Habit by Number: Habit Tracker Hack

Here’s an idea to help your habit tracker: track your habits by number. Hear me out. I promise there’s a reason behind this madness.

What is Habit By Number?

I’m always looking for a way to improve my habit tracker or different ways to motivate me with my habits. A couple of years ago, I created this habit by number spread in my bullet journal and didn’t realize the genius behind it. By defining a number and the habit I intended to cultivate, I created a set of parameters or rules for each habit. The rules made them feel more real and, as a result, more achievable.

When the habit became more achievable, I could feel my motivation increase. Win-win! And all it takes is a little definition and some written expectations to significantly enhance my habit-tracking motivation.

Check out the whimsical space elements plan with me post here!

What Did I Track?

Using this habit-by-number method, here are the habits I tracked for this month:

1. Not 1 dollar spent – a no-spend habit.
2. 2 prayers said. If you’re more of a meditator, turn it into a 2-minute meditation habit instead.
3. 3 Kids need attention. Adjust the numbers to fit your current family situation.
4. 4 Pillows on a made bed. I customized this number to fit where I needed it. The habit ultimately was to make my bed. But I used the numbers to make it work for me.
5. 5:30 up.
6. 6 Dinner Ready, instead of procrastinating every night, I set a goal to have dinner ready by six pm. I think this was the easiest goal for me to accomplish. We now regularly eat before 6.
7. 7000+ steps. I figure I can adjust it higher once I reach this goal daily.
8. 8 glasses of water.
9. 9 minutes of reading. This habit by number is a reminder to sit down for a minute and let me rest. I love to read and rarely make time for it.
10. In my 10 minutes. This a reminder to give credit where credit is due. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in just 10 minutes. Record what you’ve accomplished, especially if you’re feeling like you’re not getting anything done. I promise this will help you see that you do far more than you realize daily.
11. In bed by 11. Set your bedtime so mornings are easier.

If you’re intrigued by my idea for 10-minute tasks, here are a couple of posts to read:

• 10-Minute Task List
• In My 10-Minutes

Why Habit By Number?

Initially, to conserve space on the spread, I decided to use a flip-out key and define the habits that month by number. At first, I thought I was just clever by having numbers 1-11 on the top of my habit tracker page. But as it turns out, using numbers created an achievable, defined goal within the habit.

For instance: 9 minutes of reading – a reminder to take time for myself and read for pleasure. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, but I don’t make time to do it. It’s so easy to put off reading until you have a large chunk of time. But who has a large amount of time? Not a lot of people that I know.

Taking 9 minutes to read a book or a magazine article sounds feasible. What’s more, I don’t have to make a big production or feel like I need to spend a ton of time doing this thing (that I want to do). When 9-10 minutes are up, I know I’ve met that goal for the day and get a little boost by checking off that box.

Was Habit by Number a Success?

The point initially was to include a fun element in my habit tracker. Quite by accident, this habit-by-number method turned into so much more. It assigned a level of realism and achievability to each habit. I could also test what was working and what was not. For instance, I can see that waking up at 5:30 is not working for me. So, I need to focus my efforts on something else or figure out a new strategy for achieving this habit.

Creating a reality check made tracking each habit’s success easier. With defined success, I can adjust methods to automate these habits. After all, isn’t that the point of a habit tracker? To turn these tasks into an automated habit so we don’t have to track them anymore?

Books for Thought

My insights on how habits work came from reading books by people who have dedicated their lives (or a good portion of it) to studying habits. I’m grateful to them for doing the research, so I can recognize the benefits of ‘habit-by-number’ and what it does to help me be more successful.

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