Well-being: my not very scientific experiment

Three months ago, I started an experiment.

Since I started proper work, I’ve worked very, very, very hard. I’ve been all about achieving as much as I can in as short amount of time as possible. It’s been a big rush.

Last year, though, I started to get more migraines than I have in the past so that prompted a long hard look at what I was doing. I worked out that I needed to change something — migraines are no fun and they were making me less productive at work and outside of it.

At the same time, I got interested in habit formation and read Charles Duhigg’s excellent book on it. I learnt that habits are only changed by persistent and deliberate effort to change. That’s pretty obvious — think how many smokers fail in their goal. Habits can be changed with rewards too. If you reward persistent and deliberate behaviour change, behaviours are more likely to become habits.

So I decided to try changing my habits to positively impact my well-being.

The method is in the madness…

I’m reflective so I noted 11 habits (or factors) that I did when I either got a migraine or felt like I could get one. These aren’t perfect — I’ll explain why later. But they gave me something to focus on. The factors/habits are:

Did I wake up before my alarm (6.15)?
Did I leave the office after 5.30?
Did I buy coffee out (coffee’s a dehydrator and I have a coffee machine at home, so buying is bit silly)
Did I fail to go for a run? (running outside is a new love of mine)
Did anyone annoy me? (I’m placid, so this takes a lot!)
Did I eat bread? (I bring my own lunch, so eating a sandwich is stupid)
Did I buy food out? (largely a chocolate bar — quick need for sugary snack)
Did I work from the same desk all day? (being mobile is better for me, the lighting can cause migraines)
More than 5 hours in meetings? (similar to the above — too much time in meetings causes dehydration, poor eating, poor lighting etc)
No break and walk outside (similar to the above)
Have I been on my blackberry after 7?

I then made a spreadsheet with these factors as columns and the days of the week as rows. Every evening, I would log on and give a score of 1 if I did one of these things and 0 if I didn't. I didn’t do it at the weekend, it’s made with an obvious work focus. I then added a total column of the bad habits that I could do each day and how many was I doing — and put that as a percentage. I’ve done this over 65 working days.

Put simply, it’s a mathematical journal.

The vital statistics…

I do 4 bad habits each day
I wake up before my alarm on 70% of working days
I wake up before my alarm on 85% of Mondays but only 35% of Fridays
I leave after 5.30 on 30% of work days and I’m on the blackberry after 7.30 on only 10% of work days (very pleased with that!)
1 in 4 work days has more than 5 hours of meetings in it.
I buy coffee on 80% of work days (eek, that’s £150 over these 65 days)
Someone annoys me on 13% of work days (this is high, for me)
I don’t get a break outside for even 5 minutes on 1 in 3 workdays
I buy something chocolate based on 40% of workdays
There isn’t really a trend to the data across the time period (i.e. i’m not doing fewer things as the year goes on, it is volatile)
I run on 1 in 3 work days

And when I analyse the data by day…

60% of Mondays or Fridays I eat bread. That’s because I don’t make lunch on Monday and I’ve run out of food by Friday
I spend more than 5 hours in meetings on 54% of Thursdays compared to only 14% of Mondays and 15% of Fridays
I haven’t been on my blackberry after 7 on any Monday or Friday
I’m least likely to run on a Wednesday (I only run on 20% of them compared to 50% of Thursdays)
I wake up before my alarm between 75%-85% of Monday-Thursday but only 35% of Fridays
Thursday is the day that I’m most likely to leave late — 50% of days I leave after 5
I’m least likely to take a break outside on Thursday or Friday
My total well-being is lowest on a Wednesday and highest on a Friday

Some learning from doing this…

I e-mailed Nic Marks, CEO and founder of Happiness Works to tell him what I was up to and to see what he thought. He said a few things:

“Quantifying yourself — nice :)” — I’ll take that, I’m a sucker for praise
“You know quantifying behaviours that lead to wellbeing is interesting and tricky — due to the challenge of being ‘particular’ about something holistic — for me having an alarm clock wake me up is a negative — bread not an issue” — so we all have our own habits/factors
“there was lots of research on being grateful for good things (“three good things”) but then is it the three good things or is it the reflective process (eg like mindfulness)” — is this intrinsic in what I’m doing?
“I am sure bringing into awareness is a good thing anyways” — just the act of doing it might bring benefits.

I found all of this to be really interesting.

By turning the spreadsheet into something I care about, it’s made me care about avoiding these habits. I remember on a few days, having my chimp (Steve Peters style) say “switch the blackberry on and have a look”. But because I know that will hit my scores, I resist. It’s the same for craving a Snickers — I’ll resist and have a satsuma instead, all because of the scores. After a while, the chimp goes quiet.

By making me think about these things, it’s made me more present. This is the mindfulness link that Nic talks about. It’s made my actively think about what I’m feeling and why, noting it and then doing something about it (or not).

It’s not a perfect model…

Having thought a lot about the habits and factors, they’re a little confused and a far from perfect. This wouldn’t pass the PhD test. Some are causes of tension and some are results— they’re very circular.

Waking up before my alarm can cause stress but it can also be as a result of stress (it might not be anything though — my alarm might be set incorrectly and I might need at actually get up at 5.30). Some get at the same thing — 5 hours in meetings, no break outside, buying a coffee/food outside are all getting implying that the day is just too packed and I’m trying to make space for a break however best I can.

The final bit of this blog…

As I went through the 65 or so days, the relationship between the spreadsheet and my actual feelings started to break down. I was scoring quite high on bad habits (no run, checking e-mails too late, buying coffees, no break) but I was happy and no sign of a migraine.

But I know — and have learnt — that I need to watch this cycle because bad habits can come back quickly. Before you know it, i won’t be looking after myself and the migraines are back. So I will persist.

The spreadsheet itself and the habits probably don’t matter. What does matter is that I’ve made an active choice to look after my well-being and I concentrate and practice it, hard. I’m stripping out the things I do but don’t value and making sure I have more of what I do value - time outside, not constantly doing work. The spreadsheet is by commitment device to do that.

This is all a bit alien to me. I’ve been obsessed by work in the past, trying to achieve as much as I can. I still am. But to take a deliberate choice to focus on myself too can feel odd— everyone else is e-mailing after 7, and I’m not. I’m slacking.

I know that this school of thought is a old school and out-dated. I know I’m not. If anything, my work performance is better, i’m in a much better frame of mind. I know that a burnt out me is no good to anyone- so I’m persisting and hope more people convert to the cause!