Change always begins where behavior is still weak. Where an idea is not yet a habit but has become strong enough to be repeated. It is at such a crucial moment that the need for habit tracking arises as a temporary tool to help shape action.
At first, tracking seems like a trivial process. Making a list of tasks to be done, then checking or crossing them off shows us what we have accomplished. This is precisely what they do to increase motivation, establish a routine, and create a sense of progress where the mechanical force of habit does not yet exist. Tracking provides evidence that the work is being done. But over time, this evidence can become a goal. More than the work itself.
When behavior is regularly tracked, it becomes a statistic. A number is added to the behavior. And statistics are accompanied by a desire to show progress, to continue and not stop, to be perfect.
However, it is natural that statistics may not be continuous, we may skip a day due to conscious choice or simply unavoidable circumstances, and such cases may be perceived as failures. Therefore, it is important that the mechanism for tracking behavior does not become a mechanism for managing behavior.
This is where Goodhart’s Law comes in. It is not a psychological principle, but it accurately reflects the process of working with habits. The classic formulation of the law is as follows:
“When a goal becomes a separate parameter, it ceases to be a good measure.” This means that as soon as the measure designed to describe progress becomes the ultimate goal itself, it begins to distort reality. Tracking itself does not do anything wrong. The problem begins where the achievement of the goal is subject to being determined solely by numbers.
For example, when the success of a behavior is determined solely by the number of days missed, there is pressure to maintain continuity, no matter what. This pressure can lead to insincere performance, superficial actions, or even fiction, when quantity wins over quality.
Habit development is difficult not because repetition is difficult, but because content is easily lost in repetition. Tracking, which is a support mechanism, should not become a limiting barrier, but should remain an instrument of control. As James Cleary points out, visible progress is important, but it can never replace the depth of behavior. When marking something in a diary serves a purpose, it strengthens the habit, but when the purpose obeys the marking, the habit loses its power.
