How I track my tiny/atomic habits in Notion

We, consciously or unconsciously, are making dozens of decisions every day. Decisions that choose the best response in a given situation and fill the gaps between our tasks.

Being adaptable and making decisions can take a lot of energy; therefore, installing habits that can work on autopilot can do wonders to expand our capacity and focus on what matters.

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of us want to do everything, track everything, collect statistics from everywhere — and we just can’t. Our brains aren’t wired to do that. We can only focus on one thing at a time.

While some studies have shown that more frequent tracking leads to better habit formation, the problem is that you end up having to track too many things each day.

In this post, I want to challenge the idea that working with just three small goals will improve the habits in your life.

Tiny Habits vs. Atomic Habits

Although we don’t have control over our circumstances, we can control our behaviours and habits. Our actions and reactions.

If you’ve ever given up on trying to change something about yourself – like do more exercise or stop smoking, I’m sure you’ve experienced a moment of weakness and fallen back into your old habits. We want so desperately to improve these habits as essentially the things we do without thinking; they’ve become a subconscious reaction to certain situations. But can we actually control these

The two methods that made me think about properly installing habits are Tiny Habits by B.J Fogg and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Tiny Habits it’s about generating positive feelings about making tiny behaviours after anchor movements. The behaviours are so tiny that they can get done in 2 minutes or less.

To build a Tiny Habit, you can use their implementation intention exercise:

After I [Anchor movement], I will [tiny behaviour], Then I celebrate [the positive feeling].

For example, After I get out of bed, I will brush my teeth, then I will celebrate by giving a kiss to my partner.

Atomic Habits focuses on 1% improvements, which compounds into tremendous results. James Clear makes a great case for why little, incremental progress is often better than a bold, failed leap forward.

While they each have their own nuances, the overarching benefit of both Tiny and Atomic Habits is that once installed, they are far more likely to stick. This allowed me to track more data on my habits and make any necessary adjustments when slippage occurs.

My best pillar habit: Journaling

Pillar habits are the foundation of your routines. They anchor your day. They determine what you do each week and from month to month.

Ever since I was a teenager and kept one of those cute colourful diaries, I loved spilling all the juicy gossip and re-read it years later to see how much I had grown.

Journaling can improve the way you think and make decisions. It can help discover who you are by shining a light into your reality. It allows for a time to ponder what truly matters to think of the future and embrace the past.

When you make a daily habit of writing on something you’re curious about, you not only have a practice of meaningful creation, but you can provide an amazing volume of work.

You already know the importance of consistent, repeated action. When we make a daily practice one thing, we can create some momentum and make space to add to the routine.

Next week on Thursday 18th, I will be delivering a workshop on habits, showing how I use Notion to track my habits week by week. Learn more here.

We will think about installing and tracking habits during the workshop without having to rely on motivation in a fun and iterative way.

Three Notion databases that help me track my weekly habits goal.

I love the concept of “everything tracked, everything optimized” as much as the next gal. But what if you find yourself in a position where you are spread too thin? Tracking everything is not sustainable.

First, you must decide on one system of doing things in the same way. This means you make fewer decisions, resulting in more mental energy you can use for other useful tasks.

When habits are properly installed, they become automatic, ingrained in our minds, and we don’t even need to think about them after they’ve been repeated for awhile. What habits have you installed without having to think about? You don’t have to track those.

Changing habits too quickly may overwhelm your sense of safety which is needed as a foundation for growth. Small habits help you succeed easily. With time you rebuild self-trust and confidence.

I apply the tiny or atomic habits in Notion with three databases that allows me to find which habits to work on easily and break them down for tracking:

‘Pillar Habits’ Database: Which helps me filter my top three pillar habits I will work on for the week. I have a tag system that lets me sort what I should focus on.
The ‘Habit Tracker’ Database: After choosing three pillar habits, I break them down and set a view of the three tiny/atomic habits of the week.
The ‘Weeks’ Database, which helps me summarize the weekly and monthly data. The idea here is to make informed decisions on what could help me improve each week.