Let's start with a quick check in on my goals for this year.
- Prioritise my evening routine and sleep pattern: I'm still working on this one!
- Stop drinking soft drinks: WINNING!! I have soft drink about once every couple of months for very special occasions. I don't even miss it. :)
- Complete a Bible activity and Pray everyday. WINNING! :)
- Stretch. Working on it. I have added cardio activity to my exercise routine as it's an easy way to keep everything moving and I will hopefully lose a little bit of weight, hopefully!
Tracking my Goals
As well as blogging about my goals I have found it helpful to monitor my goals in other ways too. I started using the Loop Habit Tracker app to help me keep track of how much water I was drinking and how often I was reading my Bible. I found it helpful and started using it for other things too! Why did I find it so helpful and Why do I keep using it?- It's so easy to use! You press the "+" sign to add a new habit/ goal you want to check. You can give it a simple name or type it in the form of a question.
- Set a goal for how often you want to follow through with the habit- twice a day, 4 times a week, weekly, etc.
- Each time you follow through (e.g. go for a walk or exercise), open the app and hold down the check mark for the day which it highlights. You can click back on previous days if you forget to open the app.
- Click on the habit or question itself to see a line graph that shows progress, a calendar with shading for weeks when you reached your goal, and information about how many perfect weeks you have had.
- You can set reminders that will appear on your phone without opening the app. Nice.
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This graph shows the number of days each week
that I drank at least 2L of water.
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You still need to remember to use the app. However, it's not complicated and you can choose to view the graphs and tables or easily ignore them. This app has really helped me to stay motivated because I know when I have done the things I set goals to do. It was also really great to have this available to show my physio when I visited recently. He was able to see when I was exercising and we were able to discuss the data far more easily. I like having something concrete like this. I'm glad I found this app which is so simple to use. I have tried other apps but found many of them were too complicated or had lots of bugs which made them frustrating to use.
At the end of the day, though, I would recommend that you find a system that works for you. Cross out a day on a paper calendar, click an app, use a fitbit or similar (which apparently combines lots of data into one interface), move a magnet across the fridge or draw up your very own graph. Find the system and use it. I have found it so helpful to keeping me on track.
Happy Goal Kicking!
