How I Built a Habit Tracker Tool in Notion

December 26th 2019 969 reads

@whizzoeZoe Chew

Product Builder. Run product / community for tech companies. About https://whizzoe.com

Simple life hack to master discipline & productivity

As a product builder↗️, I use Notion to manage my work and portfolio. My use cases include client management, portfolio tracker and personal finance tracking.

Recently, I started using Notion to track my habits. An idea that I originally built on Excel. But I decided to switch to Notion (because Excel is slow) and I wanted to access my habit tracking from the browser.

Today, I will share my steps on how to create your own habit tracker. Let’s check this out:

1. Ideation stage💡

I’ve never come across any habit tracking apps that fit my needs. 😵

I wanted to track not only my habits, but also my work, and how my days look like and which segment of work I focus most on.

Therefore, I created this habit tracker for myself. Here’s the original Excel prototype (before I switch to Notion):

To begin, I list down parts I want to build

• A one-page habit tracking tool
• Calendar format with daily check-in mechanism
• Display a list of goals I want to track
• One-click methodology to easily check on goals
• Visualize “heatmap” to see my overall progress

2. Set up Notion 💻

Go to Notion and sign up for a free account.

Getting started

• Start a new workspace in Notion
• Create a database by choosing “Table” option
• Start editing your Table, just like Excel or Google Sheets

3. Calendar format 📅

One reason I like about connecting the calendar idea with habit tracking is that it allows me to do daily check-in with Day/Date reference.

I can easily compare my progress today of doing X versus the past days. Here’s how to create this section in Notion:

Add a “Day” column

• Rename your first Column as “Day”
• Fill up the table vertically with day details such as Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.
• I also use this column to summarize my day using emojis

Add a “Date” column

• Next, rename the second Column as “Date”
• Under “Property Type” select Date to create date database
• Make your first entry on an empty cell. You should be able to see a calendar selector in “Date” column

👉Access the Habit Tracker template here

4. Add your goals 🏃‍♂️

Now think about which life areas you want to improve and how to design them into parameters that allows you to act upon on daily basis.

For example, I want to improve my sleep-wake time consistency. Therefore, tracking the time I wake up becomes a valuable data point.

Other goals idea by category

• Daily habits or routine (wake early, meditate, exercise, read, sleep)
• Work or project related (client work, code, write, learn new things)
• Networking related (attending meetup, reach out on social)

Here’s how to configure your goals in Notion

• Click on “+” to create a new Column
• Rename each column horizontally as your goal item
• Add an emoji on each goal to make it more visual

5. Track your goals ✔️

I like using “1” (done) vs “0” (missed) tagging method to check on my goals. This method also allows you to quantify your progress, i.e. number of days done (or missed).

I also add color logic to differentiate “1” (green) vs. “0” (red) so I will have a “heatmap” view for the entire habit tracking activity. Let’s set this up:

Create “Select” property

• Right click on each goal item from the Column
• Set “Property Type” as “Select”
• Repeat above steps for the rest of the goal items

Create “1” and “0” tag

• Click on an empty cell below each goal item
• Type in “1” & hit enter, then do the same when creating a “0” tag
• Edit the tag color “1” (green) and “0” (red)

If you prefer the ☑️ method, you can use the “Checkbox” property instead:

Check on goals

• Update your progress by clicking on an empty cell of each goal item
• You should be able to switch between “1” and “0” tag to refer status of your progress

👉Access the Habit Tracker template here

6. Analyze your progress 📈

I’m less of a fan of complicated charts/graph and more of a fan of simplicity when it comes to understanding my habits pattern.

Here’s how I use this tool to analyze my progress

• I look at the emojis on the “Day” column to see my activity, energy level productivity and emotions
• I look at consistency of my habits (done vs. missed)
• Each weekend, I summarize my progress on a notebook

For example, weekly review

• Wake at 6am: 5/7
• Meditate 10 mins: 5/7
• Exercise 30 mins: 4/7
• Read 1 hour: 7/7
• Learn: 5/7
• Client work: 6/7
• Build prototype: 5/7
• Social post: 5/7
• Sleep before 11pm: 3/7

Note: This article is part of my toolkit newsletters↗️ where I share resources about building things. Join me :)

👉Access the Habit Tracker template here

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