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The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

nytimes.com

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Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#31

Post by sirsar »

village-idiot wrote: post #14
badpun wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a different word than "friends" for such bonds though... Someone who does not know your birthday is not a friend.

Repeated interaction is a necessary first step to friendship, you cannot befriend someone you don’t see. My gym buddies are now my friends, and we see each other regularly outside of the gym context. Also, most of my friends don’t know when my birthday is, so that’s a bad metric imho. Birthdays are not universally important across the population.

I read a metric on a different thread recently: good friends help you move.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#32

Post by francisofascii »

dorchadas wrote: post #25
on_and_off wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure if that helps you, a tech salary (or similar) might be necessary to pull it off this way : I am not exactly disciplined, I have thought for years about working out instead of actually doing it. Until one year ago. I have started working with a trainer. It is insanely expensive BUT it helps a lot in establishing a routine. The exercises themselves are pretty standard, but having somebody to give you a pr…

That's exactly what did it for me, too. Except it wasn't a trainer, but a Couch to 5k like podcast. I found one that was much much more beginner friendly than C25k and also gave a strength and rest plan. Using the podcast and seeing hte weeks go by has made me much more motivated to get out and run, even on wet 5 degree centigrade days, let alone the 30 degree days. Just something to hold yourself accountable to, rea…

Last year I started a "streaking" program. You have to run at least one mile every day for a year. Eventually it becomes a habit like coffee. Once you get so many days in you don't want to break the streak. I went 430 days without a day off. Worth a try.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#33

Post by unforeseen9991 »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #6

I have a secret startup plan - MOOPs Massive Open Online Psychology. You wire your house with iPhones or Alexas recording your daily conversations with your family - it records things like "number of positive responses" vs "number negative responses" when replying to your spouse or children. There are dozens of simple verbal checks one can pull out of even fairly raw speech to text, let alone visual dances. And imagi…

This sounds like a dystopian nightmare come true

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#34

Post by unforeseen9991 »

jumpinalake wrote: post #10

Something about this article felt disjointed. I read back over the jarring part to see if I had somehow skipped over a section or read it in the wrong order.

I felt something amiss as well, and then I realized what it was, it was built to force compliance in a family dynamic

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#35

Post by TheOperator »

markwkw wrote: post #29
mettamage wrote: post #17

When I used to do conscious self improvement, I journaled. I simply answered the prompt: what did I do to achieve my goal today, and what can I do better? This had the same effect as their quantitative approach: you start to see patterns. I’d suggest: the profound enabler of change isn’t the quantitative aspect of it, it is that you’re logging data in the first place. Our brains can’t log that much. Notepads and spre…

Sounds like a refreshingly simple method. Why did you stop?

I've been a diarist before logging my mood. I stopped because it was homework. Yet it was worth doing.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#36

Post by mlevental »

badpun wrote: post #12
village-idiot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Group fitness classes at some gyms have a stable cohort that you’ll bond with over time.

We need a different word than "friends" for such bonds though... Someone who does not know your birthday is not a friend.

lol wut. I have friends now of several decades who I see regularly (make effort to visit cross country) none of whose birthdays I know or who know mine.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#37

Post by Fezzik »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #6

I have a secret startup plan - MOOPs Massive Open Online Psychology. You wire your house with iPhones or Alexas recording your daily conversations with your family - it records things like "number of positive responses" vs "number negative responses" when replying to your spouse or children. There are dozens of simple verbal checks one can pull out of even fairly raw speech to text, let alone visual dances. And imagi…

Slight tangent: somehow I cannot find it, but there is an amazing TedX video where a Google engineer tracked how his child learned words by effectively doing this and recording and tracking everyone’s voices and paths in the home. The amount of data he stored and crunched was impressive.

You may want to hit him up for his tech setup :)

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#38

Post by JamesBarney »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #20
mettamage wrote: post #17

When I used to do conscious self improvement, I journaled. I simply answered the prompt: what did I do to achieve my goal today, and what can I do better? This had the same effect as their quantitative approach: you start to see patterns. I’d suggest: the profound enabler of change isn’t the quantitative aspect of it, it is that you’re logging data in the first place. Our brains can’t log that much. Notepads and spre…

so... I'm with this, but... I know the results my logs would be. I want to work out and be in great shape. Run, stretch, weights, yada yada. I can log all day. It won't change the fact that I'm lazy/just don't have the work ethic to actually do it.

There are a couple of tricks. It'll be more work than what it would take if you were a stereotypical high achieving individual but its still possible to increase the likelihood of achievong your goals.

One is habits. Start with a low effort commitment that establishes the habit. For the gym that might be going to the gym. Not working out, or even entering the building. Literally just driving to the gym twice a week. And most of the time you'll end up working out anyway.

Another is planning. Plan exactly exactly when and how you'll go to the gym in detail. Ok Thursday I will leave work early to make it to the gym on time.

Another is imagining how your life would be different if you worked out and what you need to do to achieve it. Imagine all of the benefits as wellnas the sacrifices. Imagime how hard its going to be to motivate yourself to drive the gym after a hard day. Imagine rescheduling friends for dinner to work out.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#40

Post by askafriend »

mistermann wrote: post #24
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #6

I have a secret startup plan - MOOPs Massive Open Online Psychology. You wire your house with iPhones or Alexas recording your daily conversations with your family - it records things like "number of positive responses" vs "number negative responses" when replying to your spouse or children. There are dozens of simple verbal checks one can pull out of even fairly raw speech to text, let alone visual dances. And imagi…

If you ignore the privacy complications, this is actually quite an interesting idea.

If someone did it, it’d likely be opt-in and only for a short, finite period (1 week?) with the data being destroyed after it’s used.
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