Since 2005, Nicholas Felton has been publishing the Feltron Annual Report, a year-end collection of personal statistics that detail (among other things) beverages consumed, books read, and number of hours playing Grand Theft Auto 4.
Last year, Nicholas co-founded Daytum.com with Ryan Case “as a way of creating an elegant and intuitive way to count and communicate the personal statistics generated by each of us every day.” You can use Daytum.com to keep track of all kinds of things — your diet, or exercise regime, for example. Or you could find other uses for it. If you’re a dog, you could track the other breeds you’ve met on your walks. Or if you’re a college professor, you could track the insults your students hurl at you (warning, strong language).
This afternoon, Nora interviewed Nicholas Felton about his personal reports, and the trend of self-monitoring. A shorter version of their interview will air on the April 22 and 25 episode of Spark, but you can hear the full, uncut interview below, or download the MP3.
Play audio:
Hat tip to Peter Rukavina for the link to Daytum.com.
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[Original image by JEKY]
One of the things I have issues with is figuring out how my "doing of regular everyday stuff" relates to the norm. Am I drinking enough glasses of water? Am I exercising enough? Do I eat the right amount of smoked fish every week?
While I can consult the Proper Authorities to find answers to these questions, all I'm getting there is the Utopian vision of what I should be doing, not the reasonable vision of what I might do given what others I know are capable of doing.
So, yes, I would be interested in a data feed of Nora's daily step count because I could mush that together with similar feeds from others I know to get a ballpark sense of how my daily step count compares.
To get things started, my steps from March 30 to April 8 are charted at Nicholas's Daytum at http://daytum.com/panels/53323
OMG! I am SUCH a list geek. I have the vast excel spreasheets, and were it not for my relative sanity in other areas of life I'm sure my partner would have committed me by now.
At first I was very private about my lists, but, in the past few years they have become quite freeing. It was the analysis. I really began to see why I was achieving my goals in some areas of my life and not in others. I can also see how priorities in my life shift and how much work I need to put into a given area of my life to see results.
I am so excited about this site, I'm currently signing up for an account.
Listening to this interview I tried to reflect on the relationship I have with my Heart Rate Monitor. I have to say, it's all good.
Since purchasing it in early september of 08, I've worn it to all my workouts, walks, school… All sorts of different activites. With the HRM I have turned exercise into a data gathering exercise, making it interesting and engaging for me. I can also identify that I am working hard when I am, and not working hard enough when I'm not.
It also as been an excellent learning tool. I started taking an Anatomy and Physiology course in September as well, and the HRM greatly helped me understand the cardiovascular system, the effects of exercise on the body, and my personal response to these generalized concepts.
For someone who is health concious both personally and professionally, it's been an invaluable and informative tool.
Yes, I was reminded of all the ways these types of tools could be used in behaviour therapy….you know, pinpointing trigger points for certain behaviours, etc.
You know, another site sorta like daytum is rescuetime.com. I use to track my productivity on my computer, but you can organize and view the data collected in myriads of ways. You can really learn a lot about what you actually do, rather than what you think you spend your time doing. Apparently, I need to spend less time surfing blogs…
Love the show!
I'm almost afraid to learn what I actually spend my time doing!
Here is some Daytum data from this Spark listener: http://daytum.com/Padraic. I am a self-monitoring nerd and really enjoyed this interview.
Oops, http://daytum.com/Padraic