Now new year has come, there is so called army of "New year, new me" people. Some people started to exercise, some started to read – something I see common in them is tracking. I have been seeing that people mostly my peers started to track everything that they do as if they were tracking their habits. I have nothing against it, but it depends what are you tracking. From what they say it is a good motivation to help them stay on the track, I agree with that. Yet there are some who track things, I wouldn't recommend them to do. I am going to give some examples from my own friends (I did get their consents to do so):
1) Keeping track of non-smoking days;
2) Keeping track of fastfood-eaten days;
3) Keeping track of missed prayers;
When you track your good habits, this action really does help you to motivate you not to miss them, but when you do so with the bad habits, I think that you are just tracking how long have it passed since the last time you did these bad habit of yours. One of those friends of mine did this last year too. During summer, he always said that these many days have passed since he last time smoked. Yet these number of days never exceeded 21, why? Every time I asked these question, the remained the same: "I have not smoked for 3 weeks, I have proven myself that I can go without it, and I am just celebrating it" (He eventually returned back to smoking).
Tracking habits works best when it focuses on building good behaviors, not counting time since a bad one. Highlighting past mistakes can unintentionally reinforce them, as seen with my friend who used his "days without smoking" as a reason to relapse. Focus on growth, not the gaps.
1) Keeping track of non-smoking days;
2) Keeping track of fastfood-eaten days;
3) Keeping track of missed prayers;
When you track your good habits, this action really does help you to motivate you not to miss them, but when you do so with the bad habits, I think that you are just tracking how long have it passed since the last time you did these bad habit of yours. One of those friends of mine did this last year too. During summer, he always said that these many days have passed since he last time smoked. Yet these number of days never exceeded 21, why? Every time I asked these question, the remained the same: "I have not smoked for 3 weeks, I have proven myself that I can go without it, and I am just celebrating it" (He eventually returned back to smoking).
Tracking habits works best when it focuses on building good behaviors, not counting time since a bad one. Highlighting past mistakes can unintentionally reinforce them, as seen with my friend who used his "days without smoking" as a reason to relapse. Focus on growth, not the gaps.