ClickUp Structure for a Personal Use: Habit or Workout Tracking

Behind-the-scenes look at 2 structures you could build to design a habit/routine tracker in ClickUp for your personal productivity, daily journal, chore chart organization, or fitness plan/workout routine.
This video is an excerpt from an hour-long weekly Q&A with the ClickingUp Community I run (processdriven.co/services/cli....
This specific question was focused on a user switching from Notion to ClickUp for personal journaling/habit tracking...but there are so many use cases that would benefit from this List/Task structure!
Here's what we'll cover:
0:00 Introduction
0:48 How would you build a habit tracker?
1:22 Binary Habit Tracker (Template #1)
2:45 Habit Tracker using Subtasks (Template #2)
4:21 Habit Tracker with Data in ClickUp (Template #3)
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[@LaylaPomper]

How are you managing your personal productivity in ClickUp? Let me hear your pro tips! Would you like to learn more about using ClickUp for personal use? Let me know...I've got a few ideas up my sleeve if there's interest! :)

[@JAZMANIAN_DEVIL]

Definitely interested in learning how to use ClickUp for personal use, as well as for one-person businesses.

[@josephshields317]

YES!!!! Personal Use!!!! ALSO, I use ClickUp to track my weight/reps/miles/Keto Level/mood... With custom fields. I then have a dashboard with a chart widget to view my progress. Maybe you should add that to your video. ALSO... I have a form to enter my daily data-makes it easy to enter data. FYI... I think Dashboards are often overlooked but they offer a great deal of flexibility/functionality. I have a Morning Routine Dashboard with embeds, bar charts, motivational videos, daily Bible quotes...

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey friends! Just wanted to loop back and let you all know about this upcoming Live inspired in no small part by this thread. You're welcome to drop questions in advance in the comments of the Livestream if you'd like! kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4vNkouZp5hqirM

[@l0s3r8443]

@@josephshields317 can you show us how you do it..or guide us to any video where i can get this setup..

[@DavidWard1]

@@josephshields317 That sounds like exactly what I'm looking to do. Would you mind sharing any resources or tips on how to accomplish the morning routine dashboard?

[@AyoolaBoyejo]

I can listen to you all day...literally.

[@LaylaPomper]

😂 I’m honored!! So glad this helped you.

[@roquea.deleon6175]

Thank you so much for this! Been wanting to make something like this for a while.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Roque! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 I'm so glad this helped!

[@Melissa-eq1yh]

Hi Layla. I know this video was almost a year ago and I was wondering if creating a habit tracker, journal, and workout schedule/routine has been reviewed by you guys in more detail. I want to be able to incorporate all aspects of my life into clickup. Right now I have spaces for Work, health, finances, and house projects. Do you use clickup for a lot of your personal life? I can see where this might benefit me in my work life as I audited financial statements and have tasks that need to be completed for each audit. The basic tasks are all the same. during a busy season, I can have about 20-30 audits. I mostly work along but a few audits have me working with a co-worker and/or audit partner. I have been playing around with clickup more recently since our busy season is coming to an end. I would like to focus on learning clickup and hopefully it can help me be more productive this upcoming busy season. But as I said, I would really like to incorporate a lot of my personal life into it as well.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Melissa! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 In case you still need support, here's a video that may help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5jdnGiNi8SnrK8

[@Mrfawzi2]

You are amazing thank you so much

[@LaylaPomper]

Aw thanks Fawzi! So glad this helped!

[@aaronclarkt]

awesome thank you! yes I'm interested in tracking personal things. I'd like a visual bar graph of how it adds up over time. For example if my goal is to ride my bike 12 hrs each week. and for the season my goal is 550 hrs. after a few months I'd like to see where I stand in terms of hitting my weekly, monthly targets as well as my annual target. Like a bar graph, one bar is the annual target and the other is where I'm at and where I should be based on the timeline and I can see my progress through the season towards my annual goal. does that make sense? I just want to see that I'm winning! and how a little bit adds up over time for multiple items.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Aaron! This is a really interesting use case to build out -- you could certainly do this by being creative with some calculations or formulas inside a Dashboard. I'm going to add this onto our idea list for future videos. :)

[@lolafly633]

Layla, thank you for sharing this journey with us! So valuable and love your sense of fun about process generally. 🙏As for not having a vision for your company? I think you’re being a bit harsh on yourself looking at what you have built! 🤩

[@LaylaPomper]

😅 thank you Laura! Trying to get a little better each day! It feels like ages since this video…!!

[@onefourosix_]

Interesting video, Layla, on personal productivity! I'm also still thinking how to better structure Clickup for personal productivity and tracking of habits. Still trying to find a more suitable way. :)

[@LaylaPomper]

Would love to hear what you’ve discovered on your journey!

[@jenniferlewis4932]

Thank you for this video! I just started using ClickUp for personal tasks/ideas/etc. this year---previously, my digital go-to was Evernote. Because a lot of my personal stuff went into a good ol' fashioned notebook, I had the option of scanning my handwritten content into Evernote for easy search at a later date. I currently use an "Everything" board in ClickUp---statuses become "uncategorized, this week, today, tomorrow, next week, this weekend," etc.--- and I can easily drag and drop my to-dos around the board to plan both personal and professional tasks. I've run into issues: linking tasks in my Everything Board to tasks in my professional workspaces. Because the statuses are different between the spaces, I can't duplicate the task in two areas. To resolve this, I link them, but this can get a wee bit cumbersome... :( Anyhow, looking forward to more content about personal use cases in ClickUp!

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Jennifer! Have you seen the more recent video about Statuses vs. Custom Fields? I think this might help your setup become a little less cumbersome at Everything level! Here's the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/paS1koCgdpt2es0

[@jimdickinson1539]

Thanks Layla this video is very helpful! I've been testing out the 2nd and third methods shown but, as you mentioned, they all seem to fall short when it comes to reporting. I can't find a good way to view or track recurring habits and goals over time and clearly flag up areas that are lacking. Do you have a suggestion on a good way to do this with the unlimited plan or would it be a case of upgrading to get the time-based dashboard charts on the business plan?

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Jim! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 Great question! In this case, I would suggest exploring all possible options before upgrading. Are you looking to see all of your data reported in a chart? If so, then upgrading would be the best option since reporting widgets are available on the Business plan. However, if you want to stick to the Unlimited Plan, I think a List view with a combination of Custom Fields to calculate data could be helpful. To gather data over time, you can use multiple Date fields, number fields, and Dropdown Custom Fields that use numbers. You could use the Formula Custom Field to calculate between specific dates and data. Using the Advance editor will allow you to customize calculations. Additionally, you can use Milestones to mark your goals. Creating multiple List views filtered by the specific data or milestones you can calculate or focus on over time is also an option. After exhausting all options, if the list views and custom fields still lack what you need, then I would recommend considering asking ClickUp support for a trial of the Business Plan so you can explore their Dashboard widgets and make a decision! I hope this helps!

[@hannahwalkley543]

Thank you! Do you have a video that would show me how to mark tasks complete without actually having to click into it like you have it set up in the video?

[@LaylaPomper]

From List View (or most views) you can click on the Status and adjust it without opening the task. For tasks with just two statuses, you'll see a check mark to the far left of LIst view -- which you can click without opening the task. For tasks with many status options, you'll see a small square to the far left of List view - which you can click on to pick a new status without opening the task. Also, if you're in a view grouped by Statuses, you can click and drag to drag whole tasks between your status groups. :)

[@TheSecondMessenger]

Hey Layla, thanks for the great video. Have you thought about using the Goals feature as a habit tracker?

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 I share my opinion of Goals at the intro of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoGlhpyqeMyAlcU Goals are high-level objectives that are made up of smaller, measurable Targets. Goals are found in the sidebar from one location "Goals" tab. Inside this tab, you can create Goals and Goal Folders. These are not accessible from anywhere else in ClickUp. They're tucked away from everything else in the ClickUp hierarchy. For this reason, I gravitate to using a task-based method for habit tracking.

[@vorzeigur1914]

Could you please explain how you set up the recurring tasks and connected them to the progress bar? Thanks. I am talking about the first example.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 Of course! The progress bar tracks progress on the checklist items on a given task. It's set up by adding a Progress (Auto) Custom Field to the Tasks!

[@caidenbond1988]

Loved the video! Really interesting way of using tasks in ClickUp. I wish ClickUp had better performance and more properties like Notion with the relations, rollups etc.

[@LaylaPomper]

Thanks for the comment! 🙂 I completely agree with you -- sometimes I wish ClickUp truly was just a database. If it took out the task-centric structure we could get a little more Notion/Airtable/Sheets/Excel goodness into the ClickUp work environment without constantly bogging things down with a task-only format.

[@caidenbond1988]

@@LaylaPomper and that combined with more customisable dashboard would make ClickUp 10X better. But I still want my hand held with ClickUp haha it’s complicated.

[@LaylaPomper]

@@caidenbond1988 YES PLEASE! Give me some automated PDF reporting or pivot tables in Dashboards. Daydream for ClickUp 3.0? Ha!

[@LaylaPomper]

Just stumbled back onto this comment and realized my wish was granted! Update for any onlookers: ClickUp IS working toward becoming a database by removing the rigid task-like elements throughout 2021 with a new feature called "Item Type" (where an "Item" is ClickUp's term for a "Record" we'd currently call "Task").

[@caidenbond1988]

@@LaylaPomper Oh wow, that's really interesting thank you!

[@tranceyy]

Right tool for the right job, a simple habit tracker app would serve us much better until we have native habit tracking in ClickUp.

[@LaylaPomper]

Truth!

[@adrianparafianowicz802]

Hey I'm wondering if it's possible to set a day 0 for a certain task and then plan accordingly to this day 0? For example, let's say that we're publishing ebook on April 1st and I want to plan tasks that need to happen certain days before and certain days after publishing e-book. E.g. -90 days before publishing an ebook I need to set up budget, on day -89-85 I need to gather feedback from the last edition, 5 days after publishing ebook I need to gather feedback etc. So far I've seen this feature only in one other productivity app and it makes work sooooo easier, and I'm wondering why other productivity tools don't implement that feature. Is it possible in ClickUp?

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Adrian! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 Interesting question! I think a solution would be to use the last task of the project as the Parent Task Due date. For example, we have a Task names Publish E-book. Add all of the project action steps as subtasks inside the Parent task and give them due dates. So, if subtask A is due 90 days before, reflect that in the subtask Due Date. If subtask B is due 40 days before, do the same. Now, I would suggest adding a subtask named Publish E-book and giving this the Due Date for publishing. Continue adding the subtask after the publishing and add the Due dates. Once you've published the book, don't close the Parent Task; instead, mark the "Publish e-book" subtask completed. This way, the project is open, and you can continue finishing your work. After completing all the work, the Due Date on the Parent Task should match the last subtask Due Date. From here, you can close the task when it's all completed. I'd also like to add that if the number of days between due dates is consistent for all your projects, you can save one Task Template with the Due dates in them. This way, anytime a new project comes up, you apply the Template and use the "Remap Due Dates" feature. This will save you the time manually applying Due Dates to those subtasks 90 days before, 85 days before, etc.

[@l0s3r8443]

Hi can you create a video where we can monitor daily time spend on task with custom dashboard.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Travis! Just getting caught up with comments🙈 You can use Pulse (not in a Dashboard) or you can create a Time Tracked Widget on a Dashboard to see where time was spent.

[@Chase_Crawford]

Why not use goals for some of this? I'm new to ClickUp so I don't know how everything works yet.

[@LaylaPomper]

You could use Goals, but it's a little clunky and less flexible than using tasks. Good question though!

[@christianmagill3829]

For journaling, would you then respond to your prompts in a separate custom field? I'm guessing if you tried to respond to the prompts in the description your answers would carry over to the next day.

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey Christian! Just getting caught up on comments🙈 I would suggest answering the prompts inside of the Comments section of the task. That way the answers are stored, but they don't interfere with the description. You could also set it up to where, if you did want to answer in the description, when it creates a new task (settings are in the recurrences settings) it doesn't carry over the description. I hope this helps!

[@aminkaveh14]

Wow, wow, wow, that was sooo fast

[@pixojoy]

In this video, you had briefly touched on data reporting inside of excel. Is there a way we can export time-tracking data from clickup (as featured in your other "morning routine" video) and transforming that information into visual data reports using excel? Here's the referenced video timestamped with the featured time-tracking list kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6ukp6Gqpd2hsNksi=uiV9E6VzNeI8TMZD&t=333

[@LaylaPomper]

Thank you for your continued support! Time exporting is available on the Business Plan and above. Here is ClickUps help doc for reference. help.clickup.com/hc/en-us/articles/6312273172631-Time-Tracking-cards#:~:text=Exporting%20Time%20Tracking%20cards%20is,admin%20may%20disable%20the%20ClickApp.

[@pixojoy]

@@LaylaPomper My pleasure! And thanks for the ref, Layla!

[@gdalonso]

Sorry Layla, a bit disappointed with this video where you have a Daily Journal as your first headline, and you barely covered it and from what I saw it seems clickup is not set to do that. Just to relay what I'm thinking ... a little old school, like the old Covey planners where you work on tasks and a schedule each day (left side) and on the right you write down notes for the day. In this digital version I would want multiple notes for each day so each daily note (as part of the journal) covers a single topic. e.g. Title="Using Clickup as a Journal", Jouirnal text="Watched Layla at ProcessDriven in her video (url link, embedded or attached) and found it doesn't look like its suited". done. Then I would want to see a calendar view that shows all the entries for all the days I made a note. Seems like maybe Notion is better for this. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

[@LaylaPomper]

No need to apologize Greg! ClickUp, like Notion, is quite the blank slate. So, to make it do what we want we need to just figure out the right structure we might need. What this video is intended to show is the *structure* that would be required in order to build a journal or other daily habit inside ClickUp. It's not really about the substance so much as the actually organization of information, which is why I used "general daily habits" as my example -- but I can see why this would be confusing!! For what it's worth, I think a daily journal could be built in Notion and ClickUp in an equally simple manner. It's really a matter of personal preference unless there are certain "advanced" features you need. To build a journal in ClickUp, you'd likely use the 3rd structure mentioned in this video (skip to 4:21) and just replace the words "Daily Habit Tracker" with "Daily Journal Entry". To see it on calendar view, you'd just make sure you add a date and then click on the Calendar View (that exists but I don't know that I really featured) to see it in that format. :)

[@LaylaPomper]

FYI - I'm going to pull this question to answer live during our Q&A today on the Channel! Link if it helps: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eGewZGOqo65jasU

[@ckimaging2153]

user interface is the worst ever seen on a program which want to save time ...too complicated ! Please make a video for total beginners, stupids with slower speaking, are you on a hurry?! Thank you for your try!

[@LaylaPomper]

Hey CK! It's certainly not for everyone but they're making big improvements over time. It'll get there. Thanks for the feedback! :)