Why You Should Retire Your Habit Tracker

In adulthood, we automate, regiment, expedite, calculate, and schedule almost every aspect of our lives, down to
our hobbies. While I think it is a good idea to have measurable goals, when we track and schedule every tiny aspect of our lives, we put a whole lot of pressure on ourselves that isn’t always motivating.

Some of my best ideas come to me when I am at rest. Whether I am on vacation, in the shower, or up late because I can’t sleep, taking time to be unproductive can actually be the most productive thing we can do. Today, I’m going to try to convince you to put down the habit tracker and the to do list and simply let it flow.

Experts agree that taking time for slowness, for boredom even, is essential to our cognitive health. That old wive’s tale of getting your best ideas in the shower is real after all. Boredom improves social connections, and it allows your brain the space to come up with creative ideas and have those “Aha!” moments.

Why Boredom is Important

Do you remember the intense boredom you felt as a kid on summer break? The hours would crawl by as you watched the light change on the living room wall. No amount of lego building, coloring books, or turns down the slip and slide could fill the hours in the day.

As an adult, when was the last time you felt truly bored? Our days are now filled with deadlines, meetings, and for some of us, tending to the requirements of our kids and families. There is so little time left to truly be bored.

I read a book a few years ago that really stuck with me. In the book, In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré, he details a story that I found quite striking. He tells of how he found himself rushing through Cat in the Hat at bedtime with his son, skipping words, phrases, and even whole pages. He talks about feeling like bedtime was just another item on his daily schedule to check off (you can hear the full story in his words here.)

Here’s the thing: kids don't pencil in time to build legos or read a book. They just follow their intuition and do what feels right in the moment. Granted, kids don't have have a 40 hour workweek or a mortgage or rent to pay, but I still
think we can take a valuable lesson from them.

Carl talks about how in his journey to study slowness, he realizes that there is a lesson to be learned from his son’s ability to be in the moment. By the end, he remarks that he has reframed bedtime into one of his favorite moments of the day, a reward for checking off all of the other items on his checklist rather than being another task causing him stress.

I think the broader lesson here is that not everything has to be a measurable task or goal. Instead of saying to yourself, I will journal for ten minutes everyday, think about why you want to journal in the first place. What if you, instead, thought of it as a valuable time to reflect and work through the highs and lows of your days. What if you didn’t assign a measurement of success to the practice and instead just did as much as felt right and fullfilling?

Turning Your Goals into a Lifestyle

The ethos behind this journaling example can be applied to many other goals and aspirations we have. Having measurable goals is an important part of achieving them and tracking your progress along the way. However, what you should be working toward is adopting these goals to be a natural part of your lifestyle.

For example, when I first started working out, I attended OrangeTheory, a gym that you have to sign up for scheduled classes that you are charged for missing. In the class, your statistics are on displayed and ranked, scoreboard style. This was the kind of regimented, measurable goal I needed to stay motivated and locked in.

When I stopped attending OrangeTheory, I signed up for a weekly session with a personal trainer at my new gym. This was a way to learn proper form and a routine to follow, but also to hold myself accountable. Today, I created a routine I truly enjoy and attend the gym because it makes me feel good physically and mentally, not because it’s an item on my list to mark as complete.

The pressure of always trying to hit these goals can eventually lead to burnout and be just as discouraging as they were motivating in the beginning. The moral of the story is that while having measurable goals on a daily or weekly checklist is an important step to form great habits that propel you forward. However, the overarching goal should always be to create a lifestyle that you find real joy in.

This relates to boredom not because your routine is boring, but because it leaves room for flexibility. When your life isn’t fully scheduled, you have more room and agency to be creative and follow your body and intuition when it sends you messages.

Leave Room for Fun

My husband and I went on a trip to Costa Rica last fall and loved watching the sloths slowly creep along to the beat of their own tune. I couldn’t imagine living life that way, with nothing on the itinerary, no deadlines looming, and no to-do list burning a hole in my back pocket.

Every once in awhile, you should skip the gym. No really! Instead of hitting the same routine week after week, maybe you shake up your routine to run around with your kids or throw the ball with your dog at the park. Maybe you leave your prepped meal in the fridge to try the new healthy restaurant that just opened in your neighborhood.

And when you go on vacation, actually enjoy your vacation! You could hit the favorite local hiking trail to make up for a missed workout, or you could just lay next to the pool with a good book (fiction, not self help!)

Whatever the case is, I hope that you take this post as a reminder to slow down, allow space for boredom, and quite scheduling every moment of your precious lifetime.