Comment by matt1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matt1 | Hacker News Reader

Hey guys,

I've been using a paper-and-pen-based life tracking system for some time and have benefited a lot from it, so I decided to take some time and build it into a web app that others can use too.

Life tracking, for those of you not familiar with it, is the process of tracking things going on in your life for both analysis and improvement. For example, each day I track things related to my health such as whether or not I exercised or ran, what I ate for each meal, and whether or not I stretched at some point during the day. I also track things related to the products I'm working on such as marketing activities, a summary of what I accomplished that day and what my objectives are tomorrow.

Unlike most other life tracking tools, this system is meant to be used once at the end of each day and should take no more than a few minutes to complete. Not only do you benefit from the analysis of your daily reports, but you also benefit just by making them because it forces you to be accountable for what you're doing each day. I highly recommend trying it, if only for a week or two to see whether or not it helps in your life.

My goal from the start was to build and launch this in four weeks of nights and weekends effort; today is exactly four weeks so I'm launching despite one or two rough edges. I'm very open to feedback so if there's anything you'd like me to add or change just let me know.

Thanks for checking it out. -- Matt

I really think you should check out iDoneThis, and emulate their once a day email system. Parsing the responses would be a bit harder than what they do, but not a huge challenge.

Would you mind sharing some of the conclusions you came about thanks to your tracking ?

I think when a lot of people hear the phrase life tracking they associate it with conclusions like drinking an extra half an ounce of water each meal reduced my caloric intake by 6.6% and I think that can be a bit overwhelming and it discourages people from trying it out (sounds like a lot of work!).

Stats and analysis are far less important for me than the act of tracking. Knowing that I'm accountable for my decisions makes me much more likely to make positive choices. For example, I've been trying to cut back on coffee. Knowing that I drink 1.2 or 0.8 coffees per day has far less of an impact on me than knowing that at the end of the day I'm going to have to go in and check "Yes" next to my coffee item. It sounds ridiculous, but it works.

Sebastian Marshall has written extensively about life tracking, which is how I originally got into it. His What Gets Measured Gets Managed post is an excellent primer:

http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/what-gets-measured-gets-man...

Yes, Sebastian & you, the act of tracking works. Illustration: https://didthis-actionwiki.appspot.com/user/umjasnik/stats tracking of building an action/habit/lifehacks tracking tool http://didth.is (still beta lots of work to do). Way to go Matt!

"Knowing that I'm accountable for my decisions makes me much more likely to make positive choices."

I found a very similar effect when I started taking pictures of everything I ate and drank for a few weeks. My intention was to eventually write an iPhone app specifically for taking these pictures and tagging them with food items, having the phone tabulate overal nutrition information ,etc.

Turns out I never ended up having time to write that app, but what I noticed was that the simple act of taking the pictures (without ever reviewing them) was enough to force me to stop and think about what I was about to eat, and that was enough to affect a change in my diet.

That app already exists: The Eatery https://eatery.massivehealth.com/

The blurb from their website, and yes, it is a really useful app once you commit to actually taking the pictures:

>>Want to take real steps to improve your eating habits? Use The Eatery to snap photos of your food. We’ll give you something much more helpful than calorie counts. We’ll provide a big-picture breakdown of your habits, including your strengths, weaknesses, and the best places to start making a change. Other apps tell you about your food. We tell you about yourself.

Matt,

I was doing this via a Google Form + iftt. Would be happy to show you my system and some of the things I learned. Drop me a line? Allen@Acceleprise.vc

PS Just signed up!

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