Your habits, one tick a day

How does this habit tracker work?

You type your habits and the maker builds a grid with one column per habit and one row per day. In calendar month mode, the rows follow the real month: the number of days is worked out from the month and year, so you never cross out a 31st that does not exist. Each row shows the date and the day of the week, and weekend rows are lightly shaded so you can spot patterns, such as habits that slip every Saturday.

At the bottom of the grid is a days kept row for your totals. The second page is a review: a small scorecard with every habit, a space to write how many days you kept it, and boxes to mark keep, change or drop. Below that are panels for what helped, what got in the way, and one change for next time.

Monthly tracker or 30-day challenge: which should I print?

Choose a calendar month when the habit is part of ordinary life and you want to see it month by month: reading, walking, practising an instrument, going to bed on time. The page title names the month, and you can print the next one when it comes round.

Choose the 30-day challenge when you want to start today rather than on the first of the month. The grid runs for exactly 30 days from the date you pick, numbered Day 1 to Day 30 with the real date beside each one. It suits a fresh start after a holiday, a new job or a doctor's appointment, or a challenge you are doing with friends.

How many habits should I track at once?

The tracker takes up to ten, but you do not have to fill them all. A few habits you will really do tend to teach you more than a long list you abandon in the second week. A good test is whether you could do every habit on your busiest day of the week. If not, make it smaller.

Write each habit as something you can tick with a clear yes or no. Read 10 pages is easier to judge than read more. Walk after dinner is clearer than be healthier. Short names also print more cleanly in the column headings, which allow about 30 characters each.

• Make it specific: a time, an amount or a place
• Make it small enough for a bad day
• Pair it with something you already do, such as after brushing teeth
• Leave a column blank for a habit you add later in the month

What is the best way to fill in a habit tracker?

Keep the page somewhere you look every day, such as the fridge, a desk or the inside of a planner, and fill it in at the same time each evening. Tick, colour or dot the box when you kept the habit and leave it blank when you did not. Do not fill in days in advance or backfill days you cannot remember; an honest gap is more useful than a perfect-looking page.

Some people mark a missed day with a small dash so they can tell it apart from a day they forgot to record. Others use two colours, one for done and one for partly done. The grid works with any system, and in ink saver mode it prints in grey so your own colours stand out.

How do I use the monthly review page?

At the end of the month or challenge, count the ticks in each column and write the total in the scorecard. Then decide, habit by habit, whether to keep it as it is, change it, or drop it. A habit you kept most days might be ready to keep without tracking. A habit you rarely kept is often too big, badly timed or not that important to you, and that is useful to know.

Use the two panels to note what helped and what got in the way, then write one change for next month. Next time you print a tracker, start from that change. Over a few months the review pages become a short record of what actually works for you.

Can I print it on A4 or US Letter?

Yes. Pick your paper size and the grid resizes so every day fits on one page, including 31-day months with ten habits. Set scale to 100 percent in your print dialog. If you want a tracker for every month of the year, print one month at a time so you can adjust your habits after each review, or change the month field and print the next page straight away.