In 2023, I opted for a different approach to a New Year’s resolution. I’m tracking my time working on tasks I care about. I’m tracking other habits too, on my habit tracker app. This series of posts is meant to hold me accountable for my habits and share my progress throughout the year. This is mainly for me because, too often, I stop tracking my habits after a month or two.
Habits I’m working on in 2023
Below is the habit, the frequency goal, and a description. Then, at the bottom, I’ll share my current stats.
Personal Development
- Read for 1 hour – every day – This is for physically reading books of all kinds. I read some business books, fiction books, self-help books, etc.
- Write for 15 minutes – every day – This is to help me finish a book on podcasting for businesses I have worked on for about eight months with no progress. Once the book is done, this task will shift to writing for my blog.
- Skill for 30 minutes – every day – At the moment, I’m back working on learning Mandarin. But down the road, this could be applied to learning Bubble.io, guitar, or other interesting and helpful skills.
Home / Family Management
With five kids, and my wife and I handling a lot of things, our household can quickly spin out of control. These habits help to maintain things. All of the habits below are my responsibility, but I can (and do) enlist help from other members of the family in completing them.
- Vacuum the main floor – every 2-3 days – Vacuum all common areas, every inch.
- Defend the kitchen – every day – make sure the kitchen looks good enough that if friends drop by, we will not be embarrassed. It’s worded as “defend” because we are defending against clutter and mess.
- Defend the living room – every day
- Defend the front room – every 2-3 days
- Defend the laundry room – every 2-3 days
- Defend the basement – every 3-5 days
- Track money – every day – I track all our finances in an app; this habit reminds me to look at transactions for the day, make sure they are categorized correctly, and check to make sure we are on track for our monthly budget.
Habit Report Card – January 2023
The current streak column shows how well I’m doing. For example, I’m doing great with reading, 68 days in a row, but terrible with defending the laundry room; I’ve missed three days in a row.
| Habit | Frequency | Current streak | Total # of Completions | Best Streak |
| Read for 1 hour | Daily | 68 | 68 | 68 |
| Write for 15 minutes | Daily | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Skill for 30 minutes | Daily | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Vacuum the main floor | Every 2-3 days | 35 | 35 | 35 |
| Defend the kitchen | Daily | 54 | 67 | 54 |
| Defend the living room | Daily | 54 | 67 | 54 |
| Defend the front room | Every 2-3 days | 12 | 31 | 12 |
| Defend the laundry room | Every 2-3 days | -3 | 17 | 11 |
| Defend the basement | Every 3-5 days | 1 | 17 | 7 |
| Track money | Daily | 9 | 12 | 9 |