quantified self jan 09 - the personal side of tracking
DESCRIPTION
What I learned after 5 months of tracking my health.TRANSCRIPT
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
