Here’s Why Habit Tracking Isn’t the Best System to Use

Of course, when you begin a new habit, you hope to stick to it successfully over the long-term.

When you start a new habit on day one, you already begin to anticipate what the results are going to be like once you do those habits over a long period of time.

However, there are times when it’s hard to stick with those habits. There are so many outside circumstances that prevent us from sticking with those habits long-term.

For instance, the habit of going to the gym every day, it’s easy until it starts raining outside or you have long work days.

The habit of reading books, it’s easy until you start having a busy schedule.

Why do you think many people have a hard time sticking with their habits and eventually give up on them? It has nothing to do with them as a person, it has more to do with the things beyond their control.

But what is the difference between the one who sticks with their new habits long-term over the one who doesn’t? Especially when they would both go through those same outside circumstances?

It’s the way that they had approached starting their habits.

Habit Tracking

One way that people have done to try to succeed in their habits is through habit tracking.

You’ll probably find countless habit tracking apps out there. Honestly, the idea of seeing your progress does sound exciting, and it seemingly gives you the motivation to keep going forward and not give up.

I’ve seen so many videos that had suggested using habit tracking as a form to stick with your habits.

And then different videos on why you shouldn’t do habit tracking, and suggest yet another “unique” habit tracking system that would actually work.

But honestly, habit tracking just really annoyed me mainly because of the following three things, here’s why habit tracking sucks:

1) It Stops You From Even Starting it in the First Place

Here’s what I mean by this…

Habit tracking systems help you stick with your new habits, but it is designed to help you stick with your habits indefinitely.

Habit tracking would allow you to have an ongoing streak for who knows how long with your new habits. If you’re like me, the idea of not knowing how long you’re going to commit to tracking that habit is a bit intimidating.

There were many habits that I ended up not starting just because the thought of tracking it for an unknown amount of time scared me.

2) One Failure Breaks the Streak (which leads to discouragement and giving up)

If you know about Snapchat streaks, losing a 500 day Snapchat streak with a friend seems like a total loss, and most times you don’t even want to bother starting the streak again. This is because you feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time committing to keep the streak alive and all of a sudden just ONE day broke the streak.

The same with our habits.

Missing one day breaks the habit tracking streak. Just like with Snapchat streaks, you’d be like, “mind as well give up”.

You feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time attempting to start that new habit, and because of that ONE failure, you just want to never start again.

3) Habit Tracking is another habit to keep up with

When you think about it, tracking the new habit… is another habit.

Especially if the habit is a hard habit to start, adding another habit on top of that is going to be a bit of a hassle.

Then what happens if you break the streak on the habit tracking habit? Then the habits that you were tracking also gets broken too.

And just like the previous point, breaking the streak leads to discouragement, and thinking “mind as well never start again”.

So what do you do if habit tracking sucks?

Here are three solutions to those previous three points above:

1) 2 MIN Rule

When it comes to starting a habit, it’s the whole long process that makes us not want to start it.

Have you ever told yourself that you’ll only spend two minutes on social media, and then that two minutes ended up becoming an hour?

Pretty much this is what the two minute rule is, and we’re using the way our brain works to our advantage.

To put it simply, the two minute rule is that it doesn’t take more than two minutes to start a habit.

For instance, reading a book is reading just one page. Maybe for the first few days you’ll actually only read one page, but then after that you’ll end up reading more pages. It’s just like the social media thing!

Going for a run is just putting your running shoes on. Maybe that’s all you’ll do for the next few days, but after some time you might say to yourself that you mind as well go for a run.

Brush your teeth (which I hope isn’t a hard habit for any of you) is just brushing two teeth… but then you mind as well just brush all the teeth right?

The most important thing about starting habits and sticking with them is always showing up, even if it’s just doing two minutes of it.

Although it doesn’t make the habit easier, it makes it easier to ritualise the beginning of your habits, and it’ll likely become part of your larger routine.

2) Two Day Rule (never miss twice)

Of course, it doesn’t matter how consistent you are with your habits, there are always outside circumstances and things beyond your control that would interrupt your habits at some point. These include emergencies, you get sick, or you have to take care of other unexpected things.

One concept in Atomic Habits which I like to use personally is that whenever I miss one day of my habit, I remind myself of this simple rule – the two day rule .

It’s pretty much never missing twice.

If you miss one day, then try to get back into it as quickly as possible.

With me, if I miss one day of a walk, then the next day I don’t miss it.

It doesn’t even have to apply to days it can also be applied to just simply not missing twice. For example, if I had one unhealthy meal, then my next meal would be a healthier one, I won’t have two unhealthy meals in a row.

It’s never one mistake that derails your progress, it’s when you continue to repeat that same mistake over and over again that do.

The compound effect shows that one mistake doesn’t affect you badly, it’s only when you continue to make those same errors and misses over a long period of time.

3) “Look into the Future”

I’ll explain what I mean.

Instant gratification is one of the enemies of building and breaking habits. It’s when you want something and you want something now.

But honestly, it’s common sense to know that results for anything don’t just happen overnight. It is that reason why most people don’t stick with their habits.

Just like how one mistake on our habits doesn’t become detrimental immediately, doing one day of a good habit isn’t going to immediately give us the results.

But we can “look into the future” the consequences of the good habits, what would eventually happen if we stick with those habits and keep going.

For example, just running for one day isn’t going to make us a professional runner, BUT we can turn instant gratification around to push through that. We think about the fact that if we do this long enough, we’ll eventually get the results that we want.

So if the goals or results are important to you… stick with the habits!

Ultimately, it is the habits and routines that we implement that would bring us closer to our desired goals or results.

So do your best to keep up with your habits and stick with them. Yes, it’ll take time for you to achieve your desired goals or results, but stopping your habits and giving up won’t make it go any faster!

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Related Articles:

The Compound Effect – how it’s going to change the way you look at habits

Read this before you start a new habit!

Books to Read to Help You Build & Break Habits

Train Your Mind to Find Ways… NOT excuses

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