On tracking

2024-11-19
tags: none

Words: 385 (1 minutes to read)

(This is entry 39 of #100DaysToOffload)

I am still undecided on whether to track or not. I used to use the Samsung Health app to track my steps. I would feel good that I often got around 10,000 steps a day (3k either way to work, an extra 4k on a walk at lunch) but then would feel miserable that I, if I had a very sedentary weekend, would do maybe only a few hundred. I would not feel satisfied with a walk unless it increased the step count by say, 7k, 8k, at least.

At some point after I had a huge walk (about 60k steps in the day) I decided against it. That I wasn't getting anything out of it. I haven't tracked my steps since, and don't feel any remorse. I know when I've done enough steps, and know when I ought to do more. I don't need to be told that externally.

I'm not sure if it's lessened the cognitive load, or, like a company promising that industrialisation, automation will bring respite to the toils of the common men, has merely allowed a greater output with the same toil: the effort is being spent elsewhere. Where then, I don't know, although it could well be this very blog.

That said, I do think there is value in tracking. I have been considering whether to get bloodworks etc. done, and to work out my digestive, reproductive, oral, blood, and whatever else health to try to see where I'm at and where I could improve. In reality, I know the things that I need to do that are healthy, anyways, and so perhaps it's all a waste of money.

The question is, I suppose, how much. I don't want to be Bryan Johnson, optimising every single minute aspect of my life. That said, I also want to be able to tell when I've had bad sleep and see if I can piece together better the possible reasons why, or why maybe I've got an ulcer at the moment (probably sugar).

Currently, I track mainly in words: I diarise, I scribble notes in my scratchpad, I write these blog posts (a collection of my thoughts) and weeknotes and /now. I don't track much in the way of numbers. That is the key difference.

Is one better than the other? Probably not. Quality without quantity is unspecified; quantity without quality is meaningless.