Tips for Habit Tracking in Your Journal: A Guide for Building Routines That Stick

New Year, new you! If you’re hoping to build better habits, stay organised, or simply bring more mindfulness into your day, habit tracking is one of the easiest (and most encouraging!) ways to do it. A good habit tracker helps you see your progress at a glance, celebrate the small wins, and gently keeps you accountable — all while making your journal even more fun to use.

Here are our top tips for habit tracking in your journal.

When Habit Tracking it's tempting to go big and write down everything you’d love to change — wake up at 5am, drink 3L of water, run 10km, meditate for an hour, learn Italian…
But here’s the truth: realistic habits stick better.

Start with 3–5 habits that genuinely matter to you. Think:

• Reading for 10 minutes

• Taking vitamins

• No phone after 9pm

• Daily stretching

• Writing in your journal

Choosing small, achievable habits helps build confidence and momentum. You can always add more later once your routine settles.

Your layout makes a huge difference in how easy habit tracking feels. A few popular options:

Monthly Grid Habit Tracker

A monthly grid habit tracker gives you a full bird’s-eye view of your habits over the entire month. To set one up, draw a simple table: list your habits down the left-hand side and the days of the month across the top. Each time you complete a habit, tick the box, colour it in, or use a dot sticker to mark it. This layout is perfect for spotting patterns — like whether you always miss habits on weekends — and it’s great for consistency-based goals such as water intake, movement, or mood tracking. Via @marthasjournal

Weekly Habit Tracker

A weekly tracker lets you focus on just seven days at a time, which can feel much more achievable if you’re new to tracking or your schedule changes a lot. In your weekly habit tracking spread, draw a mini row of checkboxes for each habit, or create a tiny grid under your weekly to-do list. You can also divide your week into sections (e.g. Mon–Wed, Thurs–Sun) for a less structured feel. Weekly trackers work really well for habits that change or evolve over time because you can easily swap habits in and out each Monday. Via @handletteringspiration

Daily Habit Checklists

If you journal daily, adding a habit tracking checklist straight onto your daily page is one of the easiest methods. At the bottom of each daily spread, write a short list of the habits you want to tick off — things like water, vitamins, reading, stretching, or journalling. Add little checkboxes, dots, or icons you can fill in. This layout blends seamlessly into your everyday routine and works great for people who prefer one page per day rather than flipping back and forth.

Circular or Wheel Trackers

Circular trackers (also called habit tracking wheels) are a visually satisfying and creative alternative to traditional grids. Draw a circle and divide it into sections — each wedge represents a habit, and each ring represents a day or week. Colour in the segments as you complete your habits, creating a satisfying mandala-style pattern over time. These are especially fun if you love using colour, mildliners, or decorative pens in your journal. Via @acovetedlifestyle

Colour-Coded Bar Trackers

A bar habit tracker is ideal if you want a clean, minimalist look. Draw a horizontal bar for each habit and divide it into 30 small sections for the month (or 7 for the week). Each day you complete the habit, colour in one small section with a mildliner or marker. At the end of the month you’ll have a tidy visual that shows exactly how consistently you stuck to each habit. Via @handletteringspiration

“Fill-Up” Trackers (Thermometers, Jars, Meters)

These creative trackers work like little progress meters. Draw a jar, thermometer, crystal, plant pot, or other fun shape and mark it with tiny lines for each day. As you complete your habit, colour the shape slowly from the bottom up. These are great for a single long-term goal — such as saving money, drinking more water, or practising a skill — and add a playful, uplifting element to your habit tracking journal.

Icon-Based Trackers

If you don’t love drawing tables, icon trackers are a fun alternative. Create a cluster of small doodles (stars, boxes, flowers, moons — anything you like!) and assign each doodle to a day. You can colour in the icon each time you complete your habit. It’s a simple but super satisfying way to track habits, especially if you enjoy a more artistic or free-form journal style. Via @bulletjournalbychloe

The simpler it is, the more likely you’ll stick with it.
Try:

• Using dots or tick boxes

• Colour-coding habits

• Adding icons (like tiny water droplets, book doodles or stars)

• Keeping trackers all in one place for quick updates

• If your tracker feels like a chore, tweak it. It should work for you, not the other way around.

Habit tracking only works when you actually check in with it — so make it a ritual you enjoy.

Some ideas:

• Check your tracker each morning with a cuppa

• Update it before bed as part of your wind-down routine

• Keep your journal open on your desk so it’s always within reach

• Pair it with something you already do daily, like brushing your teeth

Creating a routine around your tracker helps it become second nature. Via @artofluunahttp://www.instagram.com/artofluuna

Don’t wait until everything is perfectly consistent — celebrate progress, not perfection.

Ticking off a box = a win.
Doing something 3 days this week instead of 0 = a win.
Remembering to check your tracker = a win!

Reward yourself with:

• A new vinyl sticker or sticker sheet

• A fresh roll of washi tape

• A cosy journalling session

• A snack break (Sonny-Bob would absolutely approve)

Positive reinforcement helps to make habit tracking feel exciting instead of stressful.

At the end of each month, spend a few minutes reflecting:

• What habits felt easy?

• What habits kept slipping — and why?

• Are your goals still relevant?

Adjust your tracker for the next month so it reflects what you actually want and need.
And if a habit didn’t stick? No stress — just try a new strategy or break it into smaller steps. Via @ivanajournals

Habit tracking doesn’t have to look a certain way. It can be minimalist, colourful, messy, decorative, super-structured or totally free-flowing.

Use the supplies that make you excited to open your journal — whether that’s:

• Dot grid notebooks

• Washi tapes in your favourite colours

• Sticker books

• Highlighters and brush pens

• Sticky notes for reminders

The goal is to create a habit tracking system you love coming back to.

If you want to turn goal-setting and habit tracking into a ritual that’s actually fun (and not a chore), the right journal supplies make all the difference. Below are some of our top picks from WashiGang to help you start strong — plus tips on how to use them for habit tracking that lasts.

Quick picks:

• Midori A5 Colour Notebook - Dot Grid — A simple, affordable dot-grid notebook that’s perfect if you’re just starting out with habit tracking. The dot grid makes it easy to draw trackers without rigid lines.

• Midori Yuru Log B6 Notebook — If you like a smaller, neater notebook for daily habit logs or quick check-ins, this compact dot-grid version from Midori is a trusty option.

• Stalogy 365 Days Notebook — A minimalist, graph-style planner/notebook that’s great for daily-to-do logs, habit tracking, or even hybrid diary-planner layouts.

• Archer & Olive Dot Grid Notebook — A premium journal with thick, 180 gsm bleed-resistant pages and a beautiful cover — ideal for bullet journals or more decorative habit spreads that hold up to highlighter, markers, or stickers.

• Zebra Mildliner Double‑Sided Highlighter 5‑Colour Set — These pastel highlighters are a staple for colour-coding habits (e.g. blue for hydration, green for exercise, pink for journalling). The dual-tip design — chisel for highlighting, bullet for notes — makes them super versatile. Use these for simple dots, graphs or highlighted squares.

• Kuretake Zig Clean Colour Dot Marker 6 Pack — Dot markers perfect for adding dot points, filling out check boxes, colour coding, creating bold lines and highlighted areas are a great tool to add to your habit tracking supplies.

At WashiGang, we’ve got everything you need to set up the habit tracker of your dreams — from dot grid journals and weekly planners to gorgeous washi tapes, sticker books, markers, highlighters and more.

Building better habits doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Start small, have fun with your pages, and enjoy the little moments of progress along the way. You’ve got this!