I've Been Tracking Everything in My Life for A Year

From “To Do” to “Done”: How I tracked my life

How Habitually Works

Habitually focuses on what has been accomplished. The user interface illustrates the answers to the question of what has been “done” and by how much on any given day. Only actions that are “present” will be visible, while the rest are tidied away.

The Data Structure

Every action is represented by a nested map. Here’s the hierarchy:

• Outer map: This stores each date in the yyyymmdd format as an Integer for its key and the inner maps as values.

• Inner map: This stores the time in milliseconds since 1970 as its key. Its value is a double representing the score of the action recorded for the given time.

20231004{

    1696408920000: 11.0,

    1696410049833: 3.0

},

20231005: {

    1696488060000: 7.25

}

Despite minor redundancy, this structure allows for quick searches and easy sorting. It’s especially useful for sorting a list of actions into “present” and “absent” for the UI.

Should Location Data Be Included in the App’s Tracking? 

Location data could potentially provide insights into daily routines and habits. However, it’s important to consider whether location should be included in the tracking. Could it not be viewed as a dependent context that surrounds actions? Moreover, its inclusion could complicate self-tracking and reflection. While location data can be informative, it’s important to ensure that it doesn’t cloud the primary purpose of the app, which is to track and reflect on my actions.

How did I track my well-being?

I used three questions involving smiley faces and a 5-point Likert scale (Bad, Displeased, Neutral, OK, Good) to track my well-being. My aim was to keep the experience as simple as possible and minimise over-analysis or discomfort with in-depth self-reflection. While individual data points may not be 100% accurate, they offer insights over time, with minimal focus on any single day.

I experimented with how I could frame the questions I asked myself. For now, I have tried to create one present reflection and one future reflection, but I will probably revisit this at a later date.

Reflecting on my Well-being Using Bayesian Statistics

During the early days of development, while going through the backlog of Veritasium videos, I watched “The Bayesian Trap”. The video discusses how our own internal Bayesian abilities are flawed and concludes that we should check the priors (opinions) of our own daily lives. As one commenter put it, “Came for the mathematical insight, stayed for the existential crisis.”

Determined to use this concept in my app, I saw its potential for evaluating my life and, in turn, taking action to get my house in order. Better yet, all this unbiased ruminating can be left to the app. With well-being data being provided daily, it would gather a more accurate picture of my life in the same timeframe. Relaying back the likely impact my actions have on me, giving me the chance daily to reflect and respond to these now updated priors.

My current implementation

In my current implementation, I use a Naïve Bayes Classifier. I define an “instance” as any given day, the “categories” as the well-being outcome for that day, and the “features” as every action I am tracking.

A unique challenge arises due to the evolving nature of the data: actions can be added or removed at any point, and additional instances are created daily. This requires the features to be flexible. For each feature, I incorporate three states:

• ? (Nonexistence): The action had not been added to the app yet.

• 0 (Absent): The action existed but was not performed.

• 1 (Present): The action was performed.

In its current state, only present features are being learned and classified. Considering it is a “Done” journal, this is the evaluation in its most basic form. However, adding absence and existence into these calculations remains an open question but requires handling multiple cases surrounding infinitely changing data. Mainly, what needs addressing are:

• Can the nonexistence of actions be utilised in calculations that brings value? For example, potentially using this to normalise data, especially if I begin to use the data for prediction.

• How to balance the weight between presence and absence, and does this calculation involve existence?

My Struggles with Actioning Well-being Insights

With an autopilot of my own, everything should have been smooth sailing. However, the turbulence has never felt more painful. Despite being more informed than ever, I questioned why I wasn’t smart enough to avoid flying into storms. This led me to a nurture vs nature debate, where I wrestled with the question: Can you change your identity? I wondered if I was simply priming myself to go against my nature and, in doing so, causing more harm.

There isn’t much discourse when it comes to experimenting with change. Listicles or blogs often suggest that you stop thinking about your wants and simply choose an action and work on it. Alternatively, they propose that instead of focusing on goals and aspirations, you should choose the processes of a successful life and live it.

Delving into the Grey Area 

What often falls short is the belief in binary good and bad, something that my application had inadvertently reinforced. Little thought is given to figuring out why, how much of something, and in what context, to achieve the desired balance in our lives.

As someone who struggles with inaction and being frozen, even when I intellectually understand “what is good and bad,” this gap between knowledge and action felt like a major roadblock. I believe it devalues, at least for me, the categorisation of good and bad. This is just the tip of the iceberg of mindless living and controlling actions. I can remove every tip, but the foundations that make up a poor action will always persist.

My initial approach to solving the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of each action has been through:

• Providing Contextual Information: I can now access data regarding frequency, timing, and potential variations in impact based on quantity.

• Relative information: By ranking each action in its category, it adds greater clarity and makes these categorisations feel more flexible.

How Have I Been?

Putting the same data onto a line chart makes revisiting those moments of progress until the almost inevitable crash a less enjoyable experience. It’s a gut punch to witness my struggles associated with managing my physical well-being (something I value a lot).

Stats and Findings

My Actions as a Whole

Developing Habitually

Its only appropriate that we start our journey of oversharing with my work on developing Habitually. From the initial MVP, all my life has since been recorded.

It’s fascinating to observe the natural phases of development, testing, and debugging from the charts, especially the year view.

Any peak represents the floodgates opening for creating features that I’ve jotted down or reshuffles in the app. Meanwhile, quieter months are spent researching how the app could grow and evolve, working on any debugging that would be flagged up by crashes or misbehaviours.

Insights from the charts could be taken away on either a micro or macro level. On a micro level, developing Habitually is simply a negative physical influence, and it’s perhaps truly one of the worst things in my life. However, a deeper and more thoughtful explanation is how I am inherently more likely to enact better mental health options but make more unhealthy physical well-being choices, among other things.

YouTube Observations

Sleep

This observation has inspired me to model the quantity of my sleep against my well-being.

Something that this has inspired is modelling the quantity of my sleep against well-being. Surprisingly the trends found are insignificant, the amount of sleep I get essentially has no say on my well-being on any given day. With so much information regarding the importance of sleep I have nothing of value beyond an insight that the amount of sleep in my life is overshadowed by other more impactful factors.

Surprisingly, the trends found are insignificant. The amount of sleep I get essentially has no impact on my well-being on any given day. Despite so much information emphasising the importance of sleep, I’ve found that the amount of sleep in my life is overshadowed by other, potentially more impactful factors.

Another aspect of this relationship is the impact of the time I wake up on my well-being. This can be inferred from the timestamp I record my sleep data on.

Considering the much stronger trendline fitness explaining more of the variation in well-being based on the time I woke up, could it be argued that this correlation is inherently more causal? Waking up earlier correlates with more activity and less sloth-like behavior. Would forcing myself to wake up earlier with no plans further investigate this?

For a little more accuracy and understanding, here are the findings of a regression analysis of my sleep behaviour on my well-being:

• Mental Well-being: Waking up later seems to have a significant negative effect on mental well-being, while the number of minutes slept doesn’t seem to significantly affect it.

• Physical Well-being: Neither the time I woke up nor the number of minutes slept seem to have a significant effect on physical well-being.

• Social Well-being: Again, neither the time I woke up nor the number of minutes slept seem to significantly affect social well-being.

(NOTE)

I have left the results for the regression analysis above that can be expanded and collapsed as I am not 100% confident in my understanding of them.

Web & Social Observations

Distraught by the realisation of my daily reliance on the news, I began skipping days of news consumption in November. On some days, I consciously ask myself if I truly need to read the news, while on other days, I unconsciously skip it outright.

Reddit Usage

In addition, I want to focus on my Reddit consumption, which was always recorded post-consumption, unlike the other two. This means that after using Reddit, I would refresh the screen time use of the app and add it into the journal.

Across the board, going beyond 20 minutes has more negative impacts on my well-being. Is my unconscious reduction because I had innately understood the diminishing returns of Reddit and became a lot more utilitarian about my usage?

As previously mentioned, I find it challenging to utilise this information effectively. Only through introspection have I arrived at the conclusion that I want to reduce my cereal consumption. More importantly, I aim to be less rigid in my choices, opting instead for experimentation with a wider variety of options.

Reflecting on my cardio and gym stats, I see parallels with other aspects of my life. Just as I maintain regular haircuts and engage consistently in DIY tasks.

These stats, much like my haircut, DIY, and car washing routines, should not be viewed as transactional or burdensome tasks, but rather as part of a maintenance and upkeep routine that contributes to my overall well-being. This is a shift from my previous approach, where I would go to the gym six days a week until I achieved a thinly veiled goal.

Reflections and Improvements

In the lead-up to writing this article, I must confess, I cheated.

Maybe in planning for this section, I started a side journal in a note-taking app. There, I quickly captured any thoughts and feelings related to what I was doing. This was mainly to prevent these final sections from devolving into incoherent ramblings.

Technical Reflections

Before I highlight the current shortcomings of Habitually and suggest solutions, I find it necessary to unambiguously define the two main pillars that Habitually comprises of:

1. The base application that is capable and usable as a data-driven journal.

2. Anything related to driving the translations or illustrating insights to the user, all to serve their own curiosity and journey

A majority of the work in the previous year went towards the first objective, and I am more than satisfied with the UX. However, there are a few additions or tweaks to be made to which I am open to suggestions and look forward to. As well as some obstacles to overcome, mostly surrounding the second objective. 

Misinterpreting Likelihood as Fact:

While it wont go away, the current arrow-based impact signals are, at most, worth being considered as coloured flags. One of my biggest pet peeves is the determination of things as good and bad. And, it did not take too long for my BS detector to take notice of these signals.

Not only can tweaking calculations influence outcomes, but with infinite data and possibilities, these signals only function to test our own expected priors (outcomes) as they evolve. I had hoped to sway its influence a little more by implementing relative rankings in hopes of increasing fluidity in the categories. However, this was not enough. Hence, the solution I began producing in October was:

Reflecting on emotions and behaviours surrounding each action, mainly through the “Introspection of the Day” feature. Here, every action is given the same question which would prod into the why and how, essentially beginning a conversation surrounding my actions.

Soon, I would also like the “Introspection of the Day” to save my responses to each question as they come, allowing for not just multiple answers to the same question but an ability to observe my answers over time. This would provide greatly needed context and insight into my behaviour and feelings regarding these flags.

Data Quality

Not all tracked data is relevant to learning, and this affects how actions are measured. For example, my tracking of sleep duration is a daily entry, inflating its influence on the model even though it is a non-actionable data point. This is also one of the strongest cases right now against adding location tracking.

For me the initial solution will be to add a opt-in button filtering out from learning any actions that have opted in. Also, if I was to implement some filter prior to learning this could be an avenue for location tracking to be added as I could outright deny any location related context being learnt on.

My initial solution will be to add an opt-in button, filtering out from learning any actions that have been opted in. With this potentially being the way location tracking being implemented.

Lack of Supporting Models and Analyses

Only through this exercise has there been a recognition of a lack of models or charts to showcase deeper relationships within the data. From within my own report, I have identified a need for categorising the data. Without it, I may have never truly become aware of my content addiction, and larger macro trends in my life that only come from relationships beyond a single action and my well-being.

Lifestyle Reflections

Here, I aim to reflect on the role Habitually has played in my life and how it has transformed my lifestyle over the course of a year.

Creating this article has been a journey in itself. The phrase “I don’t know what to write” has often surfaced, sometimes as a placeholder, sometimes as a serious opener. This being my first article, I could describe the entire experience as a test of confidence, and optimism. At times, I’ve struggled with the realisation that I’m just at the beginning of a journey to understand who I am and what I desire.

Never before have I had such extensive knowledge of my personal history. Which is at odds with how I feel my actions and life is boundless and fluid in my head. Its as if since delving into the intricacies of my life has made it harder to analyse why I am who I am and not some multi-dimensional variation. While I’m learning to move beyond regret, reflecting on my past has brought forth my own insecurities on my situation. My actions and identity have closed many doors, some of which may never open again. But I can no longer dwell on the “ifs” and must focus on what’s next. There are still infinite doors open, and even backdoors to those I once considered closed.

It may be maturity, but I now believe that my current situation is probably where I’m meant to be. I’ve started to reel in the possibilities of what I can do and want to do. By understanding my present state and location, I can prioritise what truly matters to me. A 16-hour day full of infinite choices is meaningless; only the weight of actioning them is meaningful.

Since starting this project, I’ve found a way to contextualise all my actions and purpose. I haven’t always appreciated what’s right in front of me, often seeking greener pastures and neglecting my own. By emulating the scientific approach to my life of —observation, hypothesis, experimentation, repeat—I hope to achieve my wants and expectations. I don’t want to delude myself into thinking I have full creative control, but being mindful enough to monitor my complacencies and believe in myself is a significant step forward from where I started.

Most importantly, from my observations that life doesn’t magically transform within a year. Change is often slow, and setbacks and backsliding are inevitable during challenging times. It may seem appropriate to average or distribute my well-being stats to evaluate my progress, but I believe that’s misguided. There’s never a “correct” time to determine whether you’re happier or healthier etc in relative terms.

Ultimately, it’s strange to recognise all this information and even stranger to feel indifferent about my actions. There’s a lot of shame and chastising online about people’s lives, but the only course of action is compassion, not self-hatred. I can’t hate my consumption of YouTube, especially if it’s an action I continue to make. What I can do is question whether I should watch this video now and why not at some other time?

Conclusions

I want to start with a massive thank you for getting this far. This piece has occupied my thoughts for several months. Initially, it was intended to join the annual productivity and life-hacking discussions that take place in December and January. However, I struggled with its purpose and development.

Perhaps in a year’s time, I could analyse what change truly looks like. But for the year just passed, I feel not only accountable but also, for the first time, supported and confident about my life decisions. I would describe this as emotional maturation, as my understanding of my thoughts and feelings has gradually increased.

While I’m still prone to making short-term, impulsive decisions, being aware of them has significantly reduced their frequency compared to before this experience. I can now let go of self-loathing. I have a clearer understanding of what a balanced life looks like for me.

I like to think of this journal as a GPS, similar to Google Maps. It provides me with all the relevant information about the journeys I want to undertake, but it never takes control. I may deviate from the route, but I can always find my way back. I can choose to speed up or slow down, but it will continuously guide me.

Revisiting the iceberg metaphor from earlier, we often focus on the few visible actions in our lives, labelling them as “good” or “bad,” with little regard for the underlying behaviours that extend far deeper. The healthiest way to start uncovering what lies beneath is not to immediately start hacking your lifestyle or focusing all your efforts on a few aspects. Instead, quickly track and note your daily activities. A rough estimate suggests that I spent an average of a few minutes daily on tracking. Even if that doubles to four minutes per day, a year of journaling amounts to just 24 hours.

Eventually, you can start to contemplate the actions you’re taking, with a better understanding allowing for more thoughtful action. Be intentional with this introspection and self-evaluation, like setting aside a day in your calendar for it. It was months before I began to recognise any deeper patterns and relationships, with this article perhaps being my first serious attempt.

To quote Derek from Veritasium, “Our actions play a role in determining outcomes, determining how true things are.” So, in a similar vein to his closing statements, ask yourself: What areas in your life are you curious about?

What has been most valuable is realising that almost no advice can beat a series of important questions, feelings, and thoughts that you can ask yourself. What areas in your life are you curious about? What actions can you observe? And is your opinion or hypothesis on this action backed up by any hard truths?