I am Andre, I got interested in self experimentation, because goal setting and problem solving doesnt work for me. Collecting data and finding things out is hopefully less stressful than dancing on Success/failure dichotomy.
But enough rambling, I wan t to track internal resistance, and mental blocks. I wonder if the QS approach is suited for that, cause you cant summarize all the inner stuff in one equation. So I thought I write down, the time, situation, the thoughts and try to make sense of that data.
Anybody tried to track their idiosyncrasies?
What does limited access as Newbie mean? Can I have my own log in? I will post and comment here, QS is interesting.
“Mental blocks”, “internal resistance” and “idiosyncrasies” serve a purpose. Rather than patterns perhaps introspection is a better approach. A “simpler problem” of when to tell if stress is good or bad, pushes you to higher performance or drags you down, as far as I can tell cannot be determined from data. This is an important problem becuase it has an impact on most QS tracking. Interested in any and all approaches to this.
Thx for pointing out that blocks serve a purpose. I eamt to collect data and then do introspection. I thought the evaluation will be very subjective and speculative. But looking for the purpose is a pretty clear rule.
I will look for the physical symptoms of blocks, such as throat closing, stomach pain or a feeling of detachment.
You can export to csv to do whatever analysis you like.
It’s an “Event Panel” that I built with EventLoggers.com in a few minutes. If you think something like that would be of help, You can build your own Event Panel if you create an account (free) at EventLoggers.com - there are a bunch of options for building the various buttons so if you choose to try it out and you need any help, just send me a message.
Let me know if that’s adeal-breaker for you. Currently the event logging requires a request to the server… Nobody ever raised the issue of offline logging before… Probably because of nearly ubiquitous wifi and the small amount of data required to log an event in the case a cell data connection is needed. But there is an “html5 offline storage” mode that modern browsers have… I just haven’t looked into it previously.
Hi Andre,
I would suggest rather than tracking mental blocks and internal resistance which are negative mindsets, it may be worth learning to control the thoughts that are having negative affects on you. Mindfulness follows this theory and something like Muse 2 can help you track your meditation and other biometrics with a view to promoting a positive mindset.
Just a thought
There are some restrictions in place for new users to reduce spam on the forum. The only limitation I think you’ll encounter is not being able to message other members.
In regards to your project, I doubt that you’ll find a digital tool that will be flexible enough for your purpose. As you go through this process, you’ll probably find that your metrics and methods are going to change frequently until you settle on something useful. At that point, it would be appropriate to find a tool that will allow you to collect your observations in a reliable manner. This initial stage will be about figuring out the phenomena that you are trying to observe, rather than building the data set that will be easy to analyze later.
In the meantime, I think you have the right idea. Get a notepad that you can carry around with you and start making observations about your blocks and internal resistance. Try to detect differences between different states and build a taxonomy that is meaningful to you.
Although you may be told that tracking internal resistance is wrong-headed, it may be fruitful to try and experience why it isn’t helping you gain better insight.
For myself, I haven’t tried to track mental blocks, but have looked at the distracting behaviors I engage in when I have those blocks. Initially, I started off using one of those handheld counters just to get me into the habit of recording that behavior. Then, once I picked up on of few meaningful themes I used an app like Tally to record those observations.
I’m not saying that you would follow the same path, just giving you some ideas on how this could go.
In terms of the struggle to track something idiosyncratic, you might find inspiration in this talk on someone tracking her crying and eventually mapping out the different emotions behind each episode. There was not a lot of literature to help her, so she had to create her own taxonomy. https://quantifiedself.com/show-and-tell/?project=1054
