Happiness Measured
When I'm not blogging, or exploring happiness I am a professionally a data analyst. So, naturally as I started this journey I asked myself how will I know what techniques are the most helpful and how will I be able to look back at my progress? Therefore I decided to start measuring my happiness, anxiety and productivity on a daily basis so I have the opportunity to do a self-inventory that is structured and constructive.
I feel that as a society we track our steps, our calories, our budgets, and our exercise plan when focusing on living a healthy balanced life, but do we track our overall fulfillment enough? Personally I wasn't and I know from working with metrics professionally that progress is faster with measuring!
What are my Metrics?
Along with these metrics I will also be tracking the following:
Diet - Did I honor my body today by following a healthy and nutritious diet?
Exercise - Did I make time for at least 30 minutes of physical activity today?
Sleep - How many hours of sleep did i get the night before?
Which I find these important because physical well-being and taking care of your health should be standards on a daily basis. Lastly I answer the question: What went well today? How can I improve tomorrow?
How am I recording it?
I am recording these daily results like any good data analyst would: in a spreadsheet with graphical visualizations! 😊
My long-term goal is to make this into a tool I can share with you in the future. If having a happiness tracking would be of interest to you please let me know and I will work on getting on to you. In the meanwhile I still encourage everyone to find a method that works for you like keeping a journal so you can take the opportunity to check in with yourself on a regular basis.
Here is my first week tracking. I am using this as a starting baseline:
