Comment by matt1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by matt1 | Hacker News Reader

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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...

"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.

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!

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