Module 7 · Planning & self-regulation · Supported by multiple studies

Monitoring and feedback

Watching your own behaviour is one of the best-supported techniques there is.

6 min read · Level: Beginner · Free — no account needed to read

The problem it solves

Why does simply watching your own behaviour change it?

The concept

Self-monitoring means keeping track of what you do — each time, or each day. It makes the behaviour visible, helps you notice patterns, and gives you feedback about whether your plan is working.

Feedback turns data into learning: “I walk more on days I prepare my shoes”, “I skip reading when I’m in bed after 11”. That learning is where monitoring earns its keep.

Keep it light and honest. The purpose is information, not judgement. A record full of gaps is still useful — often more useful than a perfect one.

Why it matters

Monitoring is one of the best-supported behaviour-change techniques: a large meta-analysis found that increasing progress monitoring improved goal attainment on average, and programmes combining self-monitoring with other techniques were more effective.

Supported by multiple studies: Many studies, often pooled in reviews or meta-analyses, point the same way. It still works better for some people and situations than others.

See it happen

Ian thinks he exercises regularly but feels he isn’t getting fitter.

The ordinary first approach

He needs a harder programme.

With the idea

He logs each session in My Habits for a month and sees he averaged two sessions a week, not the four he thought.

What changed

Monitoring revealed the real pattern, which pointed to consistency, not intensity, as the fix.

Easy to get wrong

• Tracking everything and burning out on tracking.
• Using the record to criticise yourself.
• Never looking at the record, so it produces no feedback.

Try it now: Log and look

1. Log one habit every time you do it this week.
2. At the end of the week, look at the record.
3. Write one pattern you notice.

Apply it to one of your habits

For one of your habits, what one pattern could your record in My Habits show you?

Reflect

• What did the record tell you that your memory didn’t?

Go deeper — evidence & sources

• Harkin, Webb, Chang, Prestwich, Conner, Kellar, Benn & Sheeran (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/bul0000025
• Michie, Abraham, Whittington, McAteer & Gupta (2009). Effective techniques in healthy eating and physical activity interventions: A meta-regression. Health Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0016136
• Carver & Scheier (1982). Control theory: A useful conceptual framework for personality–social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.92.1.111