I Built a Habit Tracker Tool in Notion. Here’s my template.

Simple life hack to master discipline & productivity

Published in

Prototypr

5 min readNov 28, 2019

As a product builder↗️, I use Notion to manage my work and portfolio. My use cases include client management, portfolio tracker and personal finance tracking.

Recently, I started using Notion to track my habits. An idea that I originally built on Excel. But I decided to switch to Notion (because Excel is slow) and I wanted to access my habit tracking from the browser.

Today, I will share my steps on how to create your own habit tracker. Let’s check this out:

1. Ideation stage💡

I’ve never come across any habit tracking apps that fit my needs. 😵

I wanted to track not only my habits, but also my work, and how my days look like and which segment of work I focus most on.

Therefore, I created this habit tracker for myself. Here’s the original Excel prototype (before I switch to Notion):

To begin, I list down parts I want to build

A one-page habit tracking tool
Calendar format with daily check-in mechanism
Display a list of goals I want to track
One-click methodology to easily check on goals
Visualize “heatmap” to see my overall progress

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2. Set up Notion 💻

Go to Notion and sign up for a free account.

Getting started

Start a new workspace in Notion
Create a database by choosing “Table” option
Start editing your Table, just like Excel or Google Sheets

3. Calendar format 📅

One reason I like about connecting the calendar idea with habit tracking is that it allows me to do daily check-in with Day/Date reference.

I can easily compare my progress today of doing X versus the past days. Here’s how to create this section in Notion:

Add a “Day” column

Rename your first Column as “Day”
Fill up the table vertically with day details such as Mon, Tue, Wed, etc.
I also use this column to summarize my day using emojis

Add a “Date” column

Next, rename the second Column as “Date”
Under “Property Type” select Date to create date database
Make your first entry on an empty cell. You should be able to see a calendar selector in “Date” column

4. Add your goals 🏃‍♂️

Now think about which life areas you want to improve and how to design them into parameters that allows you to act upon on daily basis.

For example, I want to improve my sleep-wake time consistency. Therefore, tracking the time I wake up becomes a valuable data point.

Other goals and ideas by category

Daily habits or routine (wake early, meditate, exercise, read, sleep)
Work or project-related (client work, code, write, learn new things)
Networking related (attending meetup, reach out on social)

Here’s how to configure your goals in Notion

Click on “+” to create a new Column
Rename each column horizontally as your goal item
Add an emoji on each goal to make it more visual

5. Track your goals ✔️

I like using “1” (done) vs “0” (missed) tagging method to check on my goals. This method also allows you to quantify your progress, i.e. number of days done (or missed).

I also add color logic to differentiate “1” (green) vs. “0” (red) so I will have a “heatmap” view for the entire habit-tracking activity. Let’s set this up:

Create “Select” property

Right-click on each goal item from the Column
Set “Property Type” as “Select”
Repeat the above steps for the rest of the goal items

Create “1” and “0” tag

Click on an empty cell below each goal item
Type in “1” & hit enter, then do the same when creating a “0” tag
Edit the tag color “1” (green) and “0” (red)

If you prefer the ☑️ method, you can use the “Checkbox” property instead:

Check on goals

Update your progress by clicking on an empty cell of each goal item
You should be able to switch between “1” and “0” tag to refer status of your progress

6. Analyze your progress 📈

I’m less of a fan of complicated charts/graph and more of a fan of simplicity when it comes to understanding my habits pattern.

Here’s how I use this tool to analyze my progress

I look at the emojis on the “Day” column to see my activity, energy level productivity and emotions
I look at consistency of my habits (done vs. missed)
Each weekend, I summarize my progress on a notebook

For example, weekly review

Wake at 6am: 5/7
Meditate 10 mins: 5/7
Exercise 30 mins: 4/7
Read 1 hour: 7/7
Learn: 5/7
Client work: 6/7
Build prototype: 5/7
Social post: 5/7
Sleep before 11pm: 3/7

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