The behavior I chose to measure is my habit of checking how I look in my phone camera. I catch myself doing it multiple times a day, and I want to change this habit because it pulls my attention toward monitoring and checking my appearance. One of my 2026 New Years Resolutions is to be present, and this habit prevents me from doing so and highlights how overly focused I am on how others perceive me.
This is a relatively new habit that I’m trying to address. Other habits like checking my phone for no reason or mindlessly doomscrolling are habits I’ve addressed (or so I’d like to think). I figured I’d log this one because it’s the behavior I’m least aware of in the moment, and seeing the actual frequency will make it harder to dismiss as “just a quick check on how I look today.”
Here’s my logging data that I did over the weekend:
01/10
- 11:34AM, on the way to lunch in the car’s passenger seat
- 1:10PM, after lunch (my excuse was to check if I had any food on my face)
- 1:55PM, inside the mall as I’m walking around
- 2:01PM, inside the mall while I’m waiting for my friend
- 3:22PM, check how I look before a picture
- 7:37PM, checking as I’m out with friends
01/11
- 12:31PM, just woke up
- 4:03PM, checking before I go out to dinner with friends
- 6:11PM, checking during dinner
After reviewing these timestamps, I realized that the habit of me checking my phone camera isn’t random, it happens when I’m in between activities or about to be seen in public/by others. An example of it happening when I’m in between activities is at 11:34AM on 01/10, and an example of it happening when I’m about to be seen is at 4:03PM on 01/11. I also noticed that I tried to justify the habit even though I was not assigned to. This showed me how quickly a practical reason can blend into the bigger repeatable pattern.
This habit definitely became more visible after doing this activity. The most consistent triggers were transitional time and social exposure, which I made sure to highlight in my graphs. Seeing how often it happened in normal everyday situations help me understand why (reflecting after the matter) it clashes with my 2026 New Years Resolution of being present, even though each check is quick, it shifts my attention from what I’m doing to how I appear.
Figure 1, Connection Circle
Figure 2, Feedback Loop
One thing I’d do differently is write down what I was feeling before each check. It could’ve been just one word or a sentence about how I was feeling in that exact moment. My notes showed where I was but not much about my feelings, which I think is a big missing piece to the puzzle.
As a replacement behavior, I’ll plan a replacement action for moments when I’m most likely to do this habit (in the car, waiting, etc.) because these moments feel like “empty space,” my phone camera can become the default thing I reach for.
