Which tool to choose
There is no single "best" tool in absolute terms: it depends on how you want to check the boxes every day.
You want your own sheet, customizable and free, from PC and phone → ChatGPT to generate the structure + Google Sheets. It's the path of this guide: maximum flexibility, zero subscriptions, the AI writes the formulas you wouldn't know how to write. The spreadsheet tracks completion and shows you consistency over time, and setting it up with AI cuts out the boring part.
You already use Notion for notes and projects → stay there with a ready-made template. There are "Habit Tracker" templates for Notion that customize and calculate daily habits automatically. You avoid managing a second tool.
You just want to open an app and tap a button, without building anything → a dedicated app. On iPhone Streaks (one-time purchase), on Android HabitNow, and for those motivated by gamification Habitica. They're convenient and send the notification, but the data stays inside the app.
If you want to understand what to track and why, and keep the history in your own hands, continue with the ChatGPT + Google Sheets path. The apps are more convenient but closed.
How to do it
The idea is to split the work: the AI builds the skeleton and the formulas, you check the boxes. ChatGPT acts as the architect of the sheet, even on the free plan: instead of remembering the syntax of COUNTIF or SPARKLINE by heart, you describe in words what you want, and it plans the structure, writes the formulas, and tells you how to apply conditional formatting.
From a browser or a phone app, the path is the same.
- Open ChatGPT and paste the prompt below, replacing the habits with yours.
Generate a habit tracker for the month of January 2026 in CSV format.
The first column is called "Date".
The following columns are my habits: "Drink 2L water", "Walk 30 min", "Read 10 pages", "Meditate".
The rows cover every day of the month.
Leave the habit cells empty: I'll fill them in myself with 1 for done and 0 for not done.
Return only the CSV block, with no comments.
ChatGPT replies with a block of text ready to paste.
Open a new Google Sheet, click on cell A1 and paste. If dates and habits all end up in a single column, select the column and go to Data > Split text to columns.
Feedback: you should see the Date column with all the days of the month and one column for each habit. If that's not the case, go back to ChatGPT and write "the columns didn't separate, give me instructions to split the text".
Turn the empty cells into checkable boxes. Select the whole area below the habits, then from the menu go to Insert > Checkbox: you create them all at once.
Add the at-a-glance view with conditional formatting. Go to Format > Conditional formatting, choose "Cell is equal to TRUE" and set the green fill. This way every checked box colors itself.
Ask ChatGPT for the formula for the consistency percentage. Paste this:
In the sheet you generated, the data goes from row 2 to row 32.
Give me the Google Sheets formula to calculate the completion percentage of the habit in column B, to put in cell B33.
- Paste the formula it gives you (it will be of the type
=AVERAGE(B2:B32)with cells at 1/0) and set the cell as percentage from Format > Number > Percent, otherwise you see a decimal instead of the correct value.
Final feedback: check a few boxes at random. The cell colors green and the percentage at the bottom updates on its own. If the percentage stays at 0 or gives an error, the boxes are returning TRUE/FALSE instead of 1/0: go to the first problem in the section below.
A concrete example
Marco wants to stop putting off three things: gym, evening reading, and no social media after 10 PM. He opens ChatGPT free and pastes the prompt with his three habits and "February 2026". In thirty seconds he gets the CSV block with 28 rows of dates and three empty columns.
He pastes it into A1 of a Google Sheet, splits the text into columns, selects the area B2:D29 and from Insert > Checkbox creates 84 boxes in one shot. He adds the green conditional formatting. Then he asks ChatGPT for the completion formula for each column and pastes it into row 30.
After two weeks he opens the sheet from his phone: gym at 78%, reading at 64%, social media at 40%. Seeing in black and white that the real problem was evening social media, he moves the phone to the kitchen at night. By the end of the month social media has risen to 71%. The sheet cost him zero euros and ten minutes of setup.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If ChatGPT gets the days of the month wrong or skips dates
It happens that it generates 30 rows for a 31-day month, or gets the days of the week wrong. Don't trust it from memory: tell it explicitly how many days the month has ("February 2026 has 28 days") and ask it to regenerate. Alternatively, have it add a "Day" column with the day name, so you can check at a glance that February 1 falls on the right day.
If you paste the CSV and it all ends up in a single column
Sheets sometimes doesn't recognize commas as separators. Select column A, go to Data > Split text to columns and choose the comma as the separator. If it still doesn't work, ask ChatGPT to return the data "with values separated by tabs instead of commas".
If the percentage formula gives an error
Almost always it's because the boxes return TRUE/FALSE and not 1/0. Replace the formula with one that counts the TRUEs: for column B, from row 2 to 32, use
=COUNTIF(B2:B32,TRUE)/COUNTA(B2:B32)
and format the cell as percentage. If the error persists, paste the exact message into ChatGPT and ask it to adapt the formula to your range.
If after a week you stop checking it
The sheet loses if you have to open the browser on purpose. Keep it within reach: save it among your phone's bookmarks or install the Google Sheets app on the home screen. If even so you forget it, that's the sign that you need an app with a notification: Streaks, HabitNow, or similar send you a reminder at the time you set, so you don't skip the check-in.
A tip from someone who actually uses it
Start with three habits, not ten. A tracker with fifteen columns makes you feel guilty by the second day and ends up abandoned. Start with the minimum you can really check off, and add a new column only when the first three have become automatic. The percentage serves you to understand where you stumble, not to give you a grade.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay for ChatGPT to make the tracker?
No. The generation of the CSV and the formulas works on the free plan. The paid plan is needed if you want to upload files or use more advanced models, but for building a tracker it isn't necessary.
Can I do it directly in Excel instead of Google Sheets?
Yes, the procedure is identical: you paste the CSV, use the checkboxes and formulas like AVERAGE or COUNTIF. The function names sometimes change (in Excel the English AVERAGE, COUNTIF): ask ChatGPT for the formulas "in the Excel version" and it adapts them for you.
Can ChatGPT remember my progress and update the tracker on its own?
No, and it's worth knowing right away: the AI builds the structure but doesn't fill in or update the data for you, and it doesn't see your sheet in real time. What it can do is suggest what to track and analyze the numbers you paste in. If you don't know where to start, write "suggest five daily habits for productivity" and choose from the list. For automatic updating with reminders you need a dedicated app; the sheet stays manual, and that's what keeps it free and under your control.
Isn't an app better anyway than a sheet made by hand?
It depends on what motivates you, and beware of a misunderstanding: the app doesn't make you more consistent by magic, it makes you more consistent because it sends you the notification and removes the friction of opening a sheet. If that reminder is what you're missing, get the app. But the sheet made with AI gives you something the apps don't: the raw data in your own hands, exportable, with no subscription and without your routine ending up inside a company's server. If consistency is your problem, the app helps; if you want mastery and zero cost, the sheet wins.