A habit tracker is a simple grid or list in your planner where you mark off each day you complete a habit, like drinking water, reading or going for a walk. Seeing a row of filled-in days is surprisingly motivating, and it shows you at a glance which habits are sticking and which need a little more love. Below you'll find 60 habit tracker ideas, five easy layouts you can set up with stickers, and tips to make your tracker actually last past February.
In this guide
Apps are easy to ignore. A tracker in your planner sits right next to your to-do list, so you see it every time you open your week. Ticking a box or placing a little dot by hand also feels more satisfying than tapping a screen, and that small moment of reward is what keeps a streak going.
A paper tracker is also flexible. You can track three habits or fifteen, change them each month, and make it as minimal or as colourful as you like.
Pick three to five to start. You can always add more next month.
You don't need to draw a perfect grid. Functional stickers do the hard work and keep your pages neat, even in a thin-paper planner.
Write your habits down the left side of a monthly or weekly page and place a small dot sticker each day you complete one. By the end of the month you have a colourful picture of your progress. Use one colour per habit, or one colour per week.
Use: Mini Dots – The Basics, Mini Dots – The Nudes or Colour Play Mini Dots.
If you use a vertical weekly layout or a Hobonichi Weeks, keep your tracker in the side column. A ready-made habit tracker sticker gives you rows for each habit and a box for each day, so it takes ten seconds to set up each week.
Use: Little Linda habit tracker stickers, or browse our Hobonichi Weeks Kits and Vertical Sticker Kits.
Prefer to see habits on each day? Place a small label box in each day's column and list two or three daily habits with tiny checkboxes. It's perfect for morning and evening routines.
Use: Slim Label Boxes or Appointment Label Boxes.
Swap words for little pictures: a water glass, a book, a running shoe, a plant. Place an icon on each day you complete the habit. It's quick, cute and easy to read at a glance.
Use: our Mini Icons and Mini Journaling Doodle Icons.
Dedicate one full page at the start of each month to a big tracker: habits across the top, dates down the side. Add a month header and a couple of decorative stickers to make it a page you'll want to open.
Use: Days & Months scripts, Numbers and a little deco from our Journaling Collection.
Choose three to five habits you genuinely want to build, such as drinking water, reading, exercise, a bedtime routine or a no-spend day. Start with habits that take less than 30 minutes so they're easy to do daily.
Three to five is a good number for most people. Once those feel automatic, add one or two more.
A weekly tracker is easier to keep up because it sits on the page you use every day. A monthly tracker gives a better big-picture view. Many planners use a weekly tracker for daily habits and a monthly page to review progress.
Small dot stickers, ready-made habit tracker grids and mini icons work best. Choose matte if you plan to write on them, and keep the design simple so the tracker stays easy to read.
Any Monday or the first of any month works. You don't need to wait for New Year, but if you are planning ahead for January, setting up your tracker now means you'll start the year ready to go.
Ready to start tracking?
Everything you need for a clean, minimal habit tracker is in our Functional Stickers collection, handmade by Linda in Australia. Free shipping worldwide on orders over $50 AUD.
Share your habit tracker with us on Instagram or in the Little Linda Stickers community on Facebook. We'd love to see how you set yours up.
