Want to build better habits?
This stupid little spreadsheet has helped me build better habits faster than I’ve ever been able to before
Seriously, it’s just a spreadsheet built on Google Sheets.
When I sit back and think about why this works for me, it boils down to me owning a number that is only mine. I get to see a tangible number that reflects my output for the week.
I started with 4 pillars. 4 areas where I wanted to build better habits for myself and make sure I stay improving.
- Career
- Health
- Investing
- Publishing
And then I’ve since added:
- Social media
- Learning
They’re listed in the order they were added to the spreadsheet.
My Career pillar has needed a readjustment for a bit. Things are done a bit differently now than they were even just a few short months ago… so I need to find a different/better metric to track.
In Health, I’m tracking every single workout I do. It’s really very simple to do, especially when the spreadsheet is set up and ready to go. And I can honestly say, this is the area I’ve seen the most improvement in. Both in my habits and my physical appearance. I just feel better overall too.
EA Sports once said, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure” (or something like that lmao I could be way off… it was on the intro of Madden 2005 or w/e).
Investing. Boy oh boy. I know this is a habit I need. I know this is a habit I need to want too. So I started. I have a formula set up to basically just track the overall value of all my investing accounts. I know there will be downturns, but I’m also being rewarded when I add to the accounts (deposit money into them). It’s felt very, very good seeing that little number go up on this pillar. Even more so than my actual investing accounts. I know that stuff is for later, but I can give myself mini rewards with this tracker today haha. Can’t help it, I’m a millennial.
Publishing was the last of the first 4 pillars added. My social circles on both Twitter and LinkedIn are strongly suggesting that owned audiences are going to become increasingly valuable. And that it’s your own competitive advantage. I’m not a writer by any means—I ramble a lot. Lots of word vomit. So, the best way to become a better writer is to build a writing habit. And just enjoy the act of writing. I figure it’ll pay off someday.
Social media is a pillar I added because I found myself becoming more addicted to my phone. Lots of doomscrolling Twitter. And even more mindless scrolling on Facebook. I decided that, if I’m going to continue to be on social media as much as I am, I might as well find a way to make it work for me. This also ties back into the owned audiences bit in Publishing.
Learning — I just added within the last couple of weeks. I don’t spend enough time reading as I’d like, so I needed to build a better habit. I’ve only made it through 1 audiobook, and I’ve so far enjoyed it. I don’t often listen to podcasts so I wasn’t sure how it’d go, but I really like it as part of my morning walks. And it’s a nice way to double dip on points with those walks (I now get points for both going on the walk and listening to my audiobook.)
Maybe later I’ll dive more into each pillar individually. I just think each one could be its own post on here. That way I could go in-depth and maybe help trigger an idea for you to start tracking something of your own to build a better habit. 🙂
Each pillar gets a weekly score that is then counted here on my main dashboard. Then, each week is compared to the one before it. There have been a couple of weeks where I was satisfied even when my overall score was lower than the one before. It made me realize the importance of remembering to sometimes just take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
On this screengrab below, you can see my last two weeks have both been negative (compared to the one before it). Instead of getting discouraged about this, I zoomed out a bit. My “down” score dwarfed another week’s score from just a few weeks prior.
Honestly, I think this works so well for me because I’m obsessed with statistics. I don’t really know what it is, but I’ve always been told I’m good with numbers. But only remembering specific numbers haha. I’m not some mathematician. Basically, I simply have a pretty good memory when it comes to remembering specific numbers (and birthdays).
I also think this works because it allows me to focus on the processes. When I built out my tracker, I had to think about HOW I was going to track any of this.
So I embraced boring.
I needed to focus on leading indicators in as many of my pillars as I could.
If you’re trying to lose weight, for example, instead of tracking how much you weigh on the scale every day, you should track how many minutes you spent walking that day. Take a look at the scale every 4 weeks. You’ll love what you see. Honestly, the longer you take between scale-peeks, the more you’ll love it.
Focus on learning to obsess over the process.
Results never come without a process.
Focus on the process.
Obsess over it.
Habits don’t come easy. But for me, this spreadsheet has helped me build more habits faster than I’ve ever been able to before.
Going back to the weight scale. If it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic and you want to lose weight (but do not have a walking habit), you need to start tracking your minutes and do NOT look at the scale for 2 months. Seriously. If you’re unmotivated entirely, this likely won’t work for you. It helps that I genuinely want to be better than who I was the week before. That’s an extra layer of motivation for me.
I didn’t want to fall into a hole where I could just stop tracking my efforts and simply quit to let this fizzle out. So, every week, I send out a recap of my week’s efforts. Only 9 people get the email, but now I know I have eyes on me. I know I’ll be called out if I just let this project fizzle out. And I know I won’t like that feeling. (If you’d like to stay on top of my recaps, you can subscribe to the email newsletter here). It’ll be in your inbox every Tuesday morning just after 4:00 am Eastern. The more eyes I have on me, the better I’ll be. I’ve already felt it working and now I need all the help I can get. 🙂
All I did was find a way to track my output. Then I focus on beating that each week. You can do it too. It’s not hard at all. I really do think a lot of people could benefit from tracking their efforts in a similar way. It helps with your personal accountability. (And that’s why I called it my spreadsheet Pocket Accountability).
If you think you might want to build something similar for yourself but don’t know where to start, shoot me a message here on Twitter. Or you can drop a comment below too. Always happy to help. 🙂
Toodles.
