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The Only Habit/Health Tracker that You Need for Your Bullet Journal

As a person who is very in-tune with their body, I find it extremely helpful to have a health habit tracker for when life gets crazy. I say this because I can resort back to my health tracker to help me determine why something might be happening to my body. I also find it to be a useful resource to have with me when I visit with a doctor.

I plan digitally, using an iPad and the application GoodNotes Adonit Dash 3 Stylus from Amazon. These spreads were made on GoodNotes5, but are easily exported to be used on GoodNotes4. If you are curious to why I plan digitally check out my blog post Switching to a Digital Planner-Paperless Planning.

Why Have You Need a Health/Habit Tracker in Your Bullet Journal Too!!

Like I said at the start of this blog post, having a health tracker can be a tool to help you figure out what symptoms might be leading to an umbrella condition or issue. Having these symptoms and habits tracked can also be useful to help you learn more about your body and to become more aware of how your body works. Lastly, having these symptoms or habits tracked can help you better explain to a doctor what is happening to you when you feel something is wrong.

What is the difference between a health tracker and a habit tracker?

For me a health tracker only contains habits that relate to the health of my body and the overall function of my body. I will explain further in the blog post, but for example something that would be tracked in a health tracker would be a menstrual cycle where something that would be tracked in a habit tracker is reading 30 minutes a day. So as you can see a habit tracker is more habits or tasks that you are completing while health tracker habits are body and mind related.

The Layout

After experimenting with many different layouts and styles of trackers, I have come to love the simplicity and functionality of this layout. This layout can be adapted to be either a habit or health tracker or can be both. Whether it is used as one or the other or a combination of the two depends on how many habits you want to track of each.
I also really like this layout because it can easily be transformed to fit any planner style or theme.


Now, let me explain a little bit more about the layout. Across the top is where you write in the habits or health habits that you want to track. Then down the left hand side is the days of the month. Another adaptation of this is to include a smaller weekly version into a weekly layout.

The health/habit tracker works in a row format. Each horizontal row aligns with a day of the month or week. There is a square to complete each day for each task or habit.

As I said the simplicity of this layout allows for it to be transformed to fit any planner style or theme. Since I am doing a simple black and white theme for the year 2020, I have chosen to use a bold black box for each word or number and then a type writer font for the text. As you can see I also used a simple yet bold geometric header for the month.



Also I have left white space left on the right hand side as a place to make notes. I chose to not include a title or header because I found it detracted away from the tracker layout itself, but you could always add one when you recreate this in your own bullet journal.

The Symbology

I am going to explain in more detail the symbology and labeling that I use for my health tracker so that you can have an idea for how you can do the same.

To start on the left side with the first heath habit I have, carbs. The symbology that I use for this habit is a L for a low carb day, M for a medium or moderate day, and H for a high carb day.


For stomach ache, headache, pain med, chest pain, and body pain I use either an AM for if it only effected me in the morning, PM if it effected me in the afternoon/evening/night, or five diagonal lines if it effected me all day.



For water I simply put the number of water bottles I finished drinking throughout the course of the day.



For BM and period/mensuration I just use 5 diagonal lines to symbolize that it happened that day.



And lastly for acne, allergies and anxiety I use an L for low, M for moderate/medium, and H for high.


As I said perviously the line to the right of the tracker is for notes or specification. For example, when I have body pain I like to specify where the pain was.

As you can see from my examples, I am fine with leaving a box blank. For me this signals that nothing related to that symptom or habit occurred that day. If this bothers you I would suggest filling it in with the symbol or N for no or N/A for not applicable.



Here I had included what the tracker layout looks like without being filled in.



Here I have included what the tracker looks like at the end of the month once it has been completely filled out.


My Suggestions

A suggestion that I have for keeping up with your health and habit trackers is to have either a set time when you fill them out along with the rest of you planner or set a reminder on your phone so that you do not miss a day.
I would also play around with the different symbols for each habit to see what makes the most sense for you and your symptoms. Another suggestion related to the symbology is to create a legend or key for yourself. This can either be included on the tracker page or can be made into its own page on an adjoining page.
My last suggestion is to keep the same layout from month to month to eliminate confusion and the need to adjust every 30 or so days.

Take care, stay safe, and happy planning!!

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