Depends on how you define habit. I reach for my seatbelt before I start the car because it’s a true habit – something I do without thinking because I’ve done it so many times before.
The things I am tracking are not what I would call habits. I don’t step out of bed ready to exercise because it’s a habit. I’m tracking other things like how long I meditate, time spent studying, etc. None of these are automatic activities for me.
Someone at a QS Meetup asked me why I’m still wearing my Fitbit if after a year I’m now exercising regularly because of wearing the Fitbit. The answer is because the Fitbit allows me to gamify an activity that I don’t enjoy (exercise). Without the Fitbit, I’d undoubtedly stop exercising until I found some other way to gamify things.
Recording other things is partially for the same reason of gamification. It’s just before noon here right now, and in looking at my data, I can easily see that I haven’t studied, meditated or done any of a number of things I track. There’s a bit of an internal game – by the end of the day I want something to show for each of those activities that I track. Doing so gives me a sense of satisfaction that the day was productive and lived well.
I also log things for the reason that I find that by doing various activities throughout the day rather than lumping all of my time in one area helps me feel balanced, in control and ultimately in a better mood. Data also have shown me correlation and causation (such as lack of sleep affecting energy and mood).
My gamification through self-logging is primarily with myself. Many of the apps I see that are loggers that want to incorporate sharing data with others for a friendly competition actually demotivate me because I am not inspired by competition with others but competition with myself. I am that way with goal-setting in general – I do not find it motivating to share a goal with others. Instead, I find it motivating to keep the goal private and then share the success when I’ve met the goal or when others ask how it was achieved.