My Habits/Lists Notebook

Posted on by theageofthediary

After I read Abbey Sy’s The ABCs of Journaling, I became obsessed with lists. So I bought her Always Be Creating notebook and used it as my habits/lists notebook.

My current active lists are:

Financial lists: things I bought, freelance work, restaurants, tipid wins (times I saved money or resisted buying something or was strategic with handling money)

Performance lists: times I performed, happiness elective, teaching

Writing life lists: books I read again, books I read, submit (poems, stories, essays I’ve sent to publications), published/accepted (accepted to workshops, residencies, etc)

Creative life lists: my songs, songs I listened to, songs I’ve sung, plays/movies/tv I watched, crafts I made, artist dates (taking your inner artist out on a date, a concept from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron)

Social good lists: donated, activism, feminism, environmental activism

Physical and mental health lists: vegetarianish food I ate, 5 things I’m grateful for (I write 5 things per day), compliments I got, everyday tasks

Socializing lists: gifts I gave, gifts I received, took care of mama, events I went to, work on my relationships, complimented people, people I talked to

Monitoring emotions lists: times I felt insulted, need help with, worries

Reflection lists: achievements, things I learned (life lessons, not informative or school stuff)

Per list, there is a title on top. If I’ve filled up the page, but I still need to continue the list, I add “to (insert page number)” at the bottom of the page. Then, on the new page where the list continues, I add at the upper right corner “from (insert page number)”. I do this because you can’t predict how long a list will be, so it’s better to have a system that lets you continue the list to another page. This also lets you trace the list from start to end if you want to review it by the end of the year. If I have a goal for a particular list, I either write the number beside the title, or I write numbers on the page then after the goal, I put a line so that when I write things after that line, I know that I achieved my goal and went beyond it. Once I fill up a page, I put “fin” at the top right. This means “finished”, so that I skip that page when I’d adding to my lists. I also put paper clips on the top right so that I can put together the pages that have finished lists so that I can skip them.

I also have habit trackers. These have headings and then boxes with dates at the top (I start with the month, then numbers. All the numbers after the month are the dates in that month). If I am able to do the thing that I need to do, I shade the box. My habit trackers are: No Facebook, don’t buy books, and daily routines.

How about you? How do you track your habits? Do you love lists too?

More Habits:

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