Questions I Ask Myself (So I Can Come Back to My Habits)

A checklist for my bullet journal + planning

I am writing this for future me.

When I try a new habit or a new bullet journal layout, I can get excited. Then life happens, I miss a few days, and I feel like I failed. After that, I avoid the page. I don’t want to look at it.

So this blog is not to be perfect. This is to help me come back again and again.

I want a small set of questions that I can ask myself when I feel stuck.

Questions that help me notice:

• What is working for me
• What is taking me away
• What small change can make it easier

I don’t need more pressure. I need more clarity.

My ‘Come Back’ Questions (keep asking)

1) What is this page/habit for?

• What do I want this habit to do for me — help me function, calm me, or remind me?
• Am I doing this to feel “good”, or to actually support my life?

2) Is it easy to return to?

• Do I avoid this page because I have to flip back too much?
• Do I hate checking old pages because it breaks my flow?

3) What emotion is sitting underneath?

• When I see blank boxes, what do I feel — guilt, shame, stress, boredom?
• Am I avoiding the page because it feels like proof I didn’t do it?

4) Is it too big or too many?

• Am I tracking too many habits at once?
• Is this habit realistic for my life right now?
• What is the smallest version of this habit I can do?

5) What is pulling me away?

• What usually makes me stop — overwhelm, perfection, too many diaries, too many templates?
• Am I exploring new layouts to learn — or to escape the habit?

6) What helps me come back?

• Which diary do I actually open every day?
• What format feels calm: simple lines, dotted paper, one place for everything?
• What has worked even once? (Even one week counts.)

7) Planning ahead (future log questions)

• What do I want my yearly page to do — remind me of key dates, reduce anxiety, or help me plan?
• What is the minimum I want to write for each month? (Maybe 1–3 key dates only.)
• If planning feels hard, what is one tiny step I can do today?

8) Kind restart rules

• If I skip a week, can I restart without judging myself?
• Can I treat ‘coming back’ as success?

One quick check (when I feel stuck)

Photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash

If I don’t know what to do, I ask just these three:

1. What is the easiest next step? (One tick. One line. One date.)
2. What is making this hard? (Too many steps? Too much pressure? Too much flipping back?)
3. How can I make it simpler? (One page. One habit. One place.)

Habits that are working (right now)

Table 1: List of habits that are working for me right now.

What takes me away (so I can catch it early)

Table 2: List of frictions

My closing reminder (for myself)

I am not trying to build a perfect bullet journal. I am trying to build a life that is easier to live.

If something doesn’t work, that is not failure. That is data.

The goal is simple: my journal should help me function. And the biggest win is always the same: I come back.

Notes:

• If I want more context on how I’m building these habits, read my earlier post: Developing Habits (Medium link).
• Printable checklist (note): Here is the checklist in PDF format for printing: Download the PDF.
• File location (my system): GDrive → Resources → LifeFlow → Alignment Stratgies → Come Back Habit Checklist.doc
• Notion: There is also a Notion template version of this checklist (same content, easier to reuse and copy each month/week).
• Thanks to Ryder Carroll, Ali Abdaal , Anne-Laure Le Cunff — for teaching me publicly.