23
A stranger at the Portland library changed how I track my habits
I was setting up my new bullet journal at a table near the windows. A woman around my mom's age saw my messy habit tracker and smiled. She leaned over and said, 'I used to make those perfect, but now I just use a check mark if I did it and an X if I didn't. The point is to see the pattern, not make art.' It was such a simple idea, but it freed me from trying to make every page look nice. Has anyone else had a moment that made them simplify their system?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
roses695h ago
Hold on, but what if the real benefit isn't even the simplicity itself? Like, I've noticed that when I switched from a color-coded mood tracker to just a little frowny or smiley face, I actually started remembering my moods more accurately. Before I'd spend so long picking the right shade of blue that I'd forget if I was actually sad or just tired. The checkmark system does the same thing, it forces you to make a split decision and move on. That split second judgment probably tells you more about the actual habit than a half hour of decorating ever did.
8
mary_schmidt2mo ago
Totally get that. I spent way too long drawing fancy boxes for my water intake. Now I just scribble a tiny circle if I drank some, and it works way better for me. The simpler it is, the more I actually do it.
6