The document details Aaron Parecki's methods of tracking personal health and activity data, including locations, sleep, and weight over various years. It discusses the tools and technologies used for data collection, such as GPS, specific apps, and email interfaces for data management. Parecki emphasizes the importance of passive data collection for later analysis, highlighting the principle of low friction in personal data gathering.

1. Low Friction
Personal
Data Collection
@aaronpk • aaronparecki.com
Quantified Self • San Francisco • October 2013

2. Things I track inconsistently
 One photo every day – off and on since 2007
 Bike Rides – Usually rides only > 1 mile – Strava
 Heart Rate – During bike rides or other activities – Strava
 Food I Eat – Aug 19-present – text file on my phone

3. Things I track consistently
 Location: GPS (since 2008) iPhone
 Location: Checkins (since 2009) Foursquare
 Sleep (since November 2011) Jawbone UP
 Weight (since October 2011) Withings Scale
@aaronpk

4. Tracking My Location
aaronparecki.com
 One decimal point of precision (about 5km)
 City name
 Local time and timezone

5. Tracking My Location
Automatic reply to an SMS
 Four decimal points of precision (within a block)
 City name
 Local time and timezone

6. Tracking My Location
Hardware GPS Logger (2007)
@aaronpk

7. Tracking My Location
GPS-Enabled Phone (2008-2009)
@aaronpk

8. Tracking My Location
Geoloqi for iPhone (2010-Present)
@aaronpk
@aaronpk

9. Tracking My Location
Stored in PostGIS
 Queryable by timestamp or by area

10. Tracking My Location
Timezone API
Created with github.com/esri/Terraformer
curl http://api.example.com/?lat=45.5118&lng=-122.6433
{
status: "ok",
timezone: "America/Los_Angeles"
}

11. Tracking My Location
SMS Interface
Google Voice
sends me an
email with the SMS
You send
me an SMS
Your
Phone
Google
Voice
Google Voice
sends you an SMS
from my phone
number
A Gmail filter
catches it and
forwards it to my
web server
Gmail
notification
of SMS
then sends an email
reply to the “from”
address of the SMS
notification
aaronparecki.com
My web server
retrieves my
location data
* it would also be simpler to use Twilio for this, but I like that the SMSs are to and from
my own number, hence the Google Voice round trip
** if you have an Android, you can just use Tasker

12. @aaronpk

13. Tracking My Weight
Publishing My Weight
aaronparecki.com/metrics

14. Tracking My Weight
Withings Wireless Scale – 2011-Present
@aaronpk

15. Tracking My Weight
Weight Data Flow
IFTTT sends me
an email with
all the data
Withings API
reports to IFTTT
Withings
Scale
IFTTT
A Gmail filter catches it
and forwards it to my
web server and creates a
new post
Gmail
notification
aaronparecki.com
* the Withings API was too difficult to use directly, so I had to go through IFTTT as a proxy. I would
love to find a simple Ruby/Sinatra or PHP app that someone else has written as a template!

16. Tracking My Weight
Withings Wireless Scale
@aaronpk

17. Tracking My Weight
Withings Wireless Scale
Geoloqi
Acquired
@aaronpk

18. Tracking My Weight
Publishing My Sleep
aaronparecki.com/metrics
 Local time based on the timezone of my location
 Includes city I slept in from my GPS data

19. Tracking My Weight
Sleep Cycle App
 Place your phone on your bed
 Requires your phone to be
plugged in
@aaronpk

20. Tracking My Weight
Original Fitbit
 To track sleep, requires you wear it
around your wrist
 I was not able to sustain this because of
the extra effort of using the wrist strap
 Long button press to put into “Sleep”
mode, gives visual feedback but no
vibration (timer starts running)
@aaronpk

21. Tracking My Sleep
Jawbone UP – 2011-Present
 Always on my wrist, so I never forget about it
 Battery lasts 8-10 days
 Long button press to put into “Sleep” mode,
gives visual and tactile feedback
@aaronpk

22. Tracking My Sleep
Sleep Logs
 Times are localized
using location data
 Timezone is found
using Terraformer
 Using a reverse
geocoder to add
City, State, Country
@aaronpk

23. Tracking My Sleep
Sleep Logs by City

24. Tracking My Sleep
Sleep Logs by City

25. Tracking My Sleep
Sleep Logs
Nov 2011 – September 2013

26. Tracking My Sleep
Sleep Logs
Nov 2011 – September 2013

27. Private
Database
@aaronpk
Public
aaronparecki.com

28. Some patterns are only
visible after looking at a
long-term dataset.
@aaronpk

29. I set up systems to passively
collect data so that I have
lots to work with later!
@aaronpk

30. Low Friction:
collect passively
analyze actively
@aaronpk • aaronparecki.com