What keeps you tracking?

[cheesecake (L Vettel)]

Hi everyone,

I`m completely new to self-tracking.
At the moment I´m not sure to do the tracking for a longer period of time, I just got interested in this trend - want to give it a chance
I thought about tracking steps and health condition in general. What do you recommend?
Maybe you can share your stories… what are you tracking and why? In particular, what keeps you tracking? Don’t you feel controlled or get bored over time?

I am looking forward to your answers

[bfarmstrong (Benjamin Armstrong)]

Hi there,
I don’t track steps or spend a lot of time with heart-rate. They just don’t seem that interesting to me. I track my sleep, because I think sleep patterns are cool and I like calling my attention to how things like diet and exercise change my sleep quality.
I’m also tracking mood for the same reason. I like thinking about how my mood changes over time and what might be causing it. I’ve only been tracking sleep and mood for a couple weeks, but I’ve found that my motivation to track them has increased over time…

Hope that helps!

[cheesecake (L Vettel)]

@bfarmstrong

Hi there,
I don’t track steps or spend a lot of time with heart-rate. They just don’t seem that interesting to me. I track my sleep, because I think sleep patterns are cool and I like calling my attention to how things like diet and exercise change my sleep quality.
I’m also tracking mood for the same reason. I like thinking about how my mood changes over time and what might be causing it. I’ve only been tracking sleep and mood for a couple weeks, but I’ve found that my motivation to track them has increased over time…

Hope that helps!

Yes, thanks for answering!

Have you already been able to improve your sleep quality? - maybe that is the reason your Motivation to track things has increased… or just for fun?!
Have you discovered environmental factors affecting sleep and mood? I’m just interested if there are patterns you can recognize, it’s not so important which factors there are.

Why don’t you think the heart-rate tracking is important? Maybe it can really be a chance to prevent serious illnesses somehow.

[bfarmstrong (Benjamin Armstrong)]

Yes, thanks for answering!

Have you already been able to improve your sleep quality? - maybe that is the reason your Motivation to track things has increased… or just for fun?!
Have you discovered environmental factors affecting sleep and mood? I’m just interested if there are patterns you can recognize, it’s not so important which factors there are.

Why don’t you think the heart-rate tracking is important? Maybe it can really be a chance to prevent serious illnesses somehow.

I have had some luck with sleep quality. In particular it calls my attention to substances and activities that seem to have a negative influence on my sleep (alcohol and cheese both seem to be disruptive). I’ve also noticed that my sleep is better when I take an hour to “wind down” before bed. If I take a hot bath, I sleep particularly well

It’s not that I don’t think that heart-rate tracking is important. It just doesn’t answer any questions that I currently find interesting. What does long-term heart-rate data tell me that’s cool and interesting? That’s not a rhetorical question. If you know of something please let me know. I would totally track it if it was linked to something cool.

[cheesecake (L Vettel)]

@bfarmstrong

Yes, thanks for answering!

Have you already been able to improve your sleep quality? - maybe that is the reason your Motivation to track things has increased… or just for fun?!
Have you discovered environmental factors affecting sleep and mood? I’m just interested if there are patterns you can recognize, it’s not so important which factors there are.

Why don’t you think the heart-rate tracking is important? Maybe it can really be a chance to prevent serious illnesses somehow.

I have had some luck with sleep quality. In particular it calls my attention to substances and activities that seem to have a negative influence on my sleep (alcohol and cheese both seem to be disruptive). I’ve also noticed that my sleep is better when I take an hour to “wind down” before bed. If I take a hot bath, I sleep particularly well

It’s not that I don’t think that heart-rate tracking is important. It just doesn’t answer any questions that I currently find interesting. What does long-term heart-rate data tell me that’s cool and interesting? That’s not a rhetorical question. If you know of something please let me know. I would totally track it if it was linked to something cool.

Sounds great! Interesting correlation, the cheese-sleep-thing I hope you do not suffer from any intolerance…

Long-term heart rate data could give you an impression of situations causing stress and discomfort, doesn’t it? Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to know which situations to avoid to feel better But I don’t track heart rate either.