Today marks day 16 of reading Atomic Habits, in this chapter review, we will learn about habit tracking.
The book itself is very highly rated on amazon https://amzn.to/3x4K7Sa (affiliate link to book), boasting a 4.7 star rating over 157,532 reviews. The book also claims to have sold over 15 million copies as of Oct. 16, 2018 and has sold over 20 million copies as of Mar. 4, 2024.
This chapter follows up Chapter 15, where we learned about making habits satisfying.
Chapter Summary:
- “One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.” This is why most people quit the gym pre-maturely, it’s because they haven’t yet received this feeling of satisfaction, as it can take months before you start to see progress.
- “A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit-like marking an X on a calendar.” A habit tracker is when you write on a piece of paper all the habits you want to track, you will also write however many days you want to track over, for now lets say how many days are in the month. You can either mark with an X or simply fill in the boxes when you do the task and when you don’t do it you leave it blank.
- “Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by providing clear evidence of your progress.” I think a lot of people underestimate tools like habit tracking. We like to think that we can track things in our heads, but we often end up forgetting eventually, especially since our work isn’t being rewarded. But if you use a Habit Tracker, it not only provides you with concrete proof of your work, but also the satisfaction of filling in the boxes and alternatively the disappointment of not filling in a box.
- “Don’t break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive.” In a way it’s a bit intimidating how fast you can lose a habit if it’s not properly maintained, you have to constantly keep yourself in-check for certain habits or they will quickly slip away.
- “Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible.” Everyone will miss a day, it’s inevitable, but like I said in the last paragraph, it’s absolutely crucial that you get back on track as soon as you can. It can take months or sometimes years, before our brain is fully wired to automatically do a task.
- “Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing.” This line is essentially warning you not to track things that don’t matter, if I have been brushing my teeth every morning and night for 15 years then I don’t really need to track it, since I am already wired to do so.
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