How I Transformed My Habits in 2024: A Step-by-Step Guide

The lessons I’ve learned.

I honestly cannot believe that we are in the last quarter of 2024 already.

I remember at the start of the year, I started a new system to help me better track my habits and succeed at keeping them.

For the most part, this system has been helpful for me in staying consistent with my habits and understanding where I need improvement.

In this blog post, I’m going to share my system for habits. Even if you don’t use the entire system, there may be some aspects that you could implement into your own life.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Choosing an application/platform/journal to do my habit tracking

I’ve tried my fair share of habit-tracking apps and even had a habit-tracking journal as well. I even created my habit-tracking template which is still available in the Free Resources Library.

And yes, even though I created my habit-tracking template to track on paper, I ended up habit-tracking electronically through Notion.

The reason I prefer electronic habit-tracking is simply because it feels neater whenever I need to change something. Also, there are more features that you can use to enhance your habit-tracking experience. I will go a little deeper on some of the features I use.

This is currently my habit tracker (the screenshot was only able to fit 12 days lol)

Step 2: Choosing the Habits

Obviously, it would help if you had habits to track to habit-track.

A couple of months ago, I started focusing on:

• 5 new daily habits
• 3 new weekly habits
• 2 new monthly habits

On top of the habits that I already track (to make sure I stay consistent with them), I like to add new ones to try out and see how they fit into my lifestyle.

So, I update my habit tracker every month with the new daily, weekly, & monthly habits.

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Step 3: Identifying the CUE or what I will habit stack with

I learned early on that if you don’t have a set cue for a habit, it’s going to be hard to remember to do it.

For example, if you don’t have a cue for your workout habit, it will be tricky to remember that you need to workout.

However, if you add a cue to your workout, like the time of your workout, it’ll make remembering it easier. For example, your cue for your workout habit is every morning at 8 am. Or, instead of a time, it can be after you do something. Hence, your cue to your workout habit is after you wash your face.

If you have a look at the photo below, you can see the cues I place for each specific habit. Most of these habits are my non-negotiable ones so I need to make sure I get them done.

Habit Stack

Then you may also notice that sometimes I use habit stacking. To put it simply, habit stacking is when you pair habits. For example, you pair your workout habit with a podcast habit. Another example is when you pair your language app habit with your breakfast habit.

This is another way that you can utilize cues for your habits.

Step 4: Categorizing my Habits

This is completely optional, but the reason why I categorize my habits is for me to see what I focus the most on. For example, if I notice that most of my habits are related to my professional life instead of my personal growth, then I may need to add/replace some habits so they’re balanced.

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RELATED: Popular New Year Habits: What Worked For Me & What Didn’t

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Step 5: Adding a section for explanations

These explanations refer to the times when I didn’t do a habit.

There will be times when you end up skipping a day or two of a habit… and that’s okay.

But, if you’re like me and get a little annoyed at seeing one or two missed days in your tracker, then this section is something that can help.

Whenever I don’t do a habit, I write down why I didn’t do the habit. Sometimes it’s because of a genuine reason, and sometimes it’s because I simply didn’t do it. If there is a habit that I consistently do not do, I will be able to identify the pattern behind not doing it.

If you see below, when I open the reading habit, it shows a separate page where I can write notes. This is where I would write the explanations for why I didn’t do a habit.

Take a SMALL STEP

And that is my entire system for habit-tracking. It helped me throughout the year and it felt appropriate to share it.

If you would like to get started on habit tracking and mastering your habits, here are some steps you can take:

1. Choose your platform/journal: Either choose an app you would do your habit tracking, or get a journal to do your habit tracking on paper. Sometimes, you may just need to do both to see what works for you and that’s okay too.
2. Choose habits to track: You can use my way by choosing 5 daily, 3 weekly, and 2 monthly.
3. Identify the CUE of each habit: For each habit, decide on what the cue will be. For example, if you want to do a reading habit, the cue may be after you brush your teeth, or while you’re eating breakfast (habit stack).
4. Categorize your habits: This is optional, but it is helpful to see what areas of your life the habits focus on. That way, it can be more balanced.

To Wrap Up

Honestly, finding a good habit tracker, regularly adding new habits to my lifestyle, identifying the cue of each habit, and categorizing them were a game changer for me this year. Although there were some habits that I didn’t end up keeping, for the most part, I was consistent with most habits I set myself up to build.

It’s all about taking the small steps. I wrote a book on small steps a while back and I’m still proud of! You can check it out here.

In the meantime, here’s to getting a little better every day.

-Lauren 🙂

P.S I suggest you read these blog posts next:

• 5 Little But Effective Ways I’m Doing to Improve My Habits
• How to Build Lifechanging Habits
• How to Actually Level Up Your Habits

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