Habit tracking is a great way to assess the practices you need to reinforce and the things that you need to change in your life. In this article, we will look at ten habits that will help you achieve better self-care.
Some people think that doing so is pointless and that spending time on self-care is inefficient and wasteful. However, studies show that self-care has a whole horde of benefits: it can enhance your productivity, develop your focus, and improve your cognitive functions. In that case, self-care actually sounds pretty useful!
And if you really can’t take weekends off and use the entire time nourishing yourself, then there are plenty of other ways to practice self-care. One of these is through habit tracking. It is commonly used to track damaging habits or enforce habits that could make a person more productive and efficient. But did you know that you can also use it to build habits that will help you take better care of yourself?
In this way, self-care doesn’t stay as an afterthought for when you have free time; it’s something that you integrate into your daily life.
How Can You Track Your Habits?
There are several ways to track your habits, and choosing the right one will depend on your preferences and lifestyle.
Bullet journal
A bullet journal is something that you create on a blank notebook. You can customize it according to your liking and make a system you know would work for you. The only problem with this is that the process of creating a template takes a lot of effort.
Printed templates
Habit tracking templates are easy to look for online, and getting one printed takes considerably less time and effort than creating a bullet journal. The downside is that you can’t customize the function of the template and that you have to take a piece of paper with you wherever you go. While a page is much lighter to bring around than a journal, it is also easier to misplace and forget.
Excel sheets
If you’re more of a technological person, then keeping a habit tracker on Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel would probably be better for you. In this way, you can also input formulas and measures to keep track of your goals. However, this would also mean that you would need your laptop to log this data. While you can probably access the files on your phone, the whole spreadsheet would be challenging to navigate on mobile. As such, this makes this option quite inconvenient
Habit tracking apps
Habits tracking apps like Tally can do everything that excel sheets can do, but better. All you need to do is download one via the App store, and everything is laid out for you. You can edit your logs, monitor your statistics, customize your lists, and even set reminders all on your phone. You just have to keep in mind that some apps can be faulty, and you may not always like the updates that the developers put out.
Habits to Track for Better Self-Care
Stretching
Does your work require you to sit in front of a computer all day? Do you spend hours working out? Do you lie down on the couch and relax while watching Netflix? Then stretching is beneficial for you.
It is recommended that you spend at least a minute just stretching your joints and muscles for every hour you spend sitting down or every after a workout. Doing so would widen your range of motion, prevent back pain, and decrease headaches.
Hydration
Did you know water can help flush out your toxins from your body, balance your weight, and even decrease joint pain? It may seem simple, but building the habit of drinking water and making sure you’re hydrated is a great way to take care of yourself!
Exercise
Exercise does not always equate to picking up weights in the gym. If that’s your preference, then great! But if you’re still a beginner, then doing a 30-minute jog in the morning should suffice. What’s important is that you get your body moving daily, as doing so can strengthen your bones and muscles, improve your mental health, and manage blood levels.
Healthy Eating
Making sure that you eat proper meals on time is a great way to take care of your physical, emotional, and mental health. Studies show that when you eat healthy food, you experience fewer mood fluctuations, get an improved ability to focus, and decrease your risk for dementia and stroke.
Sleep
In the hustle culture that we live in today, sleep is sometimes thought of as something negligible. People can easily trade in sleep if it means earning more money, going to more parties, and hanging out with friends. Some are even proud of the fact that they barely get enough sleep.
However, more studies are coming out which show that sleep loss can impair a person’s mood, diet, and productivity.In contrast, getting enough sleep can strengthen your heart, prevent weight gain, and fuel your body.
Gratitude
Taking the time to practice gratitude regularly can affect your overall mood and outlook in life. To establish this habit, you can set a time to write in a gratitude journal at the end of each day. Think about five things that you’re grateful for that happened that day, and relish how they make you feel.
But if you’d rather incorporate this habit into your life, you can do so by constantly listing down the things that you’re grateful for as they occur to you. If writing these down in a journal isn’t practical enough for you, you can also download gratitude apps like Grateful to keep a log in your phone.
Intellectual Stimulation
Our primary recommendation is to receive some intellectual stimulation by reading books and novels that allow your mind to explore and discover new things. However, some people struggle with the practice of reading, as they think that books are too tiresome and boring. If so, then we would recommend listening to podcasts, and watching TED talks and documentaries.
Through acquiring knowledge, you give yourself the opportunity to expand your world and engage with new ideas. Hence, taking the time to read a book before you go to bed or listening to an informational podcast while you’re on your way to work will already do wonders for your self-development.
Doing Chores
The thought of doing chores may turn you off and wear you down. However, maintaining a clean and organized space lessens your burdens, allows for better focus, and makes you feel like you’re in control of your life. Further, going home to a clean house that you feel good to be in will help you rest well at the end of each day. In this sense, it is a good habit to build for your self-care.
Limited Social Media Usage
Given the times that we live in, some people can just get carried away scrolling through social media. Before they know it, they spend hours poring negative news reports, comparing their lives with others, and engaging in arguments over other users. This eventually results in stress, frustration, and anxiety.
A good reference can be a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania. The researchers monitored 143 students, which were divided into two groups. They asked the first group to limit their use of Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram to ten minutes per platform per day, while the second group was allowed to use their social media as they usually did. At the end of three weeks, results showed that the first group experienced a significant reduction in feelings of loneliness and depression.
Therefore, it is important to be mindful of your social media usage and ponder what value it adds to your life. Perhaps, you can set a limit for how much time you can spend online each day, then log off once you’ve reached that limit.
Self-Discovery
They say that the only thing constant in life is change, and as a human being, you are constantly changing according to your circumstances. Hence, there may be moments in your life when you assess yourself and realize that you no longer know who you are and what you want.
To avoid situations like these, you should get into the habit of self-discovery. Take the time to write in a journal every day and reflect on your thoughts, emotions, hopes, and experiences. If you struggle with doing this and don’t know where to begin, you can also download journaling apps like Reflectly, which contain prompts to help you start your journey.
At the end of the day, you can only take care of yourself if you have a good idea of who you are, what you want, and what you’re working towards.
Being purposeful and deliberate about self-care is a gamechanger, and by tracking your habits, you can build a lifestyle that is not just beneficial but also sustainable. You don’t need to do all the habits mentioned above, all at once. Just choose two or three and slowly integrate them into your life. Once you’ve successfully built them into your routine, you can go ahead and choose a few more to work on.
