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Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

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Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#61
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where? I don't see a single one from clicking around a bit on the site. The landing page doesn't even say what it is, just some audio thing somehow tied to Dr Oz (can't actually exercise it, because I run firefox). Why is the first thing you're expecting me to do is talk to my browser? What if I'm deaf, mute, or blind and using accessibility tools? What am I even supposed to be talking about? In the menu, projects do…

> Where? I don't see a single one from clicking around a bit on the site. > The landing page doesn't even say what it is, just some audio thing somehow tied to Dr Oz (can't actually exercise it, because I run firefox). Why is the first thing you're expecting me to do is talk to my browser? You have no invite; so what you are seeing is not what the test users currently see > What if I'm deaf, mute, or blind and using…

> People like you are the problem in my opinion;

You got caught lying. It is funny that you found a way to blame the tester. The website is public. This sounded quite aggressive.

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where? I don't see a single one from clicking around a bit on the site. > The landing page doesn't even say what it is, just some audio thing somehow tied to Dr Oz (can't actually exercise it, because I run firefox). Why is the first thing you're expecting me to do is talk to my browser? You have no invite; so what you are seeing is not what the test users currently see > What if I'm deaf, mute, or blind and using…

> People like you are the problem in my opinion; You got caught lying. It is funny that you found a way to blame the tester. The website is public. This sounded quite aggressive.

Lying about what? Did you even read the thread? Can you point to the "lie", if so I will attempt to correct.

"tester" is probably not the correct term here. website "visitor" would probably be more appropriate.

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#63
What i did (been doing it for like 5 months so far) is keep track of my day (just using Logseq just type in things like: "5:00 -> 5:30 checking Email" and such .. for the whole day, but i found that when i'm not home there will be some gaps, and that I usully fill back form memroy at the end of the day (which leads to maybe some gaps?)

usully what I do I track (in the md file) day by day: my mood, what I eat, do, play, nootropics, waking up time and all that) and the goal was to see any trends (was planning to do it for like 1-2 weeks but then turned out to in a way keep me gorunded and more aware?) (the last 3 months logs md file was 5k long)

I tried to have a Hermes agent that I talk to throught telegram (had some cron jobs to check in multiple times a day) and some script to pull things like browser data and other data points to see time spent on certain things, and it would generate an md report at the end of the day for that day, but idk, it misses a lot of things (like it hard to tell how many hours I spent on X or Y and such reltative to other day and/or the break down of tasks and such).

for the md file I do upload to Claude or such and then try to find correlation (I dont tend to read it back my self), I did find out that lactose give me bit of a brain fog (that was never too strong that I could tell it's lactose directly) and that when on caffine I tend to think I achevie more than what I actully did (among many other thigns here and there), I also have smart ring data taht I also upload to claude too.

I do use habits app (been using it for like ~5 years but with some gaps.

My main thing that would make me use somethig external is if it pulls data form various sources directly into the logs. like browsing history, sleep data, location data, phone usage hisory, spotify, tempreture, air quality, water drank (Idk maybe usign some smart water bottle or something) and such (althougth it might be iatrogenic)

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#64
post #50

Why did you quit them? Tough to notice the omission!

I can liken it down to one thing. First, all the tracking methods were based on habit building, and admittedly I failed in building that habit. Perhaps because of activation energy to get started/remember to do it.

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#65

> Im building something for this You've probably answered your own question here. Welcome to the age of bespoke LLM coded apps where almost everyone can build the thing they want.

Haha fair point - edit: I did build one already, quit that one

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#66

The most important thing is to make this as simple as possible to track . The more data you have to collect, the more tiresome it becomes. The more tiresome it becomes, the harder it is to build a habit. Start with one. Then go to two. Then go to three. If you notice you start dropping off again go back to two.

Well fair advice, but this comes from me noticing that Im dropping off. I just didnt notice. how do you catch yourself dropping off?

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#67

Pen(cil) and Paper. I keep a stock of mini memo pads in various colors for record keeping. This lets you track what you need when you need it. If you find yourself needing more room get an thin a5 notebook.

how do you organize/how do you draw insights from this?

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#69
post #20

Try "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg. I found it quite interesting and I implemented few habits by using it. Though there's ADHD and other neurodivergent scenarios, and when you have it making anything of a habit is a hard work.

Is this super different compared to atomic habits?

Re: Ask HN: I've quit six systems for tracking my illness. What works?

#70
post #6

> Is this a common experience or do I just have to be better at tracking? I don't know anything about your illness, but I have Type 1 Diabetes, which is a pretty high maintenance chronic illness. Many T1Ds put a lot of effort into tracking their daily numbers and routines. For example, see all the settings in this popular third party continuous glucose monitoring app[1]. It does all sorts of tracking and monitoring a…

Thanks for your perspective. I find these threads really useful especially because alot of the people Im around have never given a thought to chronic illness in general. I think theres just so many things that I feel, and so many small things I do throughout the day, that I feel there should be a connection or unique insight somewhere in order to make my diagnosis or care journey better. So granted, my expectation is really open ended. For something like diabetes (where there is a specific marker to track, this is different), but for seronegative im always second guessing what caused this flare or when did this part start hurting. This being said, thank you!
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