I’m using a prototype of the 1-Button tracker from Totti Labs to learn about my meditation practice.
Background
I’ve been meditating with some regularity since 1997. For about 7 years, between 2010 and and 2017, I used Robin Barooah’s Equanimity App to track my sessions. I learned a lot from the first few years of data I gathered using this app: for instance, I found out that my average number of days in my “runs” (consecutive days meditating) was 9, and that I went through many periods, especially in mid-summer and mid-winter, where I meditated on only about 1/2 the days in the month. Overall, tracking my meditation helped me be more patient with myself, allowing myself to intentionally reduce the amount of time I planned to meditate each day during periods when I knew it would be difficult.
My new experiment is at a different scale. I’m using a prototype of the 1-Button Tracker* to record the times I consciously direct my attention to my practice when I’m sitting. I’m very curious how often I do this, and also about whether my data will show a change in frequency over a month. I’ll make some more notes about why I chose to measure this and what I’ve learned so far as the days goes go on.
*The 1-Button Tracker is open instrumentation designed by our collaborators at Totti Labs. The goal is to make it easier to reliably and privately record the time of observations. The prototype I’m using has a microcontroller from Adafruit in a 3-D printed case. It’s made by Jakob Eg Larson and Thomas Christianson.
In the 19 days since first posting, I’ve measured “returning” on 5 days. However, I’m not going to analyze this data in any detail because I’ve mostly been exploring the instrumentation. The 1-Button tracker should produce both a physical click and a vibration (produced by a small electric motor) when the button is pressed to confirm that an observation has been recorded. However, in my prototype the click and the vibration do not always coincide. Looking at the data confirms that when there is a click but no vibration the observation is not recorded in the data store. My prototype (#5) requires a hard press to get the haptic response.
Here are some thoughts and lessons from the process so far.
Overall, the project has held my interest and still seems worthwhile. The main value so far has been:
Testing that “returning” was a distinct, voluntary action that I could easily observe.
Testing if I could attempt to record the observation with the 1-Button without too much distraction.
Both of these tests could be carried out even if the technical process of recording the observation failed when the button was clicked. What I learned was:
I know when I’m returning. In fact, because what I’m tracking is exactly the feeling of willful redirection of my attention, it’s an especially easy thing to notice. In meditation, I catch myself daydreaming, rehearsing a family conversation or worrying about something I forgot to do at work or thinking about how we can defeat the racist lowlifes who are governing the country, and I tell myself: “enough of that for now, return to your meditation.” Since I’m doing this proiject, I also think: “OK, I’m returning.” Yes, it’s distinct and noticeable.
Since the 1-Button is small and fits easily in my hand in a normal position, I can add the click without changing very much about my practice. It’s not distracting to make the click. However, it is distracting to notice whether or not the vibration has occurred, and to press harder if it hasn’t. This seemingly minor issue creates a much longer period of time in which I’m focused on the 1-Button, and brings a lot of thinking in its wake. It also produces irritation: “oh, rats, it failed to vibrate again.” Then I calm my irritation: “It’s only a test, don’t worry about it.” Then I return again, and wonder if that deserves a second press. Then I laugh at the absurdity of this process, and think about all the failed machinery I’ve seen in my life, the ridiculous processes that had some logic or justification when proposed but just ended up breaking or making everybody miserable even if they didn’t break. I picture Boyle trying a demo of the vacuum pump in front of a few Royal Society swells gripping his hair like a character in Mad Magazine. I suppress this train of thought and return again. How long was I gone? Should I press return again?? In other words: nope, no good. I think this result is useful because it shows there is a low threshold of “unacceptable effort.” Though the device is conceptually simple, it has to meet fairly demanding design requirements to work at all.
Another lesson, which I’m going to explore more, is that returning, while distinct, has varying strength. I’m only attempting to notice returning when I’ve genuinely forgotten - even for a moment - that I’m meditating. Under these circumstances, the effort of bringing myself back is very obvious. There are other instances where I’m having multiple trains of thought at once, where thoughts are intruding into my meditation and I’m holding them off. For me this happens a lot. There’s some texture here but it’s hard to describe clearly, so I’m not tracking these experiences.
This is an awesome experiment! I’d love to hear some more details on that 1-Button tracker, e.g.
Does it need to be connected to a WiFi/second device to log/transmit the presses outside the button?
Are there schematics for how to build your own?
I’m asking as less than 2 weeks ago I started tracking my own subjective sleep quality through two re-purposed Amazon Dash buttons that are on my night stand. After waking up I press one of them, respectively logging “slept well” or “slept poorly” into a Google Sheet. But I’d love to hear what alternative ways there’d be to do this!
Does it need to be connected to a WiFi/second device to log/transmit the presses outside the button?
No, the 1-Button isn’t a network device. Part of the experiment in open instrumentation is to have simultaneously “maximum (personal) access” and “maximum privacy.” So the instrument records the observation on an internal data store, which is accessible via mini USB cable. When you plug into your computer with the standard cable, it shows up as a drive, and the data is a .csv file with a time stamp.
Are there schematics for how to build your own?
You can definitely make your own! This is a prototype and a bit fiddly in some ways but the nice thing about the prototype is that the board is just an Adafruit board like this and you are welcome to the firmware. The casing is 3-D printed. It uses a GPS chip to get the time. There is some soldering involved.
I’m asking as less than 2 weeks ago I started tracking my own subjective sleep quality through two re-purposed Amazon Dash buttons that are on my night stand. After waking up I press one of them, respectively logging “slept well” or “slept poorly” into a Google Sheet. But I’d love to hear what alternative ways there’d be to do this!
My intuition is that for recording observations like the exact ones you’re describing, where you can keep the instrument in the same place, on a table, within easy reach and connected to your own wifi network, your solution is going to be easier. But if you want to record observations from other places then a solution like the 1 Button starts to make sense.
We have one here you can try out for a project if you want.
That’s really cool! The Dash buttons work really well for the stationary use case (and have the benefit of being virtually cost-free if you actually use them for the Amazon-intended purpose once!) but having them to be in a given WiFi limits their use cases outside your home, so that’s cool to see (and for maximum privacy in the 1-Button!)
Looking forward to hear more about them in the future and I’ll let you know if I come up with an idea where I want to try one!
ps. I think such a device could have many fans among field-working biologists. Back in my days we often had to track some binary observation in the field and you had to do it manually with pencil & paper. This would have been a blessing back then
for maximum privacy in the 1-Button!)