I Track My Entire Life

Why did you need to normalize the data?

This is a term used by software professionals. The reasons are self-evident if you know the meaning of the term.

Definition - What does Normalization mean? Normalization is the process of reorganizing data in a database so that it meets two basic requirements: (1) There is no redundancy of data (all data is stored in only one place), and (2) data dependencies are logical (all related data items are stored together).

Nice! I store all my data in a relational database. Right now I passively track:

  • Time spent online, along with productivtity and unproductivity (Rescuetime)
  • Weight (Withings smart scale)
  • Pomodoro time (Toggl.com)
  • Todo’s (Todoist)
  • Time spent programming (Wakatime)
  • Top artists and songs for the month (Spotify)
  • Books read (Goodreads)
  • articles written (Medium)
  • Meditation time (insight timer)

I’d like to create a passive mood tracker, something that can determine my mood based on a photo that I take (either by desktop or mobile).

why would you like to create that type of tracker?

Compliance tends to drop with manual input. Having an automated passive mood tracking system could simplify this process. (E.g. a camera aimed at where your desktop sits, that takes random snapshots to determine your mood throughout the day will have much higher compliance than an app asking to rate your mood)

I see. For your laptop it should be easy to script that solution. https://github.com/lolcommits/lolcommits has been doing it for some time.

I don’t think passive mood detection is that easy though.

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Gee, Excel Pivot Tables Who Knew?

This is Jan 19 data.

Seems like I can slice and dice my data however I like with Pivot Tables. I could also do this in FM reports of course, If I wanted. The problem here is that the transactions are sorted out of order which is irritating in Excel. Another reason I like FM.

Only need 7 fields to do the whole enchilada. If I knew how to sort properly, and total the times in Pivot tables, the data is there. It was sorted in FM.

There’s a deeper level down, but that data looks a little personal, but it’s there. Actually it goes two levels deeper. There’s Cook, then Breakfast or lunch or whatever, and then drill down to what I made.

Or Read, then Books, Magazines, whatever, then drill down to the title.

It’s also 1300 rows long if you want deal with all of it. but it is pretty amazing to look at if I do say so myself. 999 transaction for the month.

J

While on the topic of tools, I see a lot of mentions to Excel and FM but surprised that in 2019, i still see very few mentions of Power BI (or similar self-service analytics tools) from this community.

I can safely say that I self-track thanks to tools like these. Without revealing any confidential information, here are some small examples of how I am using them:

Tracking monthly health observations (March = Allergy season)

Tracking weight according to CDC standard growth charts:

Tracking air quality:

check out https://www.myfeel.co/ not a picture-based but might be the solution you are looking for.

I made this offer before, if anyone uses Filemaker Pro, no one’s even close to what I do.

@Dr_John
John K. Pollard,
Assessment of human life.
There is a common option based on objective assessments of human behavior.
The human ethology was used.
There are few indicators.

So, if I understand this correctly. You have created some form of tracking system in windows? I note with interest the different “instinct patterns.” It still seems a step away from my “generic system” which I noticed I put some stats up above.

My system is based on what people do, and thus less theoretical and more trackable. And useful if someone wanted to track and evaluate their behavior for life improvement. Plus it’s one file in a real software with minimal clicks to record activities, plus it can be completely customized.

I guess I’ll check in again 4 years from now and see if anyone else has something to say.

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@Dr_John
John K. Pollard,
Thank you for entering the forum.
You have collected a unique database for 25 years.
I think that this is a big study in the field of nanoeconomics - the economy of a separate person.
Now I study your system in more detail.
It is necessary to have a lot of patience in order to maintain such a database for 25 years.

The demand for such work outside the scientific environment is very small.
Approximately 50% of the population does not predict its life and does not make plans for the future.
They live one day. Very few people make plans for 25 years in advance.

I did not develop my program and attach a database to it.
I realized that this program will be interesting, approximately ten researchers at the university in the field of social biology.
Psychologists work according to their standards and they do not need innovations.

I assume that very simple tracking systems are needed to disseminate such knowledge.
For example, the use of exel tables or a change in personal finance accounting programs according to a new scheme.
Many use personal finances.
Later, I just reconfigured a free personal accounting program and used it.

I am trying to simplify the tracking of life as much as possible and take into account only the main and important.
My spreadsheet

I suppose that you can wait another 4 years or more for the next reviews.
Is it possible to make a simple easy version of your system for more popularity?
For example, make simple tables or change the accounting structure in free personal accounting programs?

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