Printable habit tracker for your fridge or desk.

1. Pick a few habits. Three to five is plenty for a month. Fewer, done every day, beats a full sheet you stop filling in by the second week.
2. Put it where you’ll see it. On the fridge, beside the mirror, on your desk — somewhere you already stand at the moment you do the habit.
3. Fill in a circle each day. Keep a pen next to the sheet so marking it takes a second. A filled row is the whole reward; you’ll find you don’t want to break it.
4. Look back at the end of the month. Which rows filled up, and which went quiet? Keep what worked, shrink what didn’t, and print next month’s.

A monthly habit tracker shows the whole month on one page, so you can see the shape of it at a glance — the good weeks, the gaps, the streaks. It suits daily habits and people who like to plan a month at a time.

A weekly habit tracker has bigger circles and fewer days, which makes it easier to fill in and less daunting to start. The weekly sheet here is undated, so one printout can be copied and reused every week.

Choose things you control and can tick off in a moment: drink 8 glasses of water, read 20 pages, walk 10,000 steps, no phone after 10pm. A result like “lose five kilos” can’t be ticked off daily; the habits that get you there can.

Make each one small enough to do on your worst day. You can always make it bigger next month. More on building a habit that sticks.

Paper is hard to ignore when it’s on the fridge, and filling in a circle with a pen is oddly satisfying. It stays at home, though, and it won’t count your streak for you. If you’d like both, use the sheet at home and the free online habit tracker on your phone — it works in the browser, with no account needed.