Since the Full app was folded into the Coach.me universe, I’ve been searching for a suitable replacement for my habit tracking system. I’ve finally settled on Way of Life, and have begun to use it to instill some new habits in my life. Through the course of reviewing several habit tracking apps, including Coach.me, Way of Life, Full, and Momentum I’ve realized that habits are a hard nut to crack.
Everybody has habits and the insidious thing is, we don’t always realize we have them. Some habits are positive, improve your life, and help you run on autopilot. The habits that I have as part of my morning mostly fall into that category. By the time I sit down at my computer I’m showered, hair is brushed, teeth are brushed, clothes are on and I’m ready to go. Not long afterwards I will have checked my blood sugar, made my breakfast, and had my first cup of coffee. Breakfast for the kids will have been made, coffee or hot chocolate will have been produced, and lunches will have been packed.
While my mornings vary somewhat, those steps all happen, and they occur fairly automatically. That’s what I mean by a habit. Something that you do without having to apply a large amount of thought to the process. After you’ve engaged in a habit long enough it’s so automatic that you have to really think about it to even realize that it’s there.
Some habits aren’t so positive. My least attractive habit is my quickness to become angry with the kids. Each of them has their trigger that sets me off. They do or say something, and I snap at them. It’s so automatic that I hadn’t really realized what was going on! I finally recognized what was happening when I started to try and track some of the more positive habits that I want to instill in my life. Frankly, I was a bit surprised at how automatic and habit-like my anger is. The pattern had built up over time, just a little bit every day, and now I’m carrying around this habit and expressing it far too often.
When I realized I had this anger habit, I was somewhat ashamed of myself, but more importantly decided that I wanted to rid myself of it. When you want to instill a new habit it might be a replacement for another habit (as in the case of my anger) or a step in an entirely new direction. This one I just wanted to eradicate!
In my particular case, I thrive on tracking things. I measure everything in my life where possible. For me, it was natural to find an app to help me log my progress towards a habit’s formation. Way of Life gives me the flexibility to track whether I’ve succeeded at performing a habit, failed at performing it, or whether I’ve consciously decided not to perform it. That third status is what makes the biggest difference to me. When I look at the chain of the habit’s execution I see either a green block meaning I succeeded, a red block meaning I failed, or a gray block meaning I thought long enough about it but decided not to engage in the habit. Knowing that I thought long and hard about the habit but decided to do something else gives me a boost. It means that I’m making progress…even if I didn’t succeed at following through on the longer-term goal of engaging in the habit daily.
And that’s the thing. Moving towards the instillation of a new or replacement habit isn’t going to be a straight-shot. It’s not a super highway that you get on and then zoom towards your destination. It’s a country lane, filled with distractions and alternative pursuits. Places to wander off. Things to do that don’t move you towards your new habit. But a habit tracker app is a gentle reminder of the road you want to be on. The one that you selected when your mind was clear and distraction-free.
Honestly, it took me a while to get in the meta-habit of recording my habits. I had to put a reminder in my task manager (Todoist) that pops up every night at 10pm. It simply says “Record habits progress”. My phone buzzes at 10pm and I’m reminded to update my app. At that point, I take one minute and check off the status of my habits. Then I take another minute or two and ponder my decisions related to my habits. I look at the chain of successes, failures, and skips and honestly assess whether I’m making progress or not.
I don’t beat myself up. I don’t belittle myself for a string of failures. I objectively assess why I want to instill the habits I’ve selected. I give myself a little pep talk about the bigger picture and remind myself of what I’m trying to achieve. In two to three minutes I re-energize myself and set myself up for success the next day.
In a nutshell, that’s why I’m using a habit tracker and how I use it. I’ve been much more successful when I record, measure, and assess my habits. I’m starting to consider some bigger habits to instill, and some larger changes in my life. It’s quite scary, yet my success with the instillation of several smaller habits over the past few months gives me the confidence that I can do this…whatever this is.
Now it’s just on to the doing.
