Personal Science - Some Numbers

[justbeast]

I started out telling a story, of what I've been searching for and moving towards, and how I came to these numbers, and why I think they're important.
But that post got too long. So I'll talk about the numbers first, and then post an explanation/backstory. (Bad sign, huh? - skipping the foreplay

Comments

[amynicole717]

I really enjoyed this post and believe it may have inspired me to again begin making goals and tracking them as well. I used to do it and got so much more accomplished. And now I don't do anything for myself except work - ha.

May I share this post with a friend who would appreciate it?

[justbeast]

Sure, of course!

[roozle]

I know one very smart articulate writer who would agree with you, Atul Gawande, who writes mostly about medical topics but writes about how observing and measuring are two of the key skills we need for improving anything we want to improve. Check out his book Better. I'm not a hundred percent sure of that title ...

[justbeast]

Sounds awesome, thank you!

[justbeast]

Oh man, his books sound great (Better, and the Checklist manifesto). Onto the to-read list they go!

[firebirdgrrl]

These are all such good ideas. I've been using the Pomodoro (mixed success over the past couple months:/ but I really want to get back on the er, tomato.) I also love the idea of the other times, since mostly I've been noodling around--I expected a certain amount of that with being sick, but I so want to accomplish something right now.

I am now on the graph train-I'll post a followup,too!

[justbeast]

The thought that strikes me, reading my post (aside from "I'm a gamer freak") is - it's a blessing and a privilege, to be in a mental space and have the luxury to track stuff. To have one's head above the water for long enough to jot down some numbers.
I don't always have the energy to do it, to have my head above the water. I suspect you won't either. It's ok, you can back-fill the data on other days, best as you can remember. The idea is to slowly make it a habit, right, gradual attention.

[firebirdgrrl]

Gamer freaks are awesome!

Also, good tips. Thanks for adding those.

[atheorist]

Like lots of people, I've thought of doing something like this, but you're ahead of me in actually doing it. (Actually a year ago or so, I did track my lines of code / hour - I got faster, but eventually decided I was churning out "easy" code

[justbeast]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I decided against tracking lines of code. (I have many more thoughts on code, in general). But I figured, hey, if I just track units of focused code time, it'll help (and it's not as easy to cheat).

Have I thought about combining into one success number? No, for the reason exactly related to your suggestion. :) That is, my knowledge of math and stats is insufficient. And I'm ashamed to say it, because, I learned this stuff in college, etc. But promptly forgot. So I would have no idea how. Perhaps I need to consult with you on this.

[matt_arnold]

How do you record these things? Time-tracking is a chore in itself, and steals massive amounts of concentration. Useful work and remembering to track are mutually exclusive. What I want is some kind of device I can carry on me that is able to automatically record some sort of event without my intervention.

[justbeast]

I agree with you, time tracking is a serious impediment. (And part of the reason behind my choice of numbers & units - cause they're the easiest ones to track

[matt_arnold]

Sex is easy. (at least the counting it part is :) )
"Roll over, I can't reach my iPhone"!

[justbeast]

Precisely :)