Exploring Personal Patterns

This theme of persistence has sparked so many ideas and topics that I could cover that I had to narrow down the list so as not to overwhelm you with fifty-three articles all about the power of persistence. And while I find the topic of persistence to be most evidenced in my tangible achievements like writing or facilitating… there is another category that I wanted to bring to you because it’s just as important, but perhaps less “sexy” to talk about.

And the category is this: the analysis and introspection of our day-to-day life.

Let me dive deeper. For the past ten or so years, I’ve been diligent (and persistent) in the tracking of my daily life. At first, it was done analog, inside my journals. I would always save room to document things like how many steps I took that day, what my mood and energy level were, how much time I spent working, how much time I spent doing things for myself, what I ate, and what I weighed.

Eventually, technology caught up and so much of that tracking became automatic. I no longer had to write down those specifics because there was an app or piece of technology that could do it for me.

One of those apps, Exist.io was built by two coders who wanted a place that could curate the data that was being tracked and spit out analysis FOR you. And to keep that information private and for your eyes only. They came from the theory that if we have access to our data in this way, we could make correlations and connections that could help influence how we analyze that information and implement changes if necessary.

This was such a game-changer for me. I was no longer relegated to cobbling all the information together to see the big picture. And what the big picture did for me was seeing both real-time data and patterns that led to further introspection.

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but for me, it was huge. I very quickly saw the advantages of tracking my data and then mining it for analysis. In fact, it was so influential that I was able to take some of that data to my doctors and make a case for my Seasonal Affective Disorder. How is that possible? Well by tracking the weather patterns (which the app does for me) and my moods and energy levels (that I track manually through the app), along with my productivity numbers (an integration between my time tracking software and the app) — I saw a very clear picture of where I was at in the winter months of my life. Years of data tracking and analysis showed that for nearly every winter season I’d gone through since tracking, my mood, energy, and productivity was influenced negatively by the weather and winter environment.

Is this something I knew intuitively? Absolutely. It’s not as if this information was brand new and revelatory… but what it did do for me was confirm what I intuitively felt. What it did was allow me to take this to the doctor and say, “Here’s what I’m seeing and feeling, what do you think?” And most importantly, what it offered me was proof that I was struggling in those months and now I had a choice — I could either do nothing with that information OR I could try to find ways to influence that pattern.

Which is exactly what I did. I began to find ways to supplement my moods and energy in the thick of winter with LED lamps, and adjusting my schedule to allow for more hibernation to conserve my energy. I began to add more movement in those months as an energy booster. I learned to turn to my journal in a deeper way during those months to offset some of the inherent depression that seemed to cling to me during my “wintering” seasons.

And it worked. I can pinpoint, from my data, the moment I began implementing these adjustments and how it affected the pattern of my data.

Instead of seeing the correlation between the weather and low mood, energy, and productivity. I started to recognize that the data trended upward instead. After two full years of implementing these changes, the data no longer showed a steep decline in my moods or energy. Rather, I was maintaining the same kind of levels I saw during the fall and spring months.

Had I not persisted in this tracking or analysis, perhaps I would have always been doomed to repeat the cycle. Maybe I wouldn’t have tried to improve the quality of my life.

Looking at this from a bigger-picture perspective though, I can tell you that I saw the ripple effect of this improvement on other areas of my life. Before making changes, my creativity suffered immensely. This was another data point that I could pull and make use of. It was clear to me that the months I felt low and depressed coincided with the months where I had the least amount of word count in writing, and the number of projects I completed withered to nothing.

After making the changes though, my data was telling me a different story. Not only had my efforts to improve my quality of life worked, but it also affected the way I approached creativity in those months.

In fact, this past winter, I completed some of my favorite projects to date. I was able to continue working on the publication of Forged in Fire. I was able to do things that I previously scheduled in the Summer (a notable time of high energy for me).

Another example is the correlation between the days that I spent a significant amount of time on self-care (reading a book, taking a bath, journaling, etc) were the days when my mood, energy, sleep, and productivity increased. Again, is this revelatory information? Nope. Intuitively, I knew it… but it was the confirmation I needed to make daily reading a priority.

I could definitely say, with the data, I know that when I spend time reading, I am a better version of myself. So I made an effort to set boundaries around these priorities. I made it a non-negotiable and through the data, I see how influential these efforts have been for me.

All these positive changes only served as proof as to why tracking my data was such an important part of my life, and why I must persist in the act of tracking.

Weekly and daily, I get a high-level view of where I’m at with my data like this:

I LOVE being able to see this data in real time. Does it always make me feel good? Nope. But it always tells me what I need to know. Using the example from above, I can see that I’ve been more attentive to moving my body (thus the increase in steps) and not as consistent or attentive to my sleep schedule (thus the information around my sleep numbers).

Sometimes, correlations are pleasantly surprising like this one:

My husband loved seeing this correlation and frequently reminds me of such things! 🤣

I could look at all of this and say, “cool” and then move on. Or I can make a concentrated effort to do something about it. It comes down to asking myself, do I want to make changes to influence this? Do I care enough about this data point to adjust what I’m doing to see an improvement in whatever area I’m looking at?

Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes, it is no. But I get to make that choice for myself.

• • •

I’ve had many a friend tell me that I’m “crazy” for wanting to and actually tracking this all. I’ve heard comments like:

“It seems like a waste of time?”

“I’m not sure I would see the same results as you.”

“Doesn’t it become cumbersome to track all of this?”

And my answers are:

• It’s not a waste of time if you are willing to look at the data and do something about it. It would be a huge waste of my time if I tracked all of this and then did nothing with the information. But the point of tracking IS to find the correlations, the connections, and the patterns.

• Of course, you won’t have the “same results” as me, because you are you. The results are completely dependent on the information you give and how persistently you give it. I can promise you that if you are tracking what’s important to you to track — you WILL see the correlations emerge. And it WILL make you think harder about why the data is showing up the way it is.

• Figuring out the sweet spot to my tracking (which parts can be automated? Which parts need manual entry?) has made data collection just another part of my day. I’m so used to it being baked into my routines that I don’t think twice about it. It never feels cumbersome or difficult because I’ve seen the rewards of my persistence to it.

Really, it’s all about what you find important to persist with that makes a difference in your life and steers you toward how you feel about it. If I wasn’t concerned with my health or well-being, tracking my data as persistently as I have may have felt like a waste of time. If I wasn’t interested in questioning the way I live my life, then the data wouldn’t mean anything to me.

But I do care. And I do find it extremely useful and rewarding. And so, I persist.