Why I Stopped Tracking My Habits

Comments · 22

• IR

  @Iraski · 8 months ago

  Hearing that people get so worked up about streaks is amusing to me because I use my habit tracker as a diagnostic tool rather than a motivational one. I'm essentially using it as a depression log, tracking basic self-care stuff like if I took my meds or bathed or left the house. The idea is to build a picture of how well I'm doing over time so I can look for patterns, compare it with my sleep log, and notice when I'm slipping. And it turned out to be invaluable because I hadn't realized how poorly I was taking care of myself. In the same vein, I also track stuff that I enjoy like reading, writing, and making music to measure when I'm productive. Adding them was never intended to be a goal, though. It's an observational medical study and I'm the only participant. The idea that it'd be motivating in itself to log these things doesn't even compute for me. I've never understood why people care about their Duolingo streak either, though.

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• NI

  @nirūpotsava · 8 months ago

  I felt like this was my unique problematic experience, for the streak to become a being of its own that I owed and had to pay dues to. For it to fuel fear and compulsion and anxiety. For it to be all or nothing.<br>I read the first three chapters of Atomic Habits and I respect it, but I felt that familiar dread from reading about compounding bad and good habits, from each time you did a habit going to a binary record of success and failure (paraphrasing). I thought it was supposed to work for everyone and that it didn’t work for me didn’t make any sense. <br>I have a characteristic tendency towards obsession, compulsion and perfectionism, so I understand that the streak really having as harmful an effect as I felt on myself.<br>So, thank you.

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• AL

  @alexanderzahrer3489 · 7 months ago

  Thank you for this video — it really resonated with a recent experience of mine. I was following a structured four-week listening exercise (focused on Bach fugues) and experienced a sudden breakdown in consistency halfway through. Initially, it felt like a motivation problem. But after analyzing it carefully, it became clear that the issue was a poorly calibrated jump in task difficulty, not a lack of discipline. Once the task design was adjusted, motivation returned naturally. This made me realize how often “motivation” problems are actually design problems. No fancy streak algorithm in the world could have saved me.

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• HE

  @helenneilson1368 · 9 months ago (edited)

  This is so interesting! I always hated the way my Apple Watch wouldn’t allow planned rest days

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• LA

  @LauraBCReyna · 4 months ago

  You certainly don&apos;t have to punish yourself for missing days. It&apos;s all about your mindset. Years ago I decided I wanted to lose some weight &amp; chose cycling as my method. My strategy was to go cycling DAILY, &amp; to make that easier, I kept my bike &amp; other equipment together by the door &amp; chose the same time to ride each day. Even tho I committed to riding daily, I knew realistically that wasn&apos;t going to happen. Life always gets in the way. So I promised to cut myself some slack when I missed a day or two. I figured cycling 4 or 5 days per week was better than cycling zero days per week-- which is what I was doing before the &quot;project&quot;. I lost 30lbs with this &quot;not quite riding daily&quot; method. Eventually we moved to a less convenient area to ride a bike &amp; I switched to walking hills. &nbsp;<br><br>I&apos;ve been using a tracker for a couple of months &amp; it&apos;s been great. I have ADHD that&apos;s getting worse as I age. I&apos;m using this tracker as a checklist (like pilots before a flight) to remind me of the daily tasks I want to get done. It has lots of blank spaces where I&apos;ve missed days on certain tasks. But it&apos;s fine. I don&apos;t berate myself or anything. I can see by my red checkmarks that I&apos;m doing BETTER than I had been before the tracker. I&apos;m not perfect, but I&apos;m more productive, which is the point.

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• AL

  @alsjustlurking · 7 days ago

  My habit trackers only last a week and then I rotate them / swap them out. I also deliberately factor in days (or even weeks) off. I found it helped me maintain interest and also sometimes I just felt like that activity / task didn&apos;t need daily attention anymore. This video has really validated me in that! so thanks!!

• FO

  @ForrestAguirre · 9 months ago

  Thank you! I was just about to re-establish a habit tracker, something I used to do years ago. Now you&apos;ve inspired some tweaks to my setup that I think will help me dodge the pitfalls I (and you) have encountered in the past. Perfect timing!

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• ON

  @OneStepToday · 7 months ago

  you need to link the part 1 and 2 in description or the corner area. Dont expect us to find it manually inside the channel

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• WE

  @wesjwvdmguitar777 · 3 months ago

  That makes a lot of sense. Trackers should not control you but empower and encourage you. The so called pressure to perform is wrong motive which some trackers promote - I do it because I like it and it is beneficial for me. It defines to an extend who I am. The talk you gave can bring a good adjustment. I like it. And REFLECT - internalise a habit....

• YE

  @Yellowjacket-n7q · 8 months ago

  Very helpful! &nbsp;I just started a habit tracker yesterday and this is useful perspective. &nbsp;Another thing I’m trying is to set a number of times per month I want to do something. &nbsp;So if my intention is to build the habit of taking vitamins, then I’m targeting 20 times for the first month. &nbsp;If I miss a few days here and there, fine. &nbsp;I am still better off than I was not taking them at all. &nbsp;And maybe next month I’ll shoot for 25 days. &nbsp;Or better yet, I’ll try it without tracking at all and see how I do. &nbsp;My intention is to make certain things a built in part of my routine, not to check off how many vitamins I take for the rest of my life. &nbsp;So let’s see how this goes!

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• AS

  @Ashley1359 · 8 months ago

  Such a good video! I used to track my habits in a bullet journal but what you were saying resonated deeply with me. I will try what you suggested! It sounds much healthier! Thank you!

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• CA

  @CarmenSmithStuder · 1 month ago

  For you perhaps.<br>Incredible system for me. <br>I don’t beat myself up, but looking forward to what you suggest.