Ready-to-Use Habit Trackers: Log Daily Actions, Build Healthy Routines, Achieve Goals and Live Your Best Life

Preface

It doesn’t seem like long ago that I knew absolutely nothing about myself. Everybody else seemed to know I was disconnected, but I wandered in life aimlessly, trying to figure out what I wanted. My lack of personal awareness led to a lot of awkward situations: teasing, being taken advantage of, and of course, copious amounts of depression and anxiety. As a child, it was really bad. Over time, with friends and an increased understanding of life in general, I started learning more. I learned how to have friends. I learned how to get through school. But, I still relied on people around me for guidance and understanding.

When I was in college, the lack of awareness became a large problem. I was on my own. I couldn’t rely on my parents as I had. All of the familiarity, the friends I made… they were all gone.

Once again, I was trying to figure out who I was amid all these people who had it figured out. My depression and anxiety spiked. Things seemed worse than ever. With the help of well-meaning counselors, I waded my way through most of my 20s. I did eventually manage significant progress. I met, dated, then married my husband. We had a beautiful daughter about a year and a half later. Things seemed better until my daughter was 18 months old.

It was like I was back to square one. I wasn’t as self-destructive as I had been, but in fear of being that way, I did nothing. My anxiety and depression came back full force.

After finding new counselors and doing work toward improving myself again, it felt like this time, progress was much slower. I kept circling back into the same issues and the same problems, just with different people and different circumstances.

I had a hard time functioning and managing the tasks that most would call daily life. I’d used paper calendars, digital calendars, lists, sticky notes, and accordion folders in an attempt to bring time and task management into my life. They worked for a short time, but I found myself stuck between maintaining my mental health and the desire to be productive. I felt boxed in by the traditional Type A methods of time management. Until the fateful day my counselor introduced the concept of the Bullet Journal to me.

I immediately fell down the rabbit hole and have been a faithful user for over two years. It’s changed my life: It’s been a way to improve my time management and productivity. I love the flexibility of the system and that it allows me to take full advantage of my imagination and creativity.

But the Bullet Journal did more than just improve my time management. I started making real progress. At first, I didn’t quite understand why, but one of the pivotal pieces of the Bullet Journal is using trackers. One of the primary trackers I relied on was a habit tracker, which helped me monitor what I was and wasn’t doing each month. That habit tracker helped me discover my own patterns and tendencies; things that seemed obvious but to me weren’t obvious at all.

I wrote down my moods, my habits, my goals, my sleep patterns… you name it. With the help of the people I loved most, I was able to start objectively identifying key issues in my daily living without feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt.

From there, I continued using my habit trackers and other trackers regularly, and they were so helpful in creating and connecting me with my purpose. They were so pivotal that I got to the point where I wanted to help other people find systems that worked for them, and I launched Planning Mindfully, my signature blog, less than a year later.

Through my blog, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know many wonderful people and learn even more about myself and other systems that help people succeed. It was amazing to see that so many other people had their own challenges and struggles