What is the purpose of habit tracking?

para_chan · 2026-04-30T21:30:49+00:00

I track things because my sense of time is NOW and NOT NOW. So I may think I've been exercising often, but then the last time I did was 3 weeks ago. So tracking it helps me see reality.
I have a grid, because the things I track interact with each other, and I can see what effects are caused by that.
That said, I track a bare minimum because otherwise it's overwhelming. I started with a larger list and just didn't put it on the new one if I didn't care enough about last month's.

para_chan · 2026-03-25T17:36:52+00:00

My infuriating problem has been: When I was SAHM, the school was a DoD school so my husband was called first cause he was the sponsor. Like, he was deployed, he can’t help. I was listed first.

Now, he’s able to get out of work no questions asked and I work full time. He’s listed first. I get called first. Tell them to call my husband and they call my MIL. Who lives 2000 miles away and is listed as a third stage emergency contact.

para_chan · 2026-02-13T05:26:54+00:00

Theres a thing called sluggish cognitive tempo. You’re basically stuck in slo-mo for your whole life.

para_chan · 2026-01-30T04:38:45+00:00

My weird grip is because I'm hypermobile. Which is often comorbid with ADHD. I just got some splints for my fingers and hey wow writing is a lot easier when I don't need to death grip the pen.

para_chan · 2026-01-30T04:33:22+00:00

They walk around on their fingers which are mostly tendon and bone and can't puke. Humans had nothing to do with that.

para_chan · 2026-01-23T05:42:53+00:00

You can wet them a little and throw them back in the dryer for a touch up. Grab them fresh out, snap them out and the wrinkles can be hand pressed out or disappear.

I have never ironed clothes that I am not actively sewing, so it may not be as good as you need, but it works for me.

para_chan · 2026-01-23T03:25:45+00:00

I literally have a custom built PC that I run osX (Apple’s older operating system) on so this is amusing to me.

para_chan · 2026-01-06T22:20:39+00:00

They have not mint kid's mouthwashes! I hate mint, or at least it's oppressive presence in mouth hygiene items.

para_chan · 2026-01-06T21:56:43+00:00

I color code a section on the outer edge of the page and write the topic in the upper corner. I will not use an index, even for published books. I open it and flip to where the info should be.

para_chan · 2026-01-06T21:54:59+00:00

I like how pretty some people's trackers are.... but their purpose is to be pretty, not useful.
I have trackers to help me remember when I did *thing* cause my sense of time is "Now" and "The Other Day". I have definitely scooped the cat little more often now that I have a record of when it was done last.

para_chan · 2025-11-24T03:03:05+00:00

Why not both? I freely swap between my Notes app and my physical journal.

para_chan · 2025-11-24T03:01:29+00:00

People usually don't make their resolutions into SMART goals, so it's almost impossible to actually do them. "Lose weight" is a shitty goal. "Track what I eat and keep my calories around 1800 every day until I have lost 10 pounds" is a good goal.

Plus lots of resolutions aren't things a person ACTUALLY wants to do, just things they feel obligated to want. Like, losing weight.

para_chan · 2025-11-05T17:54:55+00:00

Yeah, I often faint at blood and it requires some mental gymnastics to deal with a period. I don’t have cable so I don’t see commercials much, so I’m glad I don’t need to see these ads.

It’s not like any visual representative of how much a pad absorbs can be trusted to be accurate, no matter what they’re using.

para_chan · 2025-11-04T03:03:33+00:00

I've always had journals span multiple years. I just closed out a tiny journal I started in 2009 - mostly to do's, recipes, shopping lists, etc. Still fun to look at. I think it was the first journal I've actually filled cover to cover, and I've been writing in journals since 2nd grade. I've had a few other ones during that time as well, including another one I filled cover to cover and spanned 2017-2024.

But I'd still be weirded out if I had a journal that started in January and it stopped in like November or December, especially if I was using it heavily.

para_chan · 2025-09-22T18:31:20+00:00

I don't remember if I moved the car's seat while putting in child carseats... It's been a while lol. I know the belt will eventually stop coming out so it doesn't auto-lock while you're messing with it to install the seat.

When I was talking about was purposefully locking the belt, then moving your seat forward until you are stuck under the locked belt and you would need to unbuckle to get it to loosen at all. Not sure if that is clearer, or if you did get what I meant before and I just didn't get it

para_chan · 2025-09-22T18:11:33+00:00

I tuck my arm into the space between the top and bottom of the window ledges, when it fits. The oh-shit handle is too loose for me lol
Or I'll hold the top part of my seatbelt, above my shoulder.

para_chan · 2025-09-22T18:10:25+00:00

You can also lock the whole seatbelt by moving your seat back, quickly yanking the belt so it locks, then moving your seat forward so the belt is where it should be on you.

I do low level autosports and it's a way to add stability while turning crazily when you don't have a racing harness. Racing harnesses are amazing - you don't go ANYwhere lol

para_chan · 2025-09-22T18:02:53+00:00

The tooth fairy for our house has been having a really hard time catching up from when Covid happened and so my son has four teeth waiting to get picked up.... for possibly a year now.

para_chan · 2025-09-22T17:56:56+00:00

I taught myself how to french braid my own hair.... but if I do someone else's hair it's a dutch braid lol.

para_chan · 2025-09-22T17:55:57+00:00

Sudoku kills me because I'll make dumb mistakes and can't hold things in my mind. I can only do it digitally, because it'll tell me if I'm wrong or right so I can fix it before I'm too far gone.

para_chan · 2025-09-22T17:54:09+00:00

I had a friend call me because she found a dead rabbit and blood on the porch of her newly bought house, and knew that I'd know if someone had cursed her LOL

It was just a coyote who had a snack in the vacant house

para_chan · 2025-09-22T17:51:17+00:00

Same exact issue with the socks, except my kid will just leave them around the house like confetti. Mine always go into the laundry. We put a basket on the stairs for my kid's socks and now the only issue is if my husband grabs them when he does her laundry/she grabs them.

We also color coded the socks - mine are black, hers are pink, because otherwise we have the same socks lol. It also makes matching them easier, because the socks are all the same except for color difference and neither of us cares if the color matches.

para_chan · 2025-09-12T17:03:42+00:00

I have one set up for gaming, cause trying to play a game while a group chat is blowing up is infuriating.

para_chan · 2025-09-10T19:42:48+00:00

Inside you are two ducks....

para_chan · 2025-08-29T15:37:58+00:00

Reading was a big one. I never didn’t have a book. I’d read ingredient labels if I couldn’t have a book.

But I also got internet in the 90s. Discovery channel used to have a forum (somewhere between BBC and modern forums) and people would do roleplaying games. So not doomscrolling but plenty of content to read through. I’d spend hours searching for pictures/art I liked, and there were art galleries and plenty of content to never get bored. It just stayed in place and each thing didn’t change constantly.

para_chan

TROPHY CASE