Tracking progress

If you're trying to improve something, you should track it. Tracking does a couple of very important things.

1. It forces you to have an idea of what you're measuring. If you're a writer and your measure is how long you spend with a pen in hand, you might find a pen in your hand walking down the street, but that doesn't exactly help you getting your book ready for publishing.
2. It gets in your face. If you're not putting the effort in, it's not hidden from you. You'll start to see a trend and notice when you haven't been hitting your targets.

If you start tracking, and you notice your metrics improving, but you don't notice any progress (over a sustained period of time) that's a hint that you're tracking the wrong thing.

I recommend tracking in chunks of a day.

Links:
http://calendaraboutnothing.com/
http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret?tag=softwaremotivation