I don’t always track these things but figured I’d use the annual spread in one of my Hobonichi planners to do it this year (or at least for the beginning of this year) just for fun.
Actually, I would say 2026 has been a very track-y year for me. I did a full week of time tracking, am tracking nutrition in a much more quantitative way than usual (playing with CalAI, I like it!), and have been writing down my screen time metrics from Opal every day, too. I tend to start my morning with this little reckoning ritual — like, how did yesterday go? It takes about 5 minutes so it does add a bit of time to my morning routine, but I like it.
(And admittedly I tend to embrace longer morning routines and I KNOW that is not for everyone!)
The columns are labelled “M”, “O”, “R”, “{music note}”, “D”. We’re going to address them right to left just because I want to end with M!
D: Duolingo. I know there are other language apps and this may not be the best one, but it is one that I like using and I’ve been on it since 2020, so I don’t really plan to switch. This is the first year I upped my membership to premium so now part of my practice includes chats with AI Spanish characters (hi Lily) and I do think that helps make it a bit more useful in the ‘actually learning to speak’ department.
I tend to do this during random downtimes, often between patients or while waiting for something. I spend probably between 5-10 minutes total on it. I really have made progress in my Spanish understanding and so it has been valuable for something! I am also “streak friends” with Josh (and have been with Cameron) so that’s fun too.
M: Music. I added this one year when I realized that even though I LOVE music (I feel like my sensory appreciation of music is high compared to other senses, like visual), I can forget about it entirely in favor of podcasts and the like. So, I try to listen to SOME music every day. Sometimes it’s familiar comfort tunes (TAYLOR). Sometimes it’s the kids’ picks (lately, TATE). Sometimes it’s NPR’s New Music Friday podcast, and then I try to listen to one of the albums discussed. I also listened to 11/12 of the NPR Top 2025 albums (funnily, I thought there were 25! I had been not looking at the entire list, but finally scrolled to the end of see I had just one more lift). Will do #12 today! This has been fun, exposing me to top works in genres I’m not as familiar with (but were still enjoyable).
I listen usually in the car, or while on a walk (fun to check off two habit boxes at once, ha).
R: Read. I read at least something almost every day (as you can see) and enjoy it. Sometimes the morning reading is like, 5 minutes’ worth, but I still count it. I also track pages read as below:
Reading happens in the morning (nonfiction) and in the evening (fiction). Extra long sessions usually on flights and on weekends sometimes esp if the book is good.
O: Outside. I guess this could also be “w” for walk, because generally when I go outside it’s to take a walk, though I would also count it if I were at the beach or pool for a while or something. I tend to walk for between 20-40 minutes. Walk ‘n’ talks are always my longest and most pleasant walks – the time just flies!
On clinical work days, my walks are often just 20 minutes and I take them right before my afternoon patients start. (I would be about to take one now . . . but it’s raining so today might not be an “O” day).
M: Meditation. AHH, this is the one I’m struggling with lately! I know exactly what happened: when I added morning pages to my routine, that took away the time I had for meditation. I do feel like it benefits me, though. So just trying to figure out if I want to abandon it for now, do it at night, shorten it to 5 min (was doing 10) or just do it on more flexible days when I am home.
Things I try to do every day but don’t track:
Plan 🙂 And fill out 5-year journal.
Floss
NYT games (Wordle, Connections, Mini — in that order)
Write a blog post (not concerned about EVERY every day but do like to post most days)
Morning pages
Lately, play some piano (again, not strict about every day, but into doing it for a bit most nights)
Talk to each kid 1:1 for at least a little bit at bedtime
Things I probably should do every day but do not:
Declutter
Look at my photos? Delete old pix? I don’t know, I do neither
Talk to my husband 1:1 (realized that as I typed the above about the kids!)
Skincare! I kind of . . . got inconsistent there. I need some motivation.
I think I am a fairly heavily routinized person . . . so I am actually not entirely sure if this post will come across as “oh cool ideas” or “oh wow she’s unhinged”. Probably a mix.
What do you track?
What do you aim to do daily?
(Not like I need more ideas!!!!)
22 Comments
So… MOR D, eh? I could get behind that. 😉
lolololol, but there’s a music note . . .
Feeling a pull to be of a routine person which I’ve resisted for most of my life but am starting to accept it would help me greatly and actually suit my personality well. I won’t bore you with my list because it was dismal in January but a lot of the “usual” like hitting a certain amount of ounces of water daily, vitamins, etc.
I like to track different things on a monthly basis depending on what i need more reminder. I stopped tracking meditation because it has became part of daily necessity. This month I’m tracking wellness tracker, writing down how I feel physically as I’m changing few things; eating without devices when eating alone, morning journaling, and stretching. Once I don’t think they are priority or I’ve adopted them for good, I stop.
I like the “rotating categories” approach! Totally makes sense.
For daily habits, I’m tracking exercise in a monthly view + what I eat in a traveler’s notebook. Each week I update a spreadsheet that correlates to my yearly goals (like for health: miles walked / gym days / etc and for family, did I text my parents, etc). I’m curious to hear about CalAI, are you doing a paid plan and do you feel it’s worth it? I was using lose it for a bit but I hate manually entering components of a recipe
It was $30 for the whole year which I felt like it was a bargain — I think apps like MFP are much higher! Is it exact? No, but it’s lower effort than anything else and good for tracking protein / macros / etc.
Oh good to know! Thank you!
I’m trying to figure out why the 1st & 12th are shaded red? It looks like Saturdays are gray and Sundays are red, but what is up with the 1st and 12th!
They are likely holidays in Japan 🙂
Oh duh! I should have thought of that!
Holidays in Japan?
This really got me thinking and I realized I don’t really have many daily habits (besides very long running teeth and skincare). I do 3 NYT games every day and read most days but that’s it. Over the summer I had daily habits for journaling and Duolingo (I think I had a 100 day streak going). I was also pretty consistent with meditation. The my husband had surgery at the end of September that did not go as planned (things are in a good place now) but I haven’t done any of those things since. Like hard stop. I did recently start picking up the journal. I’m sure there’s some sort of trauma recovery at play here. But it is also of an opportunity to think about new daily habits.
I like it! I’m probably going to switch to DuoMax after I finish Spanish Pimsleur in June. I like Pimsleur, but the lessons are 30 minutes long plus exercises afterwards, so basically each lesson is a 45 minute commitment. I can pause it, but it’s hard to pick it back up after an interruption. Duo is much better for short spurts.
BRB, downloading CalAI…
NYT games: Have you tried Pips, Spelling Bee, and Strands? I love all of those too (plus the three you play!). I always play mine in the same order too (my brain can’t even comprehend switching up the order LOL)!
I love posts about daily routines!
I have decluttering on my list of things that I try to do every day. It’s in my planner as “organizing.” I don’t do it every single day, but I find that even if I’m not consistent, having it on my list keeps it top of mind and makes me more likely to notice things that could use attention and actually address them. It also gives me lots of little wins – my whole house might not be decluttered, but I can almost always point to spaces that look better today than they did a month ago. I rarely do much at once, and never more than five minutes on a weekday.
It also helps me to think of it as something like laundry (that has to happen periodically) rather than something like a home renovation (that happens once and then is done for a long time).
I track a lot of things but don’t necessarily use trackers in my planner (I track a lot of things in different apps). I am also a fairly routinized person, so sometimes I don’t feel the need to track because I am already doing the things (almost) daily and don’t necessarily need a visual representation of that. I track things where I actually want data (like food, water intake, etc.)
I love tracking all the things and hearing about other people tracking all the things! I have been tracking in a google sheets doc since Oct 2022 – I add a new tab every month so everything is in one doc. I find it interesting to see the things I cared about tracking over the years and how I did with those habits. I expanded my tracking this year and I currently have 35 line items included (although it may soon become 36…CalAI downloading). Eek! Some I am totally not doing now, but I’m hoping that having it on my tracking list will keep it top of mind until I’m able to fold it into my regular routine. And this is the first year I have attempted to make it a little bit pretty! Happy to share a pic if anyone is super interested . 😉
I always admire how much you track and how consistent you are! There is a little habit tracker with room for two items on my Erin Condren weekly page, and I alternate whichever two habits seem most important to encourage each week. Right now that’s walking and writing – I’m working on a novel so try to do at least a little bit of writing every day, plus at least a short walk (even 10 minutes counts). Other times its been daily tidy, read, or plan.
In my daily planner, I count walking minutes because I aim to get 60 outside of any other exercise time. Weekly, I track 7 runs, 7 days of 60 walking minutes, 4 20-minute weight workouts, and 3 yoga sessions, plus books read and format of the books. I am also very into routines but I get really inconsistent with tracking, so I am really working on that this year.
I’m having a very tracky year, too! There’s a great spread in my planner to help me track things, which I’m loving. I’m tracking some daily habits, sleep hours, movement, and how many apneas I had every night (I have sleep apnea and use a CPAP). And right now, I’m tracking symptoms as I deal with an autoimmune diagnosis, yayyy.
tracking for medical stuff is so helpful – I even track the frequency of my kids’ colds (helps when I try to tell myself it is ALL THE TIME, to see the actual real life frequency 🙂 ). And mood tracking during my cycles has been super revealing and helpful.