The 100 Most Popular Habits to Track in 2020

Every year I look at what habits people are tracking by looking at Coach.me’s database. Surprisingly, they vary quite a bit from year to year.

Below are the most popular habits with how they changed in ranking from last year.

Here are a couple of trends.

• Diet trends are finally starting to converge on tactics that focus on avoiding carbs and burning stored fat. No Sweets (+10) No Soda (+14) and No Sugar (+37) all jumped. So did Intermittent Fasting (+26) and Keto (+35).
• People got a lot more specific recently, possibly because skills for habit formation are becoming more well known. Some of the biggest gains were for habits that were more specific versions of formerly broad habits. For example Wake up early dropped 4 spots while Get out of bed the first time the alarm goes off climbed 22 spots.
• Even though research supports the importance of quality social time, a lot of those habits dropped. Call mom/dad is down 25 spots and Keep in touch with friends is down 37. One of my old favorite habits, Talk to a stranger, dropped off the list entirely.

1. Exercise (+2)
2. Drink more water (+6)
3. Meditate (+1)
4. Read (+5)
5. Wake up early (-4)
6. Go to gym (+4)
7. Set priorities for your day (+9)
8. Study (-6)
9. No Alcohol (+3)
10. No Sweets (+10)
11. Run (+8)
12. Write In Journal (-6)
13. Be Grateful ( — )
14. Read a book for 30 minutes (-7)
15. Yoga or Stretching (+82)
16. Get Out Of Bed The First Time The Alarm Goes Off (+22)
17. Walk (+9)
18. Pushups (+22)
19. Sleep by Midnight (+27)
20. Wake up by 6:30 (+17)
21. Intermittent fasting (+26)
22. Floss (+7)
23. Practice Musical Instrument(-2)
24. No Smoking (-1)
25. Sleep at least 8 hours (+71)
26. Morning routine (+87)
27. Pray (+3)
28. Write Three Positive Things About Today (-14)
29. Stretch (+2)
30. No Screens After 10pm (-19)
31. Yoga (-6)
32. Save Money (-14)
33. Write To Do List (+10)
34. Take Vitamins (+2)
35. Weigh In (+8)
36. No Soda (+14)
37. Meditate For At Least 10 Minutes (-32)
38. No Sugar (+37)
39. Make Bed (+35)
40. Eat healthy (+62)
41. Good Posture (-2)
42. Workout (+37)
43. Track Food (+24)
44. No Fast Food (-20)
45. No Biting Nails (-17)
46. Wash face before bed (+58)
47. Clean for 15 Minutes (-25)
48. Watch a TED talk (-16)
49. Brush Teeth at Night (+2)
50. Draw (-6)
51. Practice Spanish (+9)
52. Duolingo (+59)
53. Drink water first thing in the morning (+67)
54. Journal (new)
55. Learn English (+49)
56. Affirmations (-23)
57. 30–60 minutes reading (+46)
58. Eat Breakfast (-13)
59. Cold shower (+4)
60. Use Pomodoro Technique (-7)
61. Morning Exercise (new)
62. Inbox Zero (-35)
63. Stop and enjoy life (-5)
64. Listen to podcast (+48)
65. Unclutter (-9)
66. Learn Something New (-31)
67. Walk 10,000 Steps (-15)
68. Listen more than talk (-21)
69. Write A Blog Post (+17)
70. Brush Teeth in the Morning (-36)
71. Get To Work On Time (-3)
72. Eat Fruit (-17)
73. Call mom/dad (-25)
74. Keto (+35)
75. Lift Weights (-4)
76. Track Calories (new)
77. Bike (+5)
78. Keep in touch with friends (-37)
79. Take a walk outside (-62)
80. Develop a Practice of Focus (-3)
81. Write (+20)
82. Abs (-12)
83. Read a Book (+23)
84. Swim (-11)
85. Slow-Carb™ Diet (-68)
86. No Facebook (-14)
87. Random act of kindness (-38)
88. Quality time with my children (-26)
89. Drink water (new)
90. GTD® — Weekly Review (-7)
91. Cook Dinner (-13)
92. Crunches (+6)
93. Planks (-6)
94. Bring Lunch To Work (-29)
95. Take Medication (-41)
96. Write For 30 Minutes (-35)
97. No Coffee (-31)
98. Code Academy (-32)
99. 1–3–5 Priority Setting (-5)
100. Set Priorities for Your Day Using the Ivy Lee Method (-12)