've tried before. And take a picture of your habit tracker so we can see. What is your working on? Thank you so much for joining us for this class today. And I hope you have a great rest your day by
Amy N., Freelance Writer & Productivity Whiz
