Accomplishing goals, implementing good habits and doing the hard thing should be celebrated! These free printable punch cards for adults and kids are a fun way to celebrate your progress to a new goal, the good behavior you want to embrace and make it fun while you’re at it. With a minimalist hand lettered design, these free printable punch card templates are ready for you to put to use!
Have you heard of self care punch cards? Habit punch cards? You can really use the punch card system for so many different themes. Today I’m sharing a simple design with fun hand lettering for adults and kids- I’ve included my own suggestions for things you can track, good habits, positive character traits and hard things we need to do in this life- but I’ve also made a blank design so you can use it for whatever you like!
Remember when you were a kiddo and you’d get a punch on your card for reading a book or completing a task in your classroom? How good did that feel?!
I was chatting with a friend last year and we were celebrating a hard decision she’d made- saying no to something that seemed great, but she knew wasn’t a fit with her goals. You deserve a gold star! We laughed about it but the more we chatted, the more we all agreed that would be so great to celebrate our successes for these hard adult things the way that we did when we were kids.
I did a quick survey of friends on the seemingly silly or insignificant goals or self care things they were working on and then I got busy making these cute punch cards. And when my kids saw them- they wanted some too!
I’ve made two full pages of different free printable reward punch cards for you to use as you chase those goals, do the hard work, or whatever you’re wanting to celebrate with these reward cards. The first page is designed for adults with 8 grown-up self care style goals. They’re like behavior punch cards but for our own behaviour, ha!
The second page is designed for kids and includes one blank goal card so you can track whatever goal you want with the same punch card program. Reading punch card? Sure! Occupational therapy exercises punch card? Okay! Academic progress cards, slept the night in their own bed cards, made it to my therapy appointment cards, acts of kindness cards, supported a small business card… whatever you’re dreaming, friend 😉
Punch Card Designs:
- Said No!
- Apologized
- Didn’t Buy The Thing
- Held My Boundary
- Made Dinner
- Did The Hard Thing
- Cleaned Up After Myself
- Made The Wise Decision
- Practiced
- Took Responsibility
- Cleaned My Room
Whether you’re planning to use these free punch cards for yourself, for your own kids, or for classroom management this school year, these punch cards are a great motivator… and fun to punch the paper card as you meet your goals!
Ideas of Rewards for Reaching Your Goal
Each of these free printable cards has 10 spaces to punch, the last has some little stars to celebrate you reaching ten. On the back of the card there’s a space for your name and for your reward. Because punching those holes is fun for sure, but I’m a huge advocate for rewards too.
The reward could be big or it could be just small. It could be that bougie local ice cream, or an extended afternoon lunch break reading in the sun. It could be hitting order on that cart that’s been sitting waiting or to get a mani pedi when you get full cards.
For kids, you could put rewards like a lego set, an ice cream date, a new piece of decor for their clean room, a bonus pizza and movie night or special some one on one time playing a game with just mom or dad if they’re from a big family.
Honestly, all of these adult goals deserve a punch card and I could probably be running all 8 at the same time, but it’s probably best to start with one, right?! We’re rocking the ‘Said No!’ one but the part that’s almost funny to me is that the kids and adults got three of the same ones. We’re just not rewarding ourselves for those things as often anymore! Finish one self care punch card off and celebrate and then… You can do it all over again! Momentum, baby!
Tips to accomplish your goals with punch cards
Yes, these are silly. Yes, these are fun. But fun is good, fun will help you stay engaged with your hard thing, whatever that hard thing might be.
For extra credit (aka one of the most effective ways to increase your odds of success), tell a friend about your goal or your punch card. Or better yet, give that friend your punch card. Every time you hold your boundary with that family member or your boss, tell them the story and they can punch it off for you- you’ll get the dopamine hit as you tell them too 😉
Speaking of dopamine… These punch cards are especially great for anyone with ADHD or neurodivergence.
You could even share your bingo card on social media for some extra accountability which might be a huge help for you. Or Encourage a friend or two to print off a punch card of their own so you can cheer each other on!
Final tip here is to NOT skip the reward. Really… even if it’s little, it’s great motivation. We don’t celebrate our little successes enough as adults and it’s going to feel so good sipping that latte (should that be your reward!) when you mark off that final space!
How to download free printable PDF Punch Cards for Adults and Kids
To download these free printable rewards punch cards is so simple. To get these directly delivered to your inbox, just enter your email address in the box below and I’ll send you a confirmation email. Clicking the button in the email will open the PDF file up directly.
These two double sided designs are in one PDF format document on separate pages which makes for 4 pages. Some browsers will automatically start a download and in others you will need to right click and select ‘save’ once you’re viewing the document. It should save to your download folder to make them easy to find for printing.
As always, free printables are for personal use only (print for you and all your friends or even your classroom, but don’t sell them, offer them as a download or modify them).
What’s the best way to print free printable punch cards
You can print free printables any way you like, but I have a couple suggestions to make the most of these printable punch card templates! While every free printable is different, these ones are mostly black and white with some soft beige accents (we love a minimalist vibe). The white background helps save on ink and they’re PDF documents which makes them incredibly easy to print at home or at your local print shop. They will print just like a document, without special settings like a photo.
While you could print these on regular paper and display them on the fridge, I recommend card stock paper for these paper punch cards. I find printing on cardstock looks nicer and allows you to keep your printables in better condition as you use them (it doesn’t crinkle nearly as easy). Card stock is also way more satisfying for those hole punches!
You could even get extra fancy and laminate those babies. There’s affordable laminating adhesive sheets you can use if you don’t have access to a laminator. You can get them at the dollar store usually, but this is what you’ll be looking for.
You can see all my suggestions for printing free printables here.
These punch cards are an easy way to track your progress towards implementing difficult habits, but while I call them ‘punch cards’ you could totally track your progress by coloring in the spaces or using them as a sticker chart.
If you do want to be able to reuse these cards (maybe for kids screen time each week!), laminating them and having the kids color them in with dry erase markers or washable markers like crayola would be a great way to help them last!
Keep in mind that if you use a hole punch, you’ll be punching through the card and you do have a reward and your name on the back. Honestly, that doesn’t bother me at all though. In fact… while researching for this post, I stumbled across this cute heart and star-shaped hole puncher that I’ve hit order on (how fun!).
Alright! I’m going to leave it at that! I hope that you enjoy these fun punch cards in a bit of a different design than you’re used to seeing for a middle school incentive system- ha! And I hope that they make whatever thing you’re working on a little less of a hard time as you celebrate your successes and reward yourself along the way.
If you do download and use these free printable self care punch cards for adults and kids… you know I would love to see them in action! Tag me @handletteredprintables or shoot me an email [email protected]! Happy habit making, friends!
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More free checklists + tracker printables
Ready to have some fun tracking progress in other areas of your life? I love the momentum I get from visually seeing my progress and it’s the easiest way for me to get started on something I’ve been procrastinating. Here’s some other free printable trackers and checklists I’ve shared here on Hand Lettered Printables and over on my other DIY home decor site!
- Summer Reading Tracker
- Declutter and Deep Clean Bingos
- 90 Day Habit Tracker (5 habits)
- 30 Day Tracker
- Summer Bucket List
- Fall Bucket List
- Advent Activity Calendar + Printable Ideas List
- Printable Calendars
- Holiday Printable Planner/ Checklist
- My Week Printable Planner
- Camping Planner Sheets
- Outdoor Spring Clean Checklist
- Moving Checklist (other than packing!)