Underrated hack for tracking progress and not being hard on yourself during early stages is to have a “demo day” where you track what your baseline is without intentional modifications to improve. For example, say someone is trying to decrease their screen time. They give themself a screen time limit (2-3 hours usually) and try to abide by it. Sometimes they’re good about it, other times they fall off. They’re really hard on themself when they fall off track. However, what’s not in perspective for them is the fact that they started with like a 9 hour screen time. Even the fact that on some days they’re succeeding is huge. You need to have a “tangible” view of your baseline to compare your improvement to. That way you’re way less hard on yourself. Don’t skip the demo day
Here are some ideas for someone who’s trying to get better at screen time, eating healthy, fitness, studying etc :)
Screen time: I totally made this up but using the stopwatch function on the clock app has been so good for me. Odd laps = I’m on my phone and scrolling. Even laps = I’m off my phone. I do a demo day where I just let myself be on my phone as much as possible, then survey the data I have by the end of the day and modify from there. There are the pickup and screen time functions on iPhone too, but I find this is so much more meticulous and makes me aware of how long I last without picking my phone up and scrolling. I track my phone use in subsequent days using this too. Also the timer when I’m “off” the phone is a passive accountability factor that keeps me off it. If app blockers don’t work for you, try this!
Working out: have a “demo day” where you journal about any type of movement you did. That could be literally nothing. Maybe you were sedentary. Then track every subsequent day where you work out/don’t work out. This could just be on your notes app tbh, simpler is better when you’re first establishing a habit. Log it even if it’s 5 mins. Always compare progress to the demo day. Even if you did literally 5 minutes of a simple workout, that’s still an improvement from being totally sedentary like you were on demo day
Study hours: have a demo day where you study as much as you would without any intentional efforts to get better. Same method for working out applies here - track that somewhere and compare it to subsequent days. Also track by how many tasks you got done. Always have demo day to compare to
Another simple way to track adherence to a habit is the Habit app!
