Hi, I’m a Virgo.

2019 was the year of documentation. January 1st started a year-long journey of personal growth through goal setting, habit tracking and journaling. Each piece adding to an improved holistic view of self and boosted motivation.

What I Tracked

Each month I would draw out my habit tracking board. The board is the essence of habit tracking and personal development. It records progress through daily logs and monthly assessments. Although the board was always in flux, the four most consistent components were the daily diagnosis, stats box, the circle of life, and monthly goals.

Daily Diagnosis

Originally, the idea of this box was just to color in a cell everyday I did a certain habit, but it has become so much more. Habits are tracked through dotting the corresponding day and habit box, and drawing a line if there was a streak. The idea of a streak was really appealing, because it created commitment. Examples of habits I tracked include journaling, meditation, and reading.

In addition to habits, I also recorded emotional data. On a scale of 1-5, I logged how productive, alert, relaxed, happy, and gratuitous I felt on any given day. There was a definite correlation of these emotions with how much sleep I got the night before, which was also recorded.

Lastly, I wanted a way to improve my knowledge and my spirits every day. Expressing gratitude to the people and things that made my day allowed me to appreciate what I have, and became my favorite part of my day. I also recorded a word of the day (WOTD) to prepare myself for the GRE later down the road.

Stats Box

The stats box analyzed each habit of the previous month and compared it with progress made in the current month. Averages, percentages, and streaks were calculated for each habit, emotion, and time asleep at the end of the month. If there were improvements being made, a green arrow would be drawn to visualize that. Otherwise, a red arrow would be drawn. This box was important for being aware of how I stood in my goals at any given time. Being aware of progress or lack thereof can push motivation further and strive for bigger aspirations.

The Circle of Life

When researching habit tracking and journaling styles, I ran across the level 10 life in this YouTube video. The basic idea is to draw a circle and divide it into slices based on major categories of one’s life. Concepts in the original idea, such as spirituality or finance, do not make sense for me since it either does not resonate or I have little control over, thus they were removed. Each level of the circle would mean greater satisfaction in that particular realm. A bold line in the circle shows last month’s evaluation for easier evaluation.

Monthly Goals

For each of the circle of life categories, I would make a goal in how to maintain or improve my opinions of that category. The circle of life is filled out at the beginning of each month, and is a reminder of what to focus on. The goals give meaning to the levels and help with the evaluation for next month’s circle.

Journaling

The other half of the year of documentation is journaling. Each day consisted of a half hour to one hour of writing memories and feelings. The content of the entry varied heavily. Some days, I would scribble stress into the page, while others I would have nothing to say, and instead express appreciation to someone in my life. Some days yielded valuable insights that I took notes on, since there was no other place to put them. And yet again, some days drawing would best encapsulate the day.

In addition to journal entries, I have done other experiments. When I felt that there was not enough time to do all I wanted, I would record my time throughout the course of a week to see where it all went. This allowed me to pinpoint problems and re-prioritize my time. Similarly, when I thought I was spending too much time on my phone, I would record my screen time data over weeks to see just how much time I was wasting. It is one thing to see data, like seeing a screen time report, and it is another thing to understand it and make decisions based off it.

Lessons Learned

The year of documentation lead to a great deal of personal insights, and I believe they can help anyone. Firstly, it is important to experiment. If it were not for this experiment, I would not have found that journaling is the best way for me to cope with stress. Some people best manage stress through talking it out, while others are relieved through artistic expression. Find what make you happy and do it.

Secondly, recording progress on a goal creates responsibility to achieve it. Even something simple as checking off a calendar every day a habit is done has a big impact on motivation. That being said, momentum can be slowed if there are too many goals to focus on at once. Distilling goals into a select few, will ease attention and more progress will be made than shining a broad shallow net of attention on myriad goals.

Additionally, rumination on daily life can lead to intentionality and major reforms in time spent. Through reflection, I have discovered my core values, which I use to base decisions off. Furthermore, evaluating friendships has lead to channeling attention from many friends to a few select ones.

Lastly, there is only so much time each of us has on this planet, and by documenting our time we can learn how to spend that time more effectively to live a more productive and satisfactory life.