Free Download: Goal & Habit Tracker
If you’re starting a new habit for the New Year – or at any point over the course of the next 12 months then you can use this free download to keep track of your progress so you stay on track and achieve your goals.
This post is part of the Getting Ready For Resolutions Series, you can read the previous article on Tracking Your Goals And Habits Here.
In my previous post I listed a variety of technology based tools that allowed you to track your goals and habits so that you could make sure you were on track and keep yourself accountable. For those of you who are regular readers know that I’m a big fan of paper-based solutions so I’ve developed the Goal & Habit Tracker.
What Is The Goal & Habit Tracker?
The Goal & Habit Tracker is a free download that prints on A4 and Letter in a 2-up format enabling you to cut it in half and use it in any A5 folder, it’s especially suitable for A5 FiloFaxes (affiliate link) which seem to be on the rise in terms of popularity at the moment.
The Goal & Habit Tracker allows you to keep a note of your Habit Streak, note if you’ve had any major successes or issues and what you’re going to reward yourself with at the the end of each week’s streak.
How To Use The Goal & Habit Tracker
The Goal & Habit Tracker is broken down into the following sections:
- My Goal/Habit Is – Give your goal/habit a title here – try to be descriptive so you know what the exact goal is. Don’t just say “Lose weight”, this is a bit open-ended so change it to “Lose 10 pounds” or “Get Fit For My Holiday” both of these have definite actions ascribed to them.
- I Want To Achieve This Because – Put your reason here, this is your true motivating factor behind the desire to achieve the goal. Continuing the weight loss example, this could be “Health reasons”, “Get into a bikini” etc. When you think of your goal, this is the desired outcome.
- I Will Measure My Success By – How will you know you are achieving your goal? In the case of weight loss this will be obvious, other goals may require different methods of measurement. For example if your goal is to meditate everyday the you may measure your success through your streak, if it’s to eat healthier it may be to count calories.
- I Will Start On – Give yourself a definitive start date – that way you can hold yourself accountable and not put it off!
- I Will Finish By – This could be a hard date, for example if you need to train for a specific run or simply when I feel I have achieved my goal, or be open ended.
- Daily Tracker – Tick off your progress, put a smiley face, write your calorie intake in the day box, whatever you need to track your progress goes here.
- Reward – What are you going to reward yourself with for completing the week’s streak? This could be a nice meal, a night out or just simply a pat on the back. Whatever motivates you to get through each week to make you look forward to completing your goals should be noted here.\
- Notes – Write down here if you’ve had any problems, successes or want to note your feelings over the course of the week, do so here.
- Congratulations, Month Done! – Here you can write in an extra-special reward or just bask in the knowledge that you’ve gone a whole month towards attaining your goal – good for you!
Over To You
I found in the past when I was doing my “Go Sober For October” challenge that ticking the days off on a calendar really helped, as it did when I quit smoking. Do you think tracking time spent on a goal in such a small scale helps or should you just take a month at a time, or not even bother tracking your progress? Let us know in the comments or Hit Me Up On Twitter.