Life Metrics System
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A software engineer tracked 100+ aspects of his life for 8 years, creating an extensive personal analytics dashboard. Here's what he tracked and learned.
Core Tracking Areas
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Basic Health Metrics
- Weight
- Sleep duration and quality
- Heart rate (sleeping rate of 59 bpm)
- Steps and physical activity
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Digital Behavior
- Computer program usage via RescueTime
- Cell phone usage time
- Number of texts sent daily
- Email inbox status (20 emails)
- To-do list items (179 tasks)
-
Lifestyle Patterns
- Current city location
- Weather conditions
- Social interactions with friends
- Meditation frequency (last meditated 41 days ago)
- Productivity timing (morning vs evening)
- Air quality in different rooms
-
Mental & Physical State
- Daily mood
- Energy levels
- Stress levels
- Hunger levels
- Lethargy
- Drug/alcohol consumption
Key Findings
- Sleep Impact (8.5+ hours):
- 65% more likely to have cold symptoms
- 60% more likely to have headaches
- 40% more social media usage
- 30% more likely on rainy days
- 20% less likely to exercise
Project Conclusions
- Built over 8 years with 30-50,000 data points
- Creator's verdict: Fun but not practically beneficial
- Not worth building your own solution
- Provided awareness but excessive time investment
- Recommended against others replicating the project
Creator Background
- Moved from Vienna to San Francisco
- Worked at Twitter in 2015
- Adopted minimalist lifestyle
- Lives exclusively in Airbnbs
- Owns only a suitcase worth of possessions
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.