Comments on: Personal Analytics: The Next Big Thing in Self Improvement?

By: Kirisute Gomen

Kirisute Gomen — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:24:42 +0000

interesting post!

I wonder how many of us would actually take self improvement to the extend like Jim Colins did?

when i look around i find most people aren’t even honest in filling out a timesheet at work

By: Adam Krawczyk

Adam Krawczyk — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:40:21 +0000

It’s brilliant to come across like minded people!
We’re just developing tool for doing that in unobstructive and simple as you can only imagine way! Please sing up for beta testing on http://www.StatsCollector.com and help us to build it!

By: Kristian Dupont

Kristian Dupont — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:45:25 +0000

I have made a small Pomodoro app called CherryTomato – http://www.beatpoints.com/cherrytomato
When you finish a pomodoro (see http://www.pomodorotechnique.com if you are not familiar with it), you can rate it. This information is stored, so at some point I am hoping that this data will be interesting to mine – when am I being productive? Comparing this to say, sleep data or eating habits could perhaps give me some insight into what really affects my productivity..

By: Three Essential Things to Track in Your Life

Three Essential Things to Track in Your Life — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:01:51 +0000

[...] (follow me on Twitter) , March 15, 2010 Advertisements A few months ago I wrote a post on personal analytics. There I discussed how more and more people make their life decisions based on numbers. They [...]

By: Vikram

Vikram — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:41:36 +0000

I don’t think I can agree with any of you guys. Everything in life “should” not be perfect. I consider my life (driven more by intuition; numbers only get to help) very close to perfect compared to others. Now if everyone gets perfect, then there is no scale of comparison, and that becomes level-zero then, then none of us are perfect, back to square-one!

Also, maybe all the math models will fail if they are all pitched against each other!

And besides, our heads are all neural networks, which can basically do anything, and only 2% of their total capacity is utilized. We just need to put these network to more work, and I am sure that in the case of man, Darwin’s theory will kick in and act magically quickly in a couple hundred years. There will be no need for computers then.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:47:15 +0000

Great post! I can certainly attest to the fact that measuring progress objectively is great for making more progress. I’ve done several experiments with measuring different aspects of my life already and it was often very interesting. The biggest problem is keeping up with all the tracking. For example, I also used stop-watches to time different activities for a while, much like it’s described in this article. I couldn’t keep the habit up, though, because it’s quite a bit of bother to always remember when to stop one and start the next timer and then logging all of that. Automatic tracking devices are certainly the way to go here.

By: Donald Latumahina

Donald Latumahina — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:11:55 +0000

Steve,
Nice examples. Personal analytics is still relatively new, so most people will need time for transition.

Jonathan,
I agree. If it works for individuals as it works for companies then it can greatly improve many people’s lives.

By: jonathanfigaro

jonathanfigaro — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:01:22 +0000

An advancement indeed is what i call it. Living my numbers and not by intuition is what i believe to be a next level, when it pertains to strucring ones life. Yet, it may be confusing for some at first it can create an organized life for millions.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:28:33 +0000

This is one heck of a great post. All the very good business people I respect do this both for themselves and their business. JB Glossinger @morningcoach, does this for himself, recording his spending and eating habits daily. @websuccessdiva is meticulous about using Google Analytics, and @timferris is the same for his site and business. Being more right brained, I struggle with this, but need to marry the right brain with the left side of my brain :)

By: Donald Latumahina

Donald Latumahina — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:34:58 +0000

J.D.,
Micro-feedback loops… love that term :)

Kaizan,
That’s the problem we now have. I myself hope that it will be easier over time.

Dan,

I think a careful plan to measure only a small subset of important information is perhaps the trick.

I agree with you. We should collect only the data that can help us make the most difference. By the way, looks like I need to check the tool you mentioned.

Randy,
There is indeed danger with this approach. That being said, I still believe it’s good for some aspects in life. Time management and energy management come to mind.

Paul,
Yes, the book is an eye-opener. Have a great week too.

Avani,
What I love about numbers is they can give us awareness. Sometimes we don’t see how serious a problem is until we see the numbers.