Understanding Tracking – Importance of Monitoring Your Life

by | Oct 6, 2020 | Blog Post, Understanding Series, Wellbeing | 0 comments

ACTIVITY

Tracking activity: Take your weighing machine and weigh yourself. Note the pounds that are counted on the scale. Now keep a track of everything that you are eating on a daily basis and weigh yourself after a gap of 14-20 days. What do you see? When you weigh yourself as well as observe what you eat, you will realize that it is because of the concerned eating cycle that you have either increased or decreased pounds.

What is Tracking? 

Tracking is a self-reflective technique used to monitor activities such as health, habits, emotional changes, triggers, mood, sleep, and alter them if necessary, in order to find balance and good wellbeing. When you link the above activity to this concept, the purpose is to gain awareness and in this case – keeping an eye on your food consumption and seeing the results. This is what tracking does: it allows you to monitor the various spectrums of your life and see the difference after possible actions are taken to alter them.  Tracking can be considered as an essential part of goal-setting.

Where are trackers used? – It is everywhere!

I am sure you must have come across certain planners and trackers that are available digitally and in the form of hard copies. Each of these is specifically designed to meet the needs of the main issue. The main tracking objective is kept in mind and includes other necessary areas that need attention.

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Health Trackers:

This tracker can include the main motive of bettering physical health. This tracker can include sub-objective such as food, the kind of food to be eaten, exercise, and even regular intake of medicines if any.

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Nutrition/Food Trackers:

These kinds of trackers can be used by those who are trying to lose weight and stay healthy. Such trackers usually include food intake, the amount of nutrition intake per day, the amount of exercise carried out, etc.

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Mood Trackers:

Such trackers are usually recommended by people undergoing therapy. In order to check the progress of the therapy and identification of mood patterns, such trackers come handy.

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Productivity Trackers:

This is a very popular concept today and used by many as well. Such trackers help to monitor the level of productivity i.e. if a given task is completed with the help of checklists or to-do lists.

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Sleep Trackers:

This can be included as a sub tracker to mood trackers. One of the main symptoms of uneven emotional and mental health is distorted sleep patterns. For regularly checking the same and identifying patterns if any, such trackers are helpful.

Importance of Tracking: We all need it!

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Enhances Awareness:

Being aware of oneself on an emotional and physical level helps us to amp up or amp down our ways of living. Tracking our mental, emotional, and physical health gives us an idea of our lifestyle, changes required, and how the techniques to betterment are helping us.

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Changes the way of living:

We are a product of our actions, behaviours, and habits. Tracking our habits such as food, sleep, and water intake will make us more aware and in turn encourage us to resort to a better lifestyle.

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Makes us more responsible & focused:

When one is aware and equipped to change their life, tracking helps them to be more responsible and stay focused on their goals. By simply looking at your tracker one can feel responsible for taking care of their life especially if there are any bumps or distortions.

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Gives motivation & confidence:

When you realize that the necessary steps that are taken by you are working, you automatically get motivated to work harder for tomorrow. Trackers give you physical proof that progress is happening. This in turn will lead to confidence not only in what you are doing but also in the outcome.

Challenges in Tracking – Identifying the Road-blocks!

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Inconsistency:

Tracking anything in life and making it a routine can be challenging in the beginning. When not attended on a regular basis, it can lead to inconsistency. What needs to be kept in mind is that results will be uneven if tracking is inconsistent. For accuracy and authenticity, consistency is a must.

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Overwhelming:

Yes, even tracking can get overwhelming and it is absolutely justifiable! When the method of monitoring is used, it means you are being exposed to the negative parts of your life be it food, exercise rituals, or simply how lazy you can be. The reason tracking is a part of your life is to better you as a person. In spite of being overwhelmed trying to stay motivated.

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Negativity:

This can be spoken in terms of the above point. When exposed to our “not so good” side like bad habits or negative patterns, we tend to become de-motivated and turn to negativity rather than focusing on the outcome. Again, tracking is a part of our routine for a reason, and keeping this in mind and moving ahead is the important key at all times.

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Liniency:

When new activities are incorporated into the daily schedule, in this case- tasks to better our lives, it often becomes difficult to follow as we are not habitual to them. This can turn to leniency. In order to stay motivated and ditch the leniency, we need to be consistent in completing the said task.

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Other factors:

One of the most used self-reflective methods is Journaling This activity not only helps in giving mental clarity but enhances the flow of emotions and is an excellent self-reflective technique. There are many books that are specifically designed with the aim of combating stress using art-based coloring books. They are fun, cheap, require no guidance, and have proven to be useful.

Types of Trackers: there is one for all!

Trackers for specific needs are designed keeping in mind the necessary objectives that revolve around the main need. Trackers are getting very popular these days and come in both hard form (books, notes) as well as soft copies that can be printed.

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Charts:

These include pages that have spaces where you can write what you want to track. These come in the form of daily or weekly charts and their design is based as per the gaps between days or weeks.

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Journal:

These are the simplest types of trackers. It includes writing about what you want to track or even buying journals that are specifically designed in the form of bullet journals, productivity journals, mood and sleep trackers, etc. Due to the success of such trackers, journaling is highly recommended for therapy purposes.

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Apps:

Trackers are also ruling the technology world. There are many mobile apps that are focused on tracking mood, sleep, and are also designed specifically for women in the form of monthly menstrual cycle trackers. These can be easily downloaded and are very convenient.

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Recommend Therapy

Sometimes, the reason why a person is hesitant to take therapy is that they feel they do not really need it. This happens due to their inability to recognize the intensity of the stress they are undergoing.  Help them realize that no matter how small they think their problems are, therapy helps. Destigmatize their ideas and recommend counseling or therapy as it is a safe space for everyone’s problems.

DIY Tracker: Making your own Journal Tracker!

Materials Required:

  • A blank book/ journal of your choice
  • Colourful markers/ sketch pens
  • Some stickers or confetti (optional)      

Steps:

1) Identify what you want to track, it could be a habit you want to change or to track your physical progress.

2) Decide the duration– if your journal is going to be a daily, weekly or monthly tracker.

3) Once the above points are accomplished, start researching other important needs that are centered around your main issue that is to be tracked. Take the help of a professional if the tracking is recommended by them.

4) Post this, start doodling in the blank journal. You can use ideas such as making a monthly calendar, a to-do list, or a check-list; anything that pleases you.

5) To make your tracker interesting and fun, make it colorful, use different papers to decorate or doodle your favourite characters!

6) Lastly, be consistent- try and stay motivated by writing affirmations on each page of your journal and complete the tracking!

To conclude,

Tracking is a wonderful exercise as it makes a good proof of your progress. It motivates you to work hard on yourself and is a great self-reflective measure to attain your goal. It is also a great activity of self-care. Tracking is indeed a part of productive life and ensures a happy living!

*DISCLAIMER*

The following content is for information purposes only. We, in no way claim or assure that using the information can be a substitute for any kind of medical treatment if any. If you are diagnosed with any kind of medical/clinical condition please do not avoid visiting a professional.

ABOUT THE TENDER CURVE:

Our purpose is to spread positivity and motivation by focusing on self-love and self-care. We also work towards reducing the stigma around mental health and by creating mental health awareness through our blogs.

People today have forgotten how to be happy; they have forgotten what it is to be inspired what it to be real & motivated. We all are so busy with our daily lives today that we have forgotten to take time out for ourselves.  We are here to remind you that you are special in your own ways. We are here to remind you that it’s okay to not finish a task, or meet deadlines, its ok not to be ok! You deserve to be happy, you deserve to smile, you deserve to be cared and loved.

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