Book 10, Question 146
Why Track How Your Habits Make You Feel?
Tracking how your habits make you feel is smart because notes show which routines help you personally. Energy, mood, and sleep can change from day to day, in ways you might not notice. Body detectives use their own notes to make smart choices.
More fun facts
- Scientists pooled 138 experiments with almost 20,000 people and found that people who were helped to check their progress were more likely to reach their goals.
- In that big review, the more often people checked in on how they were doing, the bigger the boost toward their goal.
- Progress checks worked even better when people physically wrote the information down instead of just keeping it in their heads.
- Sharing your progress with someone else also helped: checks had larger effects when the results were reported or made public.
- Sleep is one habit worth tracking, because kids who do not get enough sleep may feel angry, have mood swings, feel sad or lack motivation.
- Short on sleep, people can have trouble solving problems, remembering things and managing their emotions, so a habit log can help you spot why a day felt hard.
Sources: National Institutes of Health, NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Questions kids ask
Does writing my habits down really help?
Yes. A review of 138 experiments found that checking progress often helped people reach goals, and it worked better when the progress was physically recorded.
What is a good habit to start tracking?
Sleep is a great one. Not getting enough sleep can make kids feel cranky, sad or unmotivated, so noting your bedtime next to your mood can reveal a pattern.