Better Student Habits?

Parents, teachers, students—what is up? You’re going to like this video because I’m going to talk about habit trackers.

For students who struggle with executive function challenges—late work, missing assignments, incompletes—they’re often trying to change habits. They’re trying to get more organized, prioritize better, use planners more, and improve in many different ways. Habit trackers can be a game changer.

I’m going to share one that I made with a student recently. A lot of the work that I do involves creating custom tools—daily plans, planners, and things like that. In this case, we worked on a habit tracker for a particular student. I modified it slightly for anonymity and to make it more applicable to a wider audience.

This habit tracker would probably work well for middle school, high school, and college students. However, you need to consider the level of complexity. You don’t want it to be so complicated that it becomes unusable. I’ll show you how I created it and explain why it’s designed the way it is. Take whatever ideas are useful for you—whether you’re a parent, teacher, or student—and apply what works.

I use habit trackers myself, and they’re incredibly helpful. I’m not naturally someone who is always disciplined or highly motivated. Creating change is hard for me, so I rely on systems like this to make change more manageable.

So here’s the tracker I created. I’ll walk you through it and explain the different components.

First, we used a two-week date range. The reason for this is that it provides enough data to visually see patterns. We also discussed how to track progress—whether to use stickers, numbers, or something else. This particular student liked stickers, but the method doesn’t matter as much as choosing something that works for you.

We included the dates and labeled the days, starting with Monday. You could leave these blank if you want to reuse the template. Then we listed the habits we wanted to track.

We also added an “overall success” column on a scale from 1 to 10. This allows for reflection. For example, if the student is working on improving sleep, they can rate how successful they were overall. The exact number doesn’t matter as much as being able to explain and reflect on it.

One detail that can be a bit confusing is the “last bedtime” column. This refers to the previous night. For example, Monday’s column includes Sunday night’s bedtime and Monday morning’s wake-up time. This allows us to calculate total sleep time accurately.

We track bedtime, wake-up time, and total sleep duration. The student’s goal is eight hours of sleep, so they can monitor progress toward that goal. They can also rate how successful they were with sleep habits.

Next, we track meals. This student sometimes skips meals, so we included three daily meal checkboxes—yes or no. We also track self-care on a scale from 1 to 3, where 1 means poor self-care and 3 means strong self-care.

Brushing teeth is tracked as 0, 1, or 2 times per day, since the goal is twice daily. We also track exercise, showering, and brushing hair as yes/no habits.

Meditation is tracked by minutes. Gratitude is included as “five gratitudes per day,” which can be very powerful for mindset. We also track whether the student cleaned their room for five minutes, used their planner, and made a plan for the day.

Focus is rated on a scale of 1 to 3. The student also tracks how kind they were to themselves and whether they made time for fun each day. Finally, there’s an overall daily rating.

The key idea is to make this quick and easy—it should take about a minute to complete. The tracker should also be very visual. Initially, it wasn’t visual enough, so we improved it.

Instead of typing everything, we printed the tracker and used it by hand. This makes it more accessible—keeping it on a clipboard for easy daily use.

To make it more visual, we added color coding using highlighters. Green represents success, and red represents areas that need improvement. For example, if bedtime was too late, that might be red. If waking up on time was successful, that might be green.

This visual system allows for quick reflection. Over time, you can see patterns—more green means progress, more red shows where improvement is needed. It becomes very concrete and motivating.

For people with executive function challenges, self-reflection can be difficult. This system makes progress visible and easier to understand, which helps with building habits and achieving goals.

I hope this video was helpful for you. My name is Seth Perler—I’m an executive function coach, and I help struggling students navigate school so they can build a great life.

If you found this helpful, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. That really helps support my work. Feel free to share this with someone who could benefit from it.

I’d also love to hear from you: What would you include in a habit tracker? Things like homework completion, organizing a backpack—what would be helpful for you or someone you know?

You can also visit my website at SethPerler.com for free resources for parents, teachers, and students, as well as ExecutiveFunctionSummit.com for my summit.

My wish for you today is simple: I hope you have peace of mind and peace in your heart. And I hope you take time to connect with the kids in your life in a real, meaningful way.

Be well. Take care.