How to Create a Custom Habit Tracker in Affinity Publisher: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

In this tutorial I’ll be sharing how to create a beautiful, fully customizable habit tracker in Affinity Publisher. Whether you’re designing your own planner or creating this as part of a larger project, you’ll be able to follow along and adjust the sizes, colours, and layout to your needs.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Set Up Your Document

We’ll begin by creating a blank page for your habit tracker. I’m using an A4 size page, but this can be done on any size. Adjust the dimensions to suit your preferences.

1. Document Setup:
2. Page size: A4
3. Margins: Set to 10mm on both sides, leaving a central working space of 190mm.
   

This size ensures everything fits neatly within the page.

Step 2: Create the First Circle

We’ll be using multiple circles to create the visual structure of the habit tracker. Here's how:

1. Select the Ellipse Tool and draw a circle with a diameter of 190mm (the width within the margins of your page).
2. Position the circle in the middle of the page. This circle will act as the outer boundary of your tracker.
   

Step 3: Duplicate and Resize Circles

To create the full habit tracker, we need a total of 9 circles, each progressively smaller. Power Duplicate won’t work perfectly in this case because it scales objects cumulatively, but here’s how to get it right:

1. Manually duplicate the circle by using Command + J (Control + J on Windows) to create a copy.
2. Adjust the size of each new circle by reducing it by 20mm:
3. First circle: 190mm
4. Second circle: 170mm
5. Third circle: 150mm
6. Fourth circle: 130mm
7. Fifth circle: 110mm
8. Sixth circle: 90mm
9. Seventh circle: 70mm
10. Eighth circle: 50mm
11. Make sure the circles are perfectly aligned by selecting all of them and using the Alignment Tool from the Toolbar.
    

Step 4: Hide the Outer Circle

The largest circle, which is 190mm, was only for reference. You can hide or delete this circle since we won’t need it in the final design.

Step 5: Mask 25% of the Circles

For this tracker, we only need three-quarters of each circle. We’ll use a simple masking trick:

1. Draw a rectangle from the centre of the circles up to the top left. This will hide the top-left quarter of the circles.
2. Fill the rectangle with white and adjust its size to ensure it covers the area completely.
   

Step 6: Add a Table for the Habit Titles

We’ll use a table to create the straight lines on the left side of the habit tracker. Here’s how:

1. Select the Table Tool and draw a table with 6 rows and 1 column.
2. Position the table on the left-hand side of the tracker.
3. Adjust the row height to match the size of the circles.
   

Step 7: Apply Colours to the Tracker

Let’s bring the habit tracker to life by adding some colours:

1. Import a colour palette: In the Swatches Panel, use the burger menu to import the Sweet Paprika palette.
2. Set Global Colours: Right-click on each colour in the palette and select Make Global. This will allow us to change colours globally later.
3. Apply the darkest colour from the palette as the stroke for all of the circles and table lines.
4. For the circle fills, continue adding shades of the Sweet Paprika palette, starting from the outermost circle to the innermost one.
   

Step 8: Create Segments for 31 Days

To divide the circle into 31 equal segments (for tracking daily habits):

1. Use the Pen Tool to draw a straight line from the top edge of the circles down to the inner circle.
2. Select the Enable Transform Origin Tool and move the centre of rotation to the centre of the circles.
3. Press Enter to bring up the Move Duplicate Dialog.
4. Enter -8.7 degrees (((360 degrees ÷ 4) × 0.75) ÷ 31) for the rotation value.
5. Check Duplicate and set it to 31 copies.
6. Click OK, and you’ll see 31 perfectly spaced lines radiating from the centre.
   

Step 9: Add Numbers to the Segments

Now, we’ll add numbers 1 through 31 to the habit tracker using the Artistic Text Tool:

1. Select the 170mm circle and apply text to the path using the Artistic Text Tool.
2. Paste your numbers, separated by tabs, into the path. Adjust the text size to 12pt and choose a readable font like Oswald Stencil.
3. Align the text correctly by adjusting the starting and ending points of the text path and modifying the baseline settings.
4. If the numbers don’t line up perfectly, adjust the tab stops. A setting of 12.9mm should work well for this tracker.
   

Step 10: Final Touches

At this point, your habit tracker is almost complete! A few last things:

• Check alignment: Ensure that all circles, lines, and text are properly aligned.
• Tweak colours: Since we used Global Colours, you can easily change the colour scheme by modifying the Global Colours, and the entire tracker will update automatically.
  

Wrap Up

And there you have it! You’ve created a stylish habit tracker for your digital planner. If you enjoyed this tutorial and want more tips and tricks, be sure to check out my free training at ElaineGiles.com/VIP. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a new tutorial.

If you have any specific tutorial requests, feel free to reach out - I’d love to hear from you! Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you next time.

Thanks for reading and watching, and see you next time!

Easy Habit Tracker in Affinity Publi

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