Free printable habit trackers.
Change your life: how to use habit trackers, good habits to track, tips to be successful, & more.
I sat on my lounge. My hair was greasy. I hadn’t had a shower in a week. I was depressed. And contemplating suicide. The only thing stopping me was the idea that my husband would be upset.
I had hit rock bottom. It’s a different place for everyone. But when you get there, you remember that moment forever. I sat and stared at the wall for over an hour. And decided I would try for one year. If things were still the same, I was going to kill myself no matter how much it might hurt others. Because I just couldn’t go on.
I decided every action over the next year was going to be guided by two principles. The first was asking the question: “Does this make me happy in the long-term?”. For example, I was obese. Eating an ice cream sandwich might make me happy in the short-term, but not the long-term. So, no ice cream sandwich. Going for a walk might make me actively sad in the short-term, but happy in the long-term. So, go for a walk.
The second was I was going to have a to-do list (or habit list). I was going to do one task. Take a break. The next task. Take a break. If I finished the list (it consisted of: website work, household, organizing, bible study, history study, cross-stitch), I would start over. Some days I made it through the list three times.
I didn’t realize it, but I had grasped one of the fundamental secrets to success. Having consistent, positive habits.
Since habits were literally a factor in saving my life, I decided the time had come to make some free printable habit trackers for my website. Since different things work for different people, I have 8 different designs below. (Most are daily habit tracker printables.) Before the trackers, I have some information on habit trackers that you should find useful.
Other things you might find useful:
• Free Printable Goal Workbook
• How to Resize Printable to Fit Your Planner
• A couple of blog posts that also feature how to improve your life and achieve what you want: “Improve Your Life: How to Use Goals vs. Systems” and “How to Be Your Best Self.”
Table of contents
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Free printable goal workbook
What is a habit tracker?
A habit tracker is a tool to help you track how consistently you complete your habits. Habit trackers come in multiple forms: paper trackers, apps, bullet journal designs, and more. You can also simply get a calendar, pick one habit, and put an “X” through the day when you complete the habit.
Why you should use a habit tracker
You might be wondering “Do habit trackers work?” Yes, they do. One example I’ve shared before with my readers is that the simple act of tracking food can cause people to lose weight. It works the same with habits- simply tracking can cause improvement.
You might also be wondering “Why should I use a habit tracker?”. The answer is simple: habits don’t usually show results in the short-term. For example, it takes a lot of days of walking to see improved muscle tone and weight loss.
But a habit tracker provides an immediate answer on whether you’re on the right track or not. A quick glance lets you know if you’re getting better or getting worse. (This is the fundamental tenant of a book I highly recommend called “Slight Edge.”)
Having a habit tracker readily visible is also a great reminder to complete your habit. I’ve had days where I didn’t remember to exercise until an hour before bed. And my tired self was NOT motivated enough to rectify that. But having a habit tracker front and center in my planner reminds me multiple times throughout the day that I need to get my exercise in.
Good habits to track
There is a section below on how many habits to track. You don’t want too many. That being said, I went ahead and included a decent sized list below just to give you some ideas. Don’t try to do them all!
Daily habits to track
- Read
- Journal
- Meditate
- Pray/Bible study
- Gratitude list
- Random Acts of Kindness (see post for 150+ ideas & free printable calendar & cards)
- Stretch
- Yoga
- Walk/Run
- Walk 10,000 steps/Reach activity goal on AppleWatch
- Cardio or weight exercises
- Sleep goals (so many hours of sleep, wake up by a certain time, and/or go to bed by a certain time)
- Take vitamins
- Skin care (moisturize, wear sunscreen)
- 8 glasses of water
- Eat 5 servings fruit/veggies
- Macro food goals (eat specific number of grams of protein, limit number of carbs, etc.)
- Eat less than a certain number of calories
- No soda (or alcohol, junk food)
- Practice a hobby (cross-stitch, an instrument, write)
- Work (cold-calls, spend 5 minute learning a new skill, clean out business e-mail)
- Say “I love you” to a loved one
- Call/e-mail friend or family member
- No money spent (see Free Printable Budgeting Binder if you’re interested in starting to get your finances in order)
- Clean for 15 minutes
Weekly habits to track
- Work (newsletter to readers, blog post, 30 minutes learning a new skill, find 1 new client)
- Take out trash
- Send a card/letter to friend or family member
- Weekly spending tracked & bills paid
- Weekly goal progress assessed & plan for next week (see my Goal Achievement Binder)
- Cleaning (I have a Free Printable Cleaning Checklist if you need ideas)
Monthly habits to track
- Work (assess current income and decide action tasks for next month on how to increase it, automate one task, monthly business meeting)
- Monthly spending tracked and bills paid
- Monthly goal progress assessed & plan for next month (see my Goal Achievement Binder)
- Cleaning (I have a Free Printable Cleaning Checklist if you need ideas)
- Spend one day on recreation/travel/fun events
- Date night/Activity with family
- Back up computer
Quarterly habits to track
- Quarterly spending tracked and bills paid
- Quarterly goal progress assessed & plan for next quarter (see my Goal Achievement Binder)
- Cleaning (I have a Free Printable Cleaning Checklist if you need ideas)
- Spend two days on recreation/travel/fun events
How many habits should you track?
After reading that giant list above, your next question is probably “How many habits should I track?” To start with, the fewer the better. It’s better to track a single habit daily than occasionally remembering to track 10 habits. Pick an important habit that will have outstanding results in the long-term. And focus on that.
Trying to track too many habits is almost certainly going to fail. It’s just like when people make unrealistic New Year’s resolutions and then fall off the wagon. Too much overwhelms you.
That being said, once you have your single habit (or 2-3 habits) built into your routine and are doing them daily without thinking, feel free to add more habits.
On a side note, there is no single answer on “how long does it take to build a habit?”. It depends on the person and the habit. So don’t give up if it’s been 30 days (or however long you read it takes to build a habit) and it’s still a struggle to achieve your habit every day.
Tips to be successful with a habit tracker
- Make your habit tracker visible. Put your tracker where you will see it. It should be a constant reminder that habits need done and that you need to track them. Mine lives in my planner.
- Habit stacking. I learned about this from James Clear, who has a great book called Atomic Habits (and an amazing website). How it works is that you stack your new habit on top of an already existing habit. For example, I just set up a new habit “I will walk 10 minutes immediately before I eat lunch.” I always eat lunch (existing habit). So I stack walking 10 minutes (new habit) on it. Other examples include meditating for 1 minute after pouring your morning cup of coffee and reading 10 pages of a book immediately after lying down in bed at night.
- Never miss twice. You’re not going to be perfect. There’s going to be a day you don’t complete your habit. But it make it a rule to never miss twice in a row. It gets easier and easier to skip the next day. And the next. And claim “I’ll get back on track next week.” (or month).
- Pick a consistent time to track habits. Suggestions include either right after completing the habit (my recommendation) or in the evening when you’re reviewing the day.
- Get excited about streaks. One of my favorite things with habit tracking is trying to “break my streak.” See how many days in a row you can complete your habit. Aim for a longer streak than before.
- Go for incremental improvements. If a habit is too daunting, you might not even attempt it. So while your final goal might be “exercise for 45 minutes every day,” you might start with “exercise for 5 minutes every day.” Do that for a week. Then make it 6 minutes. Etc. The small increases will help prevent you from avoiding the habit all together.
- Build habits YOU want to cultivate. Don’t try to build a habit with no motivation. Just because your best friend claims practicing gratitude changed her life doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you. Pick a habit that will result in life changes you desperately want.
Free printable habit trackers
There are 8 free printable habit trackers below.
Instructions:
• Print options: regular paper works just fine.
• All of the files are in pdf below. Just hit the “download” button (or the pink word “download,” depending upon browser).
• The default size of these is full-page. However, if you want smaller, simply reduce the print size! If you’re not sure on how much to reduce, check out my post “How to Resize Printables to Fit Your Planner.”
Daily habit tracker printables: landscape
I have two landscape daily habit tracker printables. These are simple habit trackers that allow for tracking multiple habits on a daily basis for a month. One is colorful, one is a simple black and white. Both are in landscape.
Write down your habit in the first column. As you complete the habit, fill in the block under the appropriate day. You can use various colors, squiggles, or simple check marks.
Mandala habit trackers
With these free printable mandala habit trackers, there are spots for four habits. Pick a color and label your habit. Inside the mandala, you can see that each day has 4 blocks. For the overall, at the end of the month, write down how many days you filled in (aka: completed the habit).
You can see a preview of each tracker below. Below is each tracker is the mandala habit tracker pdf. Just click the word “download.”
Habit stacking habit tracker
This free printable habit tracker is designed specifically for habit stacking. Under the “when” section, make sure you specify exactly when you’ll be doing the habit, pairing it with something else. For example, I just started the habit of “walk 10 minutes” directly before eating lunch.
Absolute best free habit tracker
This is my absolute favorite out of all the habit trackers I made. (It also took the longest, in case you were curious!).
There are spots to track daily habits, weekly habits, and monthly habits. And it’s a pretty rainbow color too.
Weekly habit tracker printables
There are two free printable weekly habit trackers below. One is landscape (horizontal), one portrait (vertical). One is color-heavy, the other almost black and white. For both, simply list your habits. Then check (or fill in) the block under the appropriate day of the week as you complete the habit.
Annual habit trackers
If you’re looking to track a single habit for an entire year, then I have some annual habit trackers (resolution trackers) you might be interested in. Since there are so many designs, I’m going to direct you to the post> Free Printable Resolution Trackers.
Ready to get started?
I hope you’re excited and ready to get started! Feel free to comment below letting me know which tracker you like best.
Could you do me a quick favor? If you liked this post, could you share it with your friends? Share buttons are at the top.
THANK YOU for these habit trackers! I used them this year to track my resolutions month by month. Breaking them into chunks by month makes them seem more achievable instead of staring down a whole year. I also like the resolution tracker, and used it on the side so that at the end of the year I can see the whole year’s accomplishments. With the new year coming up, I am already thinking about what I want to accomplish next year, and naturally I thought of your printables to help me track. I appreciate the time and effort you put into these, and I especially appreciate you making them so accessible for everyone. I hope you have a very merry Christmas with your loved ones!