DATA-DRIVEN Life

We are all programmed and programming ourselves.

It would be foolish not to note how and why we feel a certain way.

We chalk it up to, “Waking up on the wrong side of the bed”, “Just not feeling it”, “Bad days”, but why?

There has to be a reason.

We are potentially making the same mistakes that lead us to feel a certain negative way, but we aren’t keeping track of our actions, so it’s nearly impossible to find the origin or cause of our issues and ailments.

We are hyper-focused on the data on Climate Change, Stock Market Trends, and Health Epidemics, but why do we have no data on ourselves?

It has been made clear that although it can reduce the beauty and spontaneity of life to mere numbers, it also can reduce great negative statistics to mere occurrences.

So how can we take data on ourselves?

Let’s work with what we have now.

• Google Sheets
• Notes App
• Calendar
• Food Tracker: MyFitnessPal
• Screen Time
• Mood Trackers: Moodfit

It’s hard to fix an issue that you don’t understand. Not tracking is choosing ignorance.

You don’t have to track forever; you don’t have to reduce every facet of your life to a statistic/number/pattern.

What do trainers do to get results? Track and push you.

What do doctors do to see how you’re doing? Ask questions and get data through blood tests.

What do teachers do to see how you’re doing? Ask questions and get data through tests.

What do athletes do to see how they’re doing? Time themself, Test their max, Get feedback.

What do kids applying to colleges do? See how their stats compare to the stats of previous admits.

I like to track my screen time, so I can feel like a fool when I get that weekly report and use that embarrassment to make a change.

I like to track what I eat, so I am not annoyed by a lack of progress or a gain of fat rather than muscle. Of course, I am still annoyed by not getting the results I want, but it’s now the speed of the results vs the wrong results.

I like to track my workouts to see my progress or realize what I need to work on. I can see that my lifts have stagnated over the past few months, meaning I am not recovering well enough or pushing myself hard enough.

I like to track my coding progress through quizzes, tests, and projects so I do not lose what I have already learned and can see what I have to learn.’

I track my attitude and view toward life by simply reflecting. If you reflect properly, then you will be objective.

I track how I feel and derive why I feel that way by simply writing notes in my notes app.

What works for me may not work for you. What an article suggests may work for you, but not for me.

I am slowly figuring myself out and what clicks with me via taking data on my life.