For decades, I’ve been a proponent of habit tracking. Habit tracking sounds and feels nerdy to a lot of folks, so many people avoid it. That’s too bad. Habit tracking is a powerful tool that can help you make better decisions about your life.
Let me share an example.
Over at Reaktor, Olof Hoverfält recently published a long piece about why he’s tracked every single piece of clothing he’s worn for three years.
That’s right: For 1000+ days, Hoverfält documented every garment he wore. (And, in fact, he’s continuing to document his wardrobe publicly.) Using the info he collected, he’s now able to make better decisions about which clothes to keep and which clothes to buy. I love it!
Hoverfält says people worry about how much time it’d take to do something like this but they shouldn’t. Most of the time investment is in the initial setup, in that first batch of data entry. Actually using and maintaining the system requires about one minute each day. And the rewards are far greater than the cost in time.
Hoverfält’s project is a perfect example of the power of habit tracking.