To Track or Not to Track? The Art of Listening to Yourself
Biohacking includes personal experimentation, based on the idea that you know best what is best for you. That’s easy to say. Most of us need to learn how to use our instant feedback system, to listen more closely. That’s where tracking fits in. How does it work?
I like to describe biohacking as both an art and a science. You start with a baseline, reported and monitored in some way. You optimize from there, experimenting and keeping track of the interventions that impact your life. You test things out and fine-tune as you apply hacks adapted to your goals.
Observing and recording both contribute to change. Pearson’s Law, attributed to the mathematician Karl Pearson, states: “That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”
When you know your numbers, you can discern results and course correct. It’s a feedback loop that Quantified Bob summarizes the process succinctly: “Hack, track, analyze, optimize, rinse, repeat.”
At the same time biohacking is an art, because your personal recon mission is yours alone, linked to your body, mind, environment—and your focus, the tracking you will actually do.
Why Track
Tracking brings your sustained attention to a topic. If you record what you eat, you suddenly become much more aware of what you ingest. If you monitor your steps, you see how much you move—or how much you don’t.
It shifts the action out the unconscious habit zone and places it under a loupe. This is benefit number one.
In addition, tracking allows you to see more clearly over time what impact the choices you make have on the indicators you decide to follow.
Where to Start
The first question any self-quantifier should ask is, “Why?”
I follow my sleep because I want more deep sleep, because I intend to live a long and healthy life. I get excited when I have extra minutes of deep sleep at night. I also get disappointed when I don’t. Mostly, this habit makes me much more attentive to my slumber.
Tracking begins with observation. According to Quantified Self:
“We mean something specific by ‘deliberate observation.’ That is that you choose one or more carefully defined elements in your life to keep track of and you isolate these elements from the stream of your experience in order to give them special attention. This involves a decision: What do you want to observe?”
What to Track
You can stalk nearly anything in your life. Report your mood in a journal to zero in on how your days affect your emotions. Follow your food intake with a diary or app for information about nutritional balances or macronutrients, or, combine with mood or headache tracking to help determine what comestibles to avoid.
Wearables facilitate tracing activity, sleep, readiness for stress, location, blood pressure, body temperature, and heart rate. Try home tests and lab work for blood glucose (also possible with wearables), ketones, cholesterol, microbiome, hormones, and so much more.
Once you decide to track something, you need to determine what indicators to follow. This depends on what you’re optimizing for. More sleep or better sleep, for example. When choosing the markers, make sure they provide signals of progress—the dopamine rush that will motivate you to keep at it.
Beware, we tend to identify ourselves with the measurement. Seeing the frown on my face due to low sleep scores, my daughter suggested, wisely, I not look at my data in the morning so not to ruin my day.
How to Track
The tools you choose depend on the why and the what, and what you likely will do — really. If you like devices and have the budget, wonderful. Paper works too. And some people excel at “in your head” tracking. I’m dubious of what my head tells me sometimes, considering what I know about selective memory, but there are times when subjective wellbeing is enough.
Most importantly, the process needs to be easy and you must be honest. I’ll admit wanting to cheat sometimes when I track what I eat.
Some people are more data-oriented than I am. Tracking amuses me, and I use it mostly to attract my attention to an area. I’m not a rigorous data collector like some biohackers. As with all the rest of biohacking, you find the tools that work for you.
Hacking Your Tracking
Ask, “Why am I doing this?” And yes, because it’s fun and the device is cool can be enough to start.
The website Quantifiedself.com suggests self-quantifiers ask the following questions:
Relevance: Does the observation really offer insight into what I care about
Convenience: Can I collect these observations easily and consistently?
Trustworthiness: How confident am I in the measurements?
Don’t take yourself too seriously.