Ask HN: A creative way for an “offline” progress bar?

I want to mark progress of some habits I try to establish. Like eating an apple a day, or doing pushups in the morning. I feel that tracking progress in an non-app/software way will help me stick longer to those habits.

I ran out of ideas for such an "offline" progress bar.

So far I tried using a self made bar of bubble wrap: each time I completed a task, I would pop a bubble. It's even fun to pop a bubble, but its really hard to see how much I already accomplished (because its just not that visible on transparent bubble wrap). Also, sometimes it kinda not making the pop noise which is actually a bit demotivating (seriously).

Also, the obvious one: using pen and paper and noting it after each completed task. That's really not working for me, as it feels to much like book-keeping and less natural.

Do you have a better ideas of how such an offline progress bar could work?