I Built a Free Habit Tracker and Created a List of 50 Habits to Track

Hi Indie Hackers! 👋

While building TrackTheHabit, I kept thinking about one simple problem:

Many people want to build better habits, but they don't always know what they should actually track.

Creating a habit tracker is relatively easy. Choosing meaningful habits to put inside it can be the harder part.

Someone might want to improve their health, become more productive, read more, study consistently, or simply build a better daily routine. But opening a blank habit tracker and seeing an empty list can leave people wondering:

What habits should I track?

That question inspired me to create a resource around 50 habits to track.

The Problem I Wanted to Solve

Habit tracking doesn't need to be complicated.

There are hundreds of productivity apps and systems available, but sometimes a simple visual tracker is enough.

The idea behind TrackTheHabit is simple:

- Choose a tracking format

- Add the habits you want to track

- Create your tracker

- Print it or save it as a PDF

The tool supports different tracking periods, including:

- Daily habit trackers

- Weekly habit trackers

- Monthly habit trackers

But I realized that a tool alone doesn't solve everything.

Before creating a tracker, people need ideas about the habits that are worth tracking.

So I started organizing different **habit tracker ideas** into useful categories.

What Habits Should You Track?

There isn't one perfect list of habits for everyone.

The best habits to track depend on what you want to improve.

For example, a student might track:

- Study sessions

- Reading

- Completing assignments

- Learning a new skill

Someone focused on health might track:

- Exercise

- Drinking water

- Walking

- Sleep

- Healthy meals

Someone focused on personal growth might track:

- Journaling

- Reading

- Meditation

- Practicing gratitude

This is why I think habit tracking works best when people choose habits that actually match their goals instead of copying a huge list from someone else.

Some of the Best Habits to Track

Here are examples from the categories I included in my resource.

Health Habits

- Exercise

- Walk every day

- Drink enough water

- Eat healthy meals

- Sleep on time

- Stretch

- Avoid unnecessary junk food

Learning Habits

- Read every day

- Study

- Learn a new skill

- Practice a language

- Watch educational content

Productivity Habits

- Plan your day

- Complete important tasks

- Reduce distractions

- Organize your workspace

- Review your goals

Personal Growth Habits

- Journal

- Practice gratitude

- Meditate

- Spend time on personal goals

- Learn something new

The full resource contains 50 habits to track, with ideas across different areas of everyday life.

👉 Check out the complete list here:

50 Habits to Track:

Why I Think Starting Small Is Better

One mistake I see with habit tracking is trying to change everything at once.

It's tempting to create a tracker with:

- Exercise

- Reading

- Meditation

- Studying

- Drinking water

- Journaling

- Learning

- Healthy eating

- Waking up early

...and another 15 habits.

The tracker might look impressive, but maintaining it can become difficult.

My approach is to encourage people to start with a smaller number of habits.

For example:

1. Choose 3–5 important habits.

2. Track them consistently.

3. Review your progress.

4. Adjust your tracker when necessary.

A simple tracker that someone actually uses is more valuable than a complicated one that gets abandoned after a few days.

Building TrackTheHabit

TrackTheHabit is a free browser-based tool designed to make printable habit tracking simple.

Users can create:

- Daily habit trackers

- Weekly habit trackers

- Monthly habit trackers

They can add their own habits and create a tracker that fits their routine.

There is no complicated setup required.

The goal was to let someone go from:

"I want to track my habits."

to

"Here is my personalized tracker."

as simply as possible.

If you'd like to try it:

TrackTheHabit – Free Printable Habit Tracker: https://trackthehabit.com/

What I'm Working on Next

I'm currently focusing on improving the resources around the tool so visitors don't just get an empty tracker—they also get useful ideas about:

- What habits to track

- The best habits to track

- Habit tracker ideas for beginners

- Bullet journal habit trackers

- Daily vs weekly vs monthly tracking

I'm also using Google Search Console to understand what people are searching for and improve pages based on search intent.

For example, I'm seeing impressions for searches such as:

- habits to track

- best habits to track

- habit tracker ideas

That showed me that the 50 Habits to Track page could be improved to answer those questions more directly.

I'd Love Your Feedback

I'm still improving TrackTheHabit and would genuinely appreciate feedback from the Indie Hackers community.

A few questions I'd love your thoughts on:

1. What habits do you personally track?

2. Would you prefer a daily, weekly, or monthly habit tracker?

3. Do you think starting with a list of habit ideas makes a habit tracker more useful?

4. What feature would make a printable habit tracker better for you?

Thanks for reading! 🙌

I'd love to hear what other makers and productivity enthusiasts think.