quantified self jan 09 - the personal side of tracking

The Personal Side of Tracking

Alexandra Carmichael, Jan 2009

I blogged about my self-tracking on the QS blog...

It got submitted to BoingBoing...

“Fascinating stuff”

“A good direct method to effect change”

“I'd love to track this kind of data about myself, make plots, draw conclusions”

The comments were polarized...

Positive:

“Bahh”

“Eeeh”

“OCD”

“TMI”

Speculations about my sex life

Narcissism

Negative:

Why all the fuss?

I really don’t know, but here’s what I do know...

Here’s a glimpse of my 5 months of tracking... (green line = goal)

0

2.5

5.0

7.5

10.0

Sleep

Start Average End

0

32.5

65.0

97.5

130.0

Weight0

675

1,350

2,025

2,700

Calories-5.00

-2.50

0

2.50

5.00

Mood

8

1182000

4

Lost 5 pounds

Measurably improved mood

Greater feelings of balance and control

New friends (at QS!)

The positives of my self-tracking experience...

If it’s all positive,,

why doesn’t everybody do it?

Constant mental budgeting

Negative self-talk on outlier days

“Some days you want to put down the pencil and just live.”- a fellow tracker

The negatives of my self-tracking experience...

There Are Always Tradeoffs

But For Me, For Now, It’s Worth It

Questions? Comments?

alexandra@curetogether.comhttp://twitter.com/accarmichael