I track six things every week. As someone who has spent fifteen years in financial services — and is still in it — you could argue this is me showing restraint: I have spreadsheets for things you wouldn’t believe. But this particular list earned its place the hard way. It’s what survived after I threw out everything that didn’t move the needle.
Most people think fitness results come from extreme effort — the perfect training split, the precise macros, the flawless routine. I tried that version. It collapses the first week your calendar misbehaves, which in my world was every week. What actually works is simpler and slightly boring: six habits, tracked honestly, week after week.
The tracking part matters more than it looks. Not because writing things down is magic — because you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and most of us have wildly optimistic memories of our own weeks. I certainly did. (The tracker doesn’t care about your intentions. That’s data, not judgement.)
These are the six I track with every client I coach — together, they’re the BusiFit weekly consistency framework. The same one running on my own fridge right now.
The Six Habits
20-min Workout · 3× per week
The non-negotiable minimum. Three focused sessions per week, 20 minutes each. Not five days. Not an hour. Three times a week, consistently, for years.
7–10K Steps · daily
Non-exercise activity that most professionals dramatically underestimate. On gym days and rest days alike. Take the stairs, walk to the meeting, step outside at lunch.
Protein 100g · daily
Your daily protein target. Keeps you full, supports muscle retention and growth, stabilises energy across the day. More impactful than most people realise.
Hydration 2L+ · daily
Two litres of water, minimum, every day. One of the most underrated performance variables. Cognitive clarity, energy, and recovery all depend on it.
Stretch / Mobility · daily
Even 5–10 minutes. Reduces injury risk, improves posture (especially for desk workers), and meaningfully accelerates recovery between training sessions.
Sleep 7h+ · nightly
Non-negotiable. Training, nutrition, and cognitive performance all depend on quality sleep. It is not lazy — it is the most productive thing you can do each night.
How to Use the Tracker
At the start of each week, write the seven days across the top of a page. Each morning, set an intention for which habits you will hit that day. Each evening, mark what you actually did. No judgement — just honest data.
The goal is not perfection. A week where you hit five out of six habits consistently is an excellent week. What you are building is a picture of your baseline — and over time, that baseline improves almost automatically, because you can see exactly where you are falling short.
And use whatever tracking method you already live in. Your Apple Watch counts the steps, MyFitnessPal knows your protein, your sleep app has the nights covered — or a pen and the printed tracker on the fridge does all six. I’m telling you what to track. How you track it is entirely yours.
Most people skip the tracking step because it feels like admin. It isn’t — it’s the step that makes the other five work. The clients I coach who track consistently see results two to three times faster than the ones running on motivation. Motivation has opinions about Mondays; the tracker doesn’t.
Want the tracker?
A free one-page PDF — print it, stick it on the fridge, start Monday. No email wall on this one; just take it.Aparna Emile is the founder of BusiFit — Les Mills and Precision Nutrition certified (Nutrition + Sleep, Stress Management & Recovery), 15 years in financial services and still counting, and a person with a spreadsheet problem.