Habits are our ways of improving ourselves (or at least finding ways of not getting worse) a day at a time. If you engage in a bullet journaling practice, you may want to dedicate a page or spread to tracking your habits. Here are some of the ways I have implemented habit tracking.

The Bullet Journal method prescribes a monthly log and a daily log, and I do use them, but I also like to create a weekly overview so I can quickly glance at how busy the week is looking; which days are most dense with activity.

a notebook page showing a grid of Monday to Friday, 6AM to 8PM, with rehab exercises being tracked at the bottom.

The weekly spread always had some space at the bottom, so putting in habits to track there seemed logical. In the above example, I wrote out the exercises my physiotherapist prescribed to rehab my foot and knee (that week does not look like I was consistent). I never really stuck with this method, since I had to add the habits every week, and a weekly snapshot doesn't really show a meaningful trend.

I found myself wanting to track a variety of data, from weight to mood that aren't habits per se, in addition to the daily habits I wanted to engage in for wellness or creativity.

A grid for daily tracking of wellness practices. Some daily practices are yes/no, some are numbered quantities, some use a letter symbol.

This tracker would sit next to my monthly log. Taking supplements is something I would typically want to do twice a day, so I used hash marks to count them. Mood was tracked on a scale of 1 to 10. Weight is tracked in pounds. Hot/cold contrast therapy is tracked in minutes spent in the sauna, and minutes either in a cold plunge or cold shower (that's most of the 'ones). Everything else gets a check-mark or an 'X' for yes or no. At the end of the month I can calculate totals or averages.

If you're wondering why I would use an analog method rather than an app or spreadsheet, it's because I really get enough screen time as it is, and the physical act of writing in pen on paper is pleasing to me. I can still use digital tools if I need to get more data-driven, but it's been fun this way.

There are some activities I want to engage in more often, but not necessarily daily. Some of them I are along the lines of household chores, and some are side projects and/or creative endeavours. I imagined having a big jar, and every time I spent time on one of these activities, I'd get to put a bead or marble into the jar. Each activity has its own colour marble.

A picture of a drawing of a large jar that takes up the entire page. The very bottom is filled with coloured balls, but not enough to make the jar anywhere near full. There's a legend showing different colour balls for chores like Ironing and de-cluttering.

Dedicating an entire page to each jar (constructive and creative) ended up being wasteful; a single notebook lasts me about 3 months, and the jars looked pitifully empty.

a hand drawn picture of a nearly empty jar. There are coloured balls representing Piano, Journal Transcription, Story Writing and other hobbies, but they only line the very bottom of the jar.

So I transitioned to smaller jars.

a page of 2 jars, that are smaller and more full than the previous images.

I liked the splash of colour, and it ensured that I didn't play favourites too much in terms of what I turned to in my free time; I wanted to keep the jars looking colourful and not the monotone of a single colour. The problem was, I got the same 'reward' for spending 10 minutes as an hour, and it didn't give me a sense of scale. I still use the jars spread for these activities in general, but I added a sub-section to my habit tracker grid that gives me some colour and data. As you see below, each 10 minute time block spent gets a square.

a page with a grid of tracked habits in the top half and a grid with coloured squares (pink is Reading, Green is meditation, blue is Strength Workout, etc.)

I hope these spreads can inspire my fellow bullet journal enthusiasts to track their habits both meaningfully and in a fun way.