Inside: a printable daily habit tracker that’s perfectly minimal and will help you stick to your 2019 goals.

Yes, I know, it’s February. Goals were so last month, right? Well you can always count on me to remind you that bloggers aren’t perfect, even if we do obsess over curating our Instagram feeds.

If there’s anything I learned from my unintentional 5 month blogging hiatus, it’s that I need to set up a solid self-care foundation before ANYTHING else. Before trying to juggle my day job with freelance writing, blogging, dating, crafting, travel, and all the rest. Self. Care. First.

It all became rather too much around October, when I was writing two to three articles for Curbly every month (if you’re interested, check them out here!).  The anxiety over getting everything done started exacerbating my migraines and other conditions, so had to I let blogging go for a time.

But cutting out stressors isn’t enough, if you’re not taking care of yourself underneath it all. I don’t know how many times I have to keep relearning this lesson!!! I’m hoping this time it will stick, otherwise I will have to get “self-care” tattooed to my forehead.

Which brings me to the first Idle Hands Awake post of 2019: a free printable daily habit tracker that I made for you AND for me. 

Habit trackers WORK, you guys, I’ve been using one since January, and I am proud to say that I’ve done yoga, physical therapy exercises, and a self-care mantra DAILY for the past four weeks. Never in my life have I done anything with so much consistency! Apparently I’m highly motivated by getting a gold star sticker for completing tasks.

If you are struggling to implement any New Year’s resolutions, give this daily habit tracker a try. Print it out in sage or blush, fill in the month and weekdays, and then turn your goals into daily actions. Mark each day you complete the action with a dot, x, star, smiley, whatever keeps you motivated!

Here’s some ideas of what you can track on your habit tracker:

• device-free time
• water intake
• exercise
• reading
• meditating
• mindfulness
• being more positive
• eating healthy snacks
• making time for your hobby
• tidying up
• flossing (who flosses?? My dentist’s attempts at lecturing me are always fruitless).
• going to bed/waking up on time
• spending time outside
• playing with your pets (Jax needs exercise too!)

Have you used a habit tracker before? How did it work for you?

And now for what to expect from Idle Hands Awake in 2019:

Clearly, self-care is going to be my highest priority. I’m also working on taking a course in proofreading so I can try to find more reliable work from home. But, I fully intend to keep up with IHA. I miss it and you all! Blogging these past six (SIX!!!) years has been such a joy. You guys keep me motivated when things are tough. 

I’m hereby officially committing to writing at least one blog post a month! I know I already just missed January, oops, but if I was perfect at it I wouldn’t need to make it a goal. With that in mind, what kind of content would you like to start seeing again here on IHA? Besides DIYs, of course, those are a given. 🙂 I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can create things that are meaningful and useful to YOU!

xx