7 Things I Track Regularly to Improve My Health, Wealth, and Productivity

And the tools I use to get my life together.

If you have a phone, then you’ve likely tracked a couple of things in your life at some point. It was fun at first, but after the novelty of apps wore off, you weren’t bothered to enter your data anymore.

The beauty of tracking certain aspects of your life is that it’s there to serve you, not the other way around. So don’t just clutter your brain with useless information.

When deciding to measure anything, you have to have a purpose: capturing this data will either make your life easier or help you make a difficult change.

Here are the 7 simple things I track whenever life starts to get out of control:

1. I track my calories.

I’ve maintained a steady weight for the longest time, regardless of what I ate. It took a pandemic and reaching my mid-thirties to mess all that up — you can read more about it here. My clothes are tight and uncomfortable, and I want to get back to my old shape, if possible.

I know tracking calories can strike a raw nerve with some people. If you have a toxic relationship with restricting your calorie intake, you should find healthier ways to lose weight. Still, I feel like I’ve already tried the traditional ways of eating better.

I eat mostly home-cooked, whole food. I grow my own veggies. I eat quality fats like Greek olive oil, avocado, whole eggs. But too much of a good thing can also make you fat.

So every once in a while, I turn to the heavy artillery: MyFitnessPal. I have a love-hate relationship with this app and only use it when I want to change my body, but it works. You can track calories, macros, nutrients, water, exercise, pretty much everything that counts. I highly recommend it.

2. I track my steps.

I started paying attention to this little variable after deciding to get a treadmill desk. Before using my treadmill, my step count would be worryingly low. I use my car to get around, I sit at my workplace, and I sit at home.

Random bursts of activity, like walking during a city break or going on a hike, are less likely to make a difference — it’s daily consistency that counts.

Right now, I’m using my steps as a motivation to get on my treadmill and write. Or get on my treadmill and watch a course. Or go out for a walk in the forest nearby and listen to a podcast. Whenever I come close to 10000 steps or exceed that number, it’s mission accomplished.

Use whatever tool you prefer for this — your phone, your fitness band, or any pedometer.

3. I track my alcohol.

I’m a wine aficionado and a foodie on top of that. I absolutely cannot eat dinner without having at least a tiny amount of wine. But over the years, my drinking habit started to get out of hand. Severe anxiety and feeling overwhelmed lead to reaching out for that second or third glass. Drinking too much wine had become a coping mechanism.

Fun fact about me and my background: I used to pick grapes and plums as a child, as my parents and my extended family all made their own wine and fruit brandy. Drinking is deeply engrained in my family history, and even though I haven’t had any personal drama with it, I know that there’s really no safe amount of alcohol.

I asked myself if I should quit cold turkey many times before, but I love the taste too much to give it up. So I tried to go another, much harder route: moderation.

I use an app called DrinkControl, but you can choose your own. I like it because it’s in accordance with the WHO recommendations for moderate, low-risk drinking. One 100ml glass of wine constitutes one unit, and the safe amount is as follows: 2 units per day, 10 units per week, and 43 units per month.

I always seem to slightly exceed the weekly recommended intake, but every week I’m doing better. One step at a time, I’m training my body to drink less without restricting myself too much.

4. I track my period and moodiness.

If you’re a male reader, go ahead and skip this one. Or don’t, you might find some interesting facts.

Tracking your period as a woman is obvious, and most of you probably do it already. An impromptu visit from Aunt Flo is never fun.

But there are other benefits to tracking your period besides just making sure you have the necessary supplies at home. Knowing when your ovulation happens is helpful, and not just for conceiving. That’s when we’re usually more alert and sexy, for that matter.

I love my cycle-tracking app for alerting me about PMS. I have a horrendous case of PMS. I get extremely depressed like the world is ending every single month. Many apps have a mood tracking feature, and I use mine regularly. In time, the algorithm learns my patterns and lets me know that I could soon get emotional. It eases my mind about my volatile behavior: I’m not crazy, just hormonal.

5. I track my money.

This is a BIG one. I won’t get into too many details, as it can easily get overwhelming, but over the past 5 years, I’ve been regularly tracking my expenses, as well as sticking to a budget as best as I can.

Simply tracking your expenses is a good start. You’ll be aware of many of the unnecessary purchases and categories you can cut back, but it won’t really improve your spending unless you stick to a plan.

My husband and I are using an app called YNAB, which we purchased after reading the book: “You Need a Budget” by Jesse Mecham — I highly recommend you check it out.

With the help of this book and Dave Ramsey’s advice, we’ve managed to build an emergency fund, live on the previous months’ earning (a term called “aged money”), and pay off much of our debt.

I’m definitely sold on tracking my money and having monthly budgeting “dates” with my husband. As someone with a fluctuating income, I love the control and peace of mind this system gives me. I rarely worry about money anymore.

6. I capture my To Do’s

I wrote about this before, in this article. I like to use a combination of the Trello app and David Allen’s GTD method, but you don’t have to get that fancy.

Simply capture your thoughts when you have important tasks on your mind, appointments, projects, books you want to read.

Find an app that works for you and do a brain dump of everything that’s been worrying or nagging you. As a creative, especially, it’s good to free up your brain from the added stress of having to remember all those things. It frees up a lot of your creativity.

I tend to bury my head in the sand whenever I get overwhelmed, and I know that writing things down won’t always help actually do them. But it’s a step in the right direction. It’s certainly better than trying to remember it all and juggle it in your mind.

7. I track my habits.

Ah, habit formation. Apparently, we’re creatures of habit, but building a habit has always been the hardest thing for me. Good habits don’t stick.

So I decided to track ONE habit at a time. I do it until it becomes somewhat comfortable and not second nature — because let’s be honest, for some people, exercising or waking up at 5:00 AM will never be second nature.

When I feel confident that I’ll keep doing that habit regardless of tracking it or not, I move on to the next one. Or at least that’s the plan. It works in theory, but life is a lot more messed up than what we plan for.

A few things that help with habit building: having an accountability buddy, attaching your new habit to a pre-existing habit (cue), choosing a habit that feels good in itself or right after doing it (reward), and repeating it for at least a couple of months before moving on to the next one.

There you have it: seven simple aspects of my life and seven different apps to keep track of them. I’ve been using some of these apps for years, and I can’t imagine my life without them.

The key to changing your life is having strong goals and knowing your outcome. Having the means to measure your progress is a great tool for reaching those goals, as well as for giving you a much-needed boost of confidence.

Choose what works for you. Track your life — it can change it for the better.