The Complete Guide to Habit Trackers for your Bullet Journal or Planner! (Plus FREE Printable Habit Tracker)

Trying to reach your goals or develop some healthier habits can be an uphill battle.

After all, implementing new habits is hard because your mind and body automatically want you to take the easiest road possible, like grabbing MacDonalds for dinner rather than cooking that healthy salmon salad…

But what if I told you there is an awesome trend that could make sticking to those new habits so much easier and turn them into something you just do automatically like a habit should be!

Well in this post I’m going to give you the complete lowdown on habit trackers, and why a seemingly simple bit of paper could help you to transform your life (or just drink more water!)

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I’ve actually created an awesome free habit tracker printable just for you, so click the button below to grab yours!

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A HABIT TRACKER?

It’s just a simple way for you to keep track of certain actions you want to become a regular part of your life.

So if you wanted to get healthy, you could use your habit tracker to check that you’re not eating junk food, that you’re drinking enough water and working out each day.

Habit trackers can also be used to track your current actions or emotions to figure out patterns. For example if you suffer from a mental health issue or a chronic illness you could track your symptoms and mood along with other basic things such as sleep and what you ate to see if any patterns emerge. You might find something like when you don’t get enough sleep your anxiety gets way worse!

WHY WOULD YOU USE A HABIT TRACKER?

Because it helps you be consistent in your efforts and actions to reach a goal, and it’s consistency that leads you to smash those goals!

Also by tracking actions you want to become habits it forces you to complete the action, and the more often you do something the more likely it is to become a habit and thus effortless for you to do in the long term! So habit trackers make implementing a brand new habit that you want to be part of your life super easy!

WHERE SHOULD YOU HABIT TRACK? IN A BULLET JOURNAL, PLANNER, APP OR PRINTABLE?

Okay so now you know how important habit tracking is if you want to reach your goals or to implement a new behavior that will improve your life, now it’s time to decide where you want to habit track.

I think the most popular place for people to have habit trackers is in their bullet journals.

If you don’t know, bullet journals are like a cross between a planner, a journal and your entire brain. They allow you to plan your life in a way that works exactly for you.

If you want to start a bullet journal you will need a notebook, ideally with grids or dots (this is a really popular one people use) and some pens (obviously you can use any pens but these are super popular with bullet journalers as they include both fine tips and a brush tips for fancy lettering and decoration).

Some premade planners come with habit trackers, or you can buy inserts for super popular planners like these Happy Planner Keeping Track Inserts which are really cute!

Some people prefer online habit trackers, and there are a few habit-tracking apps that work really well like this one.

The final option is to use a printable habit tracker, you can of course create your own, but I’ve made a free downloadable habit tracker PDF just for you (and you can click the button below to grab your copy).

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRINTABLE HABIT TRACKER:

This free printable habit tracker can be used as a stand-alone or you can integrate it into your bullet journal or planner!

40+ THINGS YOU COULD TRACK!

Now you’ve got your free pintable habit tracker, or you’re ready to start tracking in your bullet journal, planner or app, it’s time to decide what to track!

People often get stuck on what they should track and my best advice is to track habits that will directly lead you to reaching your goals.

For example, if your goal is to lose five pounds then you should maybe track your calorie intake, weight, workouts and when you didn’t eat junk food!

BELOW I’VE LISTED OVER 40 DIFFERENT TRACKING IDEAS TO GIVE YOU SOME TRACKING INSPIRATION:

Health and Fitness

– Worked out

– Yoga

– Ate clean

– Slept X hours

– Water drank

– Weight

– Calories eaten

– Calories burnt

– Took medication

– Mood (great if you have mental health issues as you can often see patterns emerging)

– Symptoms (really helpful if you have a chronic illness)

– Period

– No junk food

Wellness

– Journaling

– Gratitude

– Mediate

– Prayer

– Affirmations

– Morning routine

– Evening routine

– Went outside in nature

Studying

– Read study book

– Revise notes

– Practiced skill

– Did homework

Good Habits

– Read book

– Did washing up straight after dinner

– Less than x minutes/hour on social media

– Less than x minutes/hour watching TV

– Water plants

Finances

– Paid bills

– No spend day

– Put money in a savings account

– Stayed in budget

– Checked checking/current account

Cleaning and Housekeeping

– Vacuumed house

– Cleaned bathroom

– Washed bed sheets

– Washed towels

– Cleaned kitchen

– Laundry

Parenting

– Kids done their chores

– Potty training

– Breast-feeding

– Baby or kid’s sleeping habits

– When your kid’s get sick

EXAMPLES OF HABIT TRACKERS

Below I’ve rounded up some of the most beautiful bullet journal habit tracker layouts to show you some of the tracking possibilities once you get into the groove!

Remember these are just some habit tracker ideas, if this is your first go at habit tracking then it might be best to use the free habit tracker printable, and once you’re feeling confident you can create your own like the stunning ones below!

A super pretty example of a habit and mood tracker spread by Live Joyfully and Healthy.

A great, simple but beautiful habit tracker from Life_With_BUJO.

Love the combination of a more traditional habit tracker with the unconventional sleep track on this spread by Urban Stationary.

Mood trackers are also really popular with bullet journalers so I’ve found a couple to give you some inspo!

This mood tracker is just stunning, and the rabbit is too cute Insta Liddy.

Of course, you don’t have to only track something serious, you could track something fun like books you want to read, or movies you want to watch, check out the trackers below to see what I mean!

As a bit of a Netflix’s obsessive who likes to jump between different series I will definitely be stealing this tracker from Bullet_Journal_Journey.

Plus who said your tracker had to be about you, maybe try a pet tracker like Dom Nicky Rose!

So there we have it, everything you need to know to get you started with habit tracking! As always if you have any questions please feel free to comment below.