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Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

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Home » create organizing habits

Why Track Habits?

January 12, 2023 Leave a Comment

Why Do You Track Habits?

Why Track Habits? The reason behind the flurry of habit tracking spreads - interpreted through the lens of "the happiness project" book. | ChocolateMusings.com

Have you ever stopped to think of why you track habits? Here are some insights from a book I’m reading by Gretchen Rubin called “The Happiness Project,” which gives a pretty good definition of ‘why’ someone should spend their time and energy tracking habits.

Tracking Habits is Boring – Or is it?

Why track habits? At first glance, it sounds very tedious and mundane. That’s what I thought, too. Then I tried it, and I liked tracking the habits. I liked tracking them almost more than doing them. It’s giving yourself that little star, the little thumbs up that you followed through, that you did something you set out to do.

Adding habits to my circle habit tracker for the month on a black page journal sheet | ChocolateMusings.com

Habits: In Pursuit of Happiness

I finally figured out why I like habit tracking so much. It’s not necessarily in the end goal. In fact, the pursuit of happiness makes an overall improvement. The purpose of a habit isn’t to have it end. The goal is to have it continue without effort.

A habit tracker’s unwritten (now written) goal is to have items fall off the list of consciously trying to be a better person and continue to be that better person without thinking about it.

Thanks to Gretchen Rubin and her book (which I’m currently reading on my Kindle Paperwhite), “The Happiness Project,” she defined what I subconsciously knew:

“It isn’t goal attainment by the process of striving after goals – it’s growth that brings happiness” –

Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

Never Ending Habits?

Sometimes writing never-ending habits (i.e., reading scriptures or patiently parenting, doing dishes, daily cleaning) every month seemed like I was spinning my wheels and not accomplishing anything. But the accomplishment is ‘the every day.’ It’s ‘the striving’ to improve my life and the lives of those around me as I progress to be a better human being.

Though I’d been married for over a decade and had children, I felt like I earned an ‘adulting’ gold star when I finally considered that I could permanently take ‘doing dishes’ off my habit tracker – because I made a habit of doing them. Believe me, this was a big accomplishment, and I worked hard to create that habit.

At one point, I decided to weigh myself every day. Keep in mind that I do it – not to gauge my weight per se – but to set the mindset for the day and to reestablish the goals I’ve set for myself. This is a habit I broke and need to get back into.

Want More on This Topic?

Read more about my health journey and how habits + journaling are helping me achieve big goals. Trackers.

Change Yourself for the Better & Others Will Follow

As Gretchen states in her book, “you can’t change anyone but yourself.” But I would say that if you change yourself for the better, others will follow suit. I started making my bed habitually. Sometimes I’d make only my side and sometimes both. It’s been a few years since I started this little habit, and my husband beats me to making the bed. Win-win.

Sometimes, he only makes his side as I do on occasion. But now it feels like a joint effort.

Do you know what the best part is? I never said anything, but he started following my example. I’m not sure if it was guilt, but a change in my habit has also changed my husband’s habits.

***FULL DISCLAIMER: I do not proclaim that this will change your significant other’s habits – I just happened to see positive results in this instance.

On the reverse side: if I notice that my kids are being particularly unkind to each other, I have to step back and ask if they are acting that way because I do, too. Those reality checks hurt (a lot).

Mid-Month Habit Checks

As the month progresses, I sometimes get off course. That’s why I like to do mid-month habit checks – because the middle of the month is when I lose momentum. And simply reviewing my daily goals helps me realign to what I deem essential. It’s all in pursuit of happiness.

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Want More Posts About Habits?

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Find more blog posts with theme ideas for your Bullet Journal + Habit Trackers.

How Do You Keep Yourself on Track?

How do you keep yourself on track? Do you do a ‘mid-month habit check?’ If not, try to add it to your planner on the 15th/16th of every month. Then compare where you want to be versus where you’re trending, then make adjustments as necessary.

If you give your habits the priority they deserve, these seemingly insignificant habit checkups will help you in your pursuit. It’s a great way to reevaluate your course throughout the month.

I’m sure as you see steady progress, you’ll come to find out why you track habits. I know that tracking habits and seeing progress helped me progress in positive ways. If you fall away from tracking habits, there’s no better time to start tracking again.

Why Track Habits? The reason behind the flurry of habit tracking spreads - interpreted through the lens of "the happiness project" book. | ChocolateMusings.com

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Filed Under: Blog, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, My Muses (My Favorites & Inspiration), Start Planning Here Tagged: bullet journaling, create organizing habits, creating habits, habit tracker, habit tracking, habits, mid-month habit check, planning

Two Things to do Every Night to Have More Productive Days

August 29, 2019 Leave a Comment

Two things to do every night to have more productive days | ChocolateMusings.com #productivity #organization

Here are two things to do every night to have more productive days. Since I started doing these two small tasks every night, my days are much more focused and productive.

Number One Thing I Do Every Night to Have More Productive Days:

Clean up before you go to bed.

I’m not talking about breaking out the mop and scrubbing the floors. I simply mean that I straighten my desk. Put away markers, straighten papers, stow electronics. When I’m creating, my office gets very messy.

I try to keep my desk clear when I’m creating videos for my YouTube channel or taking photos for the blog or Instagram, but around the perimeter of the video, the markers spill out of their box, drawers flung open, supplies riffled through and disheveled. You’ll find paintbrushes strewn about the surface, resting on paper towels, sticky notes and open notebooks laying about. It’s really quite embarrassing.

Is Your Work Area Like a College Dorm Party From the Night Before?

Don’t you hate waking up and have to clean up after last night’s mess? Your work area looks like a college dorm party where you wonder what happened the night before. How could you have caused this much mayhem? You probably don’t remember any of this.

A Little Goes a Long Way to Have More Productive Days

If I straighten my desk and put back the pieces in their respective places, I wake up ready to work and surprisingly more alert. The same goes for my kitchen and living room. If I put away the dishes and generally straighten the counters, my morning is much smoother. Before the kids go to bed, I have them tidy the living room.

Little Tasks – Huge Impact

These small actions have a significant impact on the next morning’s productivity and enthusiasm for being productive. 

If you haven’t conquered the magic of tidying before going to bed – give it a try: spend 5-10 minutes and straighten your main work areas or areas of your home that tend to be a distraction. You’ll see the difference in your mindset.  It’s so refreshing to be ready for the new day instead of cleaning up last night’s mess.

The second thing I do every night to have more productive days:

Plan the next day. 

I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. But it works. Write down your top three focuses for the day, make sure you have school notes signed for your kids and put back in backpacks. Set out any other supplies you need next to your planner to get started with your fresh, new morning. I like to leave my planner open on my desk, turned to the correct page, so it’s the first thing I see.

Add a To-Do List

Leave a sticky note or a loose page with ideas, instructions, to-do lists, and other details for the day. In the morning, it’s easier to jump right into your tasks instead of trying to remember what you intended to do.

Both of these items are kind of ‘duh’ moments. I know I’ve heard these two little productivity hacks hundreds of times – but usually not paired together. Cleaning up my work areas and other important (and distracting) areas of my house plus planning the next day the night before are both game-changers.

The best productivity comes not just after straightening or merely planning for the next day but when paired together. If you want to have more productive days, give these two suggestions a try.

What do you do to create a productive day? 

Two Things to do Every Night to Have More Productive Days | ChocolateMusings.com #productivity #planning #organization

Want More Ways to Organize Your Life? Check out These Posts:

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Filed Under: Blog, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Organization, Start Planning Here Tagged: create organizing habits, get organized, organization

About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

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