5 Reasons Why You Should Track Habits On Paper, Not On Apps
Digital records have ingrained themselves into nearly every aspect of our lives. From our calendars and to-do lists to our socialisation and entertainment, but what about habit tracking? Can you get better results if you go against the grain and track habits on paper?
What Is Habit Tracking?
Before we properly explore just why paper tracking can be so effective for building new habits, it’s important to understand what exactly habit tracking is and why it can be so important for self-improvement.
Habit tracking is about monitoring and logging actions or behaviours until they become instinctual. The end goal is that they become habits that effortlessly slot into the daily routine.
Habit tracking can be used both personally and professionally to help make positive and productive changes to our routines. Importantly, these changes are thoughtful, with an end goal in mind. It’s common for people to approach things like New Year’s resolutions with habit tracking, because it can make forming a new behaviour more approachable.
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” - Jim Rohn
Why Is Habit Tracking Important?
Habit tracking should be approached with a positive or productive outcome in mind. Habits can include adding new activities like going to the gym or meditating, or they can keep tabs on the absence of actions like drinking alcohol.
Habit tracking is a thoughtful process. It involves assessing how you can best fit these new routines into existing patterns and what triggers can help you to succeed in incorporating this new action into your daily life.
Why Apps Aren’t Good for Building Habits
Habit tracking apps are extremely popular, but digital tracking methods aren't always a good fit.
You can spend some time looking for the best habit tracking apps on the market, and there are plenty of options, but it's important to spend some time mulling over the pros and cons of this method before you commit.
The Cost Factor
In many cases, habit tracking apps with decent functionality come at a cost. In-app purchases, ongoing service costs and premium features can mean that these costs soon stack up before an app becomes as functional as the tried and tested pen and paper method.
Most often these services are subscription based, which is a problem for habit tracking. The habit tracking system relies on consistency, and a subscription can add financial pressure when it comes to trying to build and maintain habits.
Just Another Subscription
Habit tracking apps can easily become just another digital subscription that contributes to a long list of premium services.
Not only is cost a factor to consider, but it’s also worth thinking about what this means for notifications and general noise from your device.
They Contribute To Your Digital Footprint
Many people are conscious of their digital footprint. Habit tracking apps can contribute to digital fatigue and overload. Paper habit trackers can serve as a nice break from having lots of information stored online.
They’re Forgettable
We now have so many apps on our devices that we can easily forget about an app or simply ignore notifications without ever even reading them. Habit tracking requires active thought to try and build new routines and apps can be too easily forgotten.
The Benefits Of Paper Trackers
Paper habit trackers have a number of psychological and practical benefits that make them much more effective than digital trackers.
Psychological Benefits
Physically interacting with and filling out a paper tracker is good for the cognitive process involved in building new habits.
The results that you record are tangible and actively writing them down can make them feel more real than simply ticking them off in an app.
“To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behaviour.” - Maxwell Maltz
Memory Benefits
For habits to be successfully built, you need to be able to remember to do them again and again until they require little or no thought. Of course, visual cues can be used for this, physical habit calendars and notifications on apps are just a couple of ways that you can remind yourself of habits.
Studies show that the act of physically writing something down can help you better commit it to memory. Planning and manually marking off habits can be helpful ways to remind you to do a task.
They Encourage Thought
One of the most frustrating things about hand-writing habits and thoughts is also one of its most useful benefits. The act of writing out and marking off habits takes time and this slowing down of the process can make it more thoughtful and intentional.
They’re Customisable
Habits should be personal, and apps can be rigid in how habits are measured and tracked. A pen and paper method for habit tracking can be more flexible and allow you to adapt your tracking method to suit your own personal needs.
The Best Paper Habit Trackers
So, with the benefits of handwritten habit tracking in mind, what are the best options to track habits on paper?
Habit Tracking Calendars
Habit tracking calendars can provide the visual cues needed to keep new habits at the forefront of your mind. Not only are they a consistent, visual reminder but you also need to manually fill in the habits which can offer that cognitive benefit.
The Clay Habit Calendar is a simple but effective option that combines convenience with the act of manually marking off habits.
Bullet Journals
Bullet journal habit trackers are a popular and creative way to track habits on paper.
Although effective, some find bullet journals to be too dense with information and find that they often forget about habit tracking if it’s just a small part of a larger journaling process.
Templates
There are plenty of templates for paper habit tracking online that can be used for inspiration. These can be useful if stored in a memorable place.
