This week for Wellness Wednesday I wanted to focus on the area of habit tracking. Its one of the things that has helped me on the road to recovery but its something that I have had a mixed history with.
I often see posts in groups about what you should put in your habit tracker. The answer is whatever is going to be a useful tool for you.
I’ve tried tracking all sorts of things in the past but I never kept up with them and I honestly think that at the time, I was only tracking them for a sake of having a tracker. That changed when I was first signed off work.
The doctor specifically told me that I couldn’t just stay at home while I was off work. Being lost without my planner, I turned to it to help me out. I discovered a simple checklist from a bit of pinterest diving – the Mental Health Checklist. Simple things to do everyday so that even if nothing else got done, it was still a visible list of achievements:
- Get some sleep
- Eat something
- Take a shower
- Have a drink
- Take medication
- Change clothes
- Go outside
This simple list, made a real difference and is something that still gets used when I find myself having a low period. It also helped me build a list of things that provide me with a sense of achievement in everyday.
I don’t use a monthly habit tracker for things like this though, particularly during the whole pandemic. The problem I have with monthly habit tracking for wellness it that, as the month progresses you have ups and downs and priorities change. I use a weekly tracker. This helps me identify the highs and lows each week. If I have a week where things aren’t looking great, I go back to the above list for a week.
For me, a habit tracker should serve a purpose and be reviewed regularly so that it is effective in helping me maintain the habits that I need to use at that time. But everyone is different. Here’s some inspiration from the accounts I like to follow on instagram.
Natalie from @planning.out.loud on instagram, does a brilliant monthly habit tracker set up for her wellness habits which you can find here.
Cindy from @llamaletters also mixes up how she tracks each month, but does track things to help her. This is how she did December. Cindy also uses these alongside her Powersheets.
I’m also obsessed with this post from @stephanie_fleming and her wellness planner for 2021.
Whatever habits you track, and however you track them, I encourage you to adapt them as often as your wellness needs them to and do it in a way that will work for you
My Life Planned Out 