Water Intake Tracker: Count Your Glasses
Set a daily goal, tap a glass each time you finish one, and see today's total, your week and how many days in a row you hit your goal. Print a month of glasses for the fridge if you'd rather tick paper. It stays in your browser, no sign-up.
Tap a day in the week to change it. Green bars hit the goal.
How much water a day?
There's no single number that fits everyone. The figures most guides quote come from the US National Academies, which set an "adequate intake" of total water (from drinks and food) of about 3.7 litres a day for men and 2.7 litres for women. Roughly a fifth of that usually comes from food, which leaves about 13 cups (3 litres) from drinks for men and 9 cups (2.2 litres) for women. Tea, coffee and milk count toward it.
| Goal | 8 oz glasses | 250 ml glasses |
|---|---|---|
| The "8 × 8" rule of thumb (64 oz, about 1.9 litres) | 8 | about 8 |
| Women, drinks only (about 2.2 litres) | about 9 | about 9 |
| Men, drinks only (about 3 litres) | about 13 | 12 |
You need more in heat, when you exercise, and when you're pregnant or breastfeeding. Some conditions (heart or kidney problems, some medicines) mean you should drink less, so if that's you, ask your doctor for your number and use that as the goal above.
Ways to drink more without thinking about it
- Stack it on things you already do. A glass when you wake up, one with each meal and one when you get home is five before you've tried. The habit stacking template builds a list like this.
- Keep the water where you are. A filled bottle on your desk gets drunk; a tap in the kitchen doesn't.
- Pick a bottle size that divides your goal. Two 1-litre bottles is easier to count than eight glasses.
- Front-load the day. Most of it before mid-afternoon means fewer trips at night.
- Make it taste of something. Lemon, cucumber, mint, fizzy water: whatever gets it drunk.
Make it stick
Drinking water is an easy habit to start and an easy one to forget by day four. Seeing a run of full days helps, and so does a small reward at the end of the first full week. The streak tracker counts days in a row for any habit, and the printable habit tracker puts water next to your other habits on one page.
On your phone
In Habit Rewards, add "Drink water" as a habit with a daily goal in your own unit, like 8 glasses, and a reminder. Tap it each time and it shows your progress through the day (3 / 8); checking off habits earns coins you spend on rewards you price yourself, and the app keeps your streak. Home-screen widgets let you check it off without opening the app. It's free on iPhone and Android for up to 3 habits.
