A habit tracker is any tool that monitors if and when you complete that behavior; thus helping you consistently do, or not do, a behavior until it becomes automatic, i. e. , a habit. The ideal habit tracker adds as few extra steps as possible to your habit so it doesn’t become another detractor in your quest for change. If your habit tracker takes more than five minutes to set up, you are wasting time, and you’re more likely to abandon it if it gets messy.&nbsp;

Habit Trackers

<ol><li>Avoidance habits: to set one, simply put the word "no" in front of your chosen behavior (e. G. , "no smoking") and then track how you do on each day.</li><li>Metrics tracking: measuring how often you engage in the habit (e. G. , “number of cigarettes smoked") and then gradually reduce consumption over time. It’s especially helpful for compulsive, unconscious behaviors as it makes you more mindful of the behavior and its triggers. </li><li>Override habits: is any good habit that replaces bad ones. A well-chosen one is always more powerful than an avoidance habit.</li></ol>

The 3 Main Bad-Habit-Breaking Approaches

A habit is any behavior you often and regularly do, by and large automatically. Manipulating habits is a powerful life skill because many consistently repeated behaviors compound into big, life-altering outcomes.Turning good behaviors into habits makes them our default, automatic choices of action. This all but eliminates the willful effort required to repeat/stop them, which increases the odds of achieving the outcomes it leads to.

From Behavior To Habit

When a cue triggers a craving, you automatically try to execute the habit to get the reward. You never forget a habit, but developing stronger ones you can bypass it.&nbsp;A few definitions:<ul><li>A reward is anything that increases pleasure&nbsp;or decreases pain&nbsp;</li><li>A ritual is any set of actions that predictably leads to reward. Building a good habit that offers a deeper, more attractive pathway from cue to the same reward.</li><li>A craving is an urge to act in a way that yields an expected reward. Meditation, gratitude or prayer can soften the urges.</li><li>A cue is anything, internal or external, that kicks off a craving. Habit tracking will help you identify and avoid cues.</li></ul>

How Habits Work

<ul><li>Good habit trackers take less than 1 minute to fill and its benefits outweigh those costs. </li><li>Unlike us, habit trackers have unlimited, unbiased memory. Without them, it's easy to miss patterns that you can use to improve, lose track of your failures or forget to compound your victories. </li><li>We do many things, but most are done haphazardly. Habit trackers repeatedly remind us of our priorities, helping us stay on track and do less, and consequently achieve more. </li><li>It’s cathartic to successfully complete a task. Completion triggers a cascade of “feel good” chemicals in your brain that works as a reward.</li></ul>

Benefits Of Habit Trackers

<ul><li>Using your habit tracker consistently is a habit in itself. So make it stick</li><li>Keep your habit tracker simple, accessible, quick to complete and resistant to wear and tear. Friction is the enemy of action. </li><li>If it’s a behavior you have already made into a habit or one you don’t want to, don’t add to your habit tracker. It detracts from what matters and is needless work.</li><li>Start a new habit tracker if you can’t stand looking at the failures in the current one.</li><li>When you fail, don't give up or indulge in old ways. Missing sometimes is inevitable, but don’t miss twice in a row so you don’t lose momentum.</li><li>Start with a single key habit and don’t try to develop new ones until you’re comfortable that the first will stick.</li><li>Make your habit realistic and consider simplifying it and building it up over time so you don’t overwhelm yourself.</li><li> Make your habit relevant and exciting to you. It’s easier to keep them this way than aiming for habits because others say they're important.</li><li>Do it under the same conditions each day so your brain links habit and context, and thus easier to stick to.</li><li>Use habits as cues for more habits. So when you complete habit A, you always start habit B.</li><li>Track your habits until you can't imagine them not being part of your day.&nbsp;</li><li>Accept relapses as normal and track them again until reestablishment.</li></ul>

How To Use Your Habit Tracker Effectively 

Values → ← Quick-Start Home N.B., Click here to get a FREE blank, printable Habit Tracker template as part of FASTER TO MASTER's FREE Productivity Templates download. If I could wish for one superpower, the ability to turn good, compounding behaviours into habits wouldn't be my first choice (hello #timetravel ⏳).

Habit Trackers

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Automaticity

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