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...

The comments were polarized... Positive: “Fascinating stuff” “A good direct method to effect change” “I'd love to track this kind of data about myself, make plots, draw conclusions”

Negative: “Bahh” “Eeeh” “OCD” “TMI” Speculations about my sex life Narcissism

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) Start Average End 2,700 2000 2,025 130.0 118 97.5 1,350 10.0 5.00 4 8 65.0 7.5 2.50 675 5.0 0 32.5 2.5 -2.50 0 0 0 -5.00 Weight Sleep Calories Mood

The positives of my self-tracking experience... Lost 5 pounds Measurably improved mood Greater feelings of balance and control New friends (at QS!)

If it’s all positive, , why doesn’t everybody do it?

The negatives of my self-tracking experience... Constant mental budgeting Negative self-talk on outlier days “Some days you want to put down the pencil and just live.”- a fellow tracker

There Are Always Tradeoffs

But For Me, For Now, It’s Worth It

Questions? Comments? alexandra@curetogether.com http://twitter.com/accarmichael

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Quantified Self Jan 09 - The Personal Side Of Tracking

by Alexandra Carmichael on Feb 18, 2009

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