I am a big fan of tracking certain things in my life. So far I am collecting the following data:
[list]
[]Weight (Withings scale)
[]Blood Pressure (Withings)
[]Activity (Fitbit, GPS Watch)
[]Sleep (Fitbit, Sleep Cycle App)
[]Temperature (RaspberryPi)
[]Gas consumption (only at fill up)
[]Monthly electricity consumption
[]Monthly Internet data
[*]Geo Location (best effort using foursquare)
[/list]
What else could I track? One requirement is easiness of tracking e.g. I do not track calorie intake as it is too much work. I want the collecting to be automated for the most part.
What are you guys tracking and how do you collect your data?
Foursquare is useful, but I’m considering using Moves or Saga instead. Both apps use Foursquare’s location database, but are more convenient (review check-ins when you have time), and record not just a timestamp, but also time spent. Saga is less of a drain on the batteries than Moves, but doesn’t have an API so far.
I like my Fitbit, but the BodyMedia FIT works better for recording sleep (no need to remember to start/stop), and I find the “calories burned” reported by the BodyMedia more useful for most purposes than step counts.
Resting heart rate could be another interesting metric, but I’m not sure about the best way to record it. Mobile apps seem too inaccurate, and chest straps are tedious.
Apps that let you record calories might be useful as a motivational tool, but I doubt the data is any good.
I track room temperature and humidity in my apartment using a self build solution based on a RaspberryPi: http://thule.mine.nu/temperatures
It does not measure CO2 though. Maybe I will add a sensor for that in the future.
Calorie intake is to cumbersome especially when the food is not standardized.
I suggest tracking where your time is spent. You can get actionable results out of that pretty quick e.g. spending 6 hours buying the same toiletries every month ? consider getting them delivered from Amazon.
