Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, said, “What gets measured gets improved.“
I admit I am a massive fan of all kinds of metrics, and I love tracking my habits. This process motivates me and pushes me toward achieving my personal targets.
In this post, I share some of the metrics I tracked over the course of 2022.
I want to emphasize that this year has been a challenge for me regarding habits, as I have become the father, so my schedule and, well, everything else, was pretty much unpredictable.
Meditation
I am a huge fan of meditation and have been practicing it for a few years now. This year, my goal was to meditate 400 times.
My original goal was to meditate twice daily, but I could not stick to this.
If we look at the yearly distribution, we can see periods in which I was more active with this habit:
I remember May: it was when Iris, my baby girl, went through many phases of growth, and we barely had time for anything else. 🙂 December is pretty much the same.
Regardless, I am happy I could meditate for this much this year; it truly was an invaluable experience.
Gym
Maintaining regular physical exercise is essential for me. Usually, I go 3 times per week, with few breaks during the year. I came up with the number 100 as my target this year.
I got sick in December, which prevented me from going to the gym like 4 times, but I can still make this one. It will be challenging, but I am motivated to do so. 🙂
Statistics confirm this. September was also weaker due to my summer vacation.
Articles
I usually read Harward Business Review, Economist, and Stratechery. In my mind, reading one article takes up to 15 min. If I read 20 per month, it’s around 240 per year, which is significant.
My goal this year was 200. I was on a good path, but I remember precisely how, at one point, I was doing too many other things, and I simply stopped.
I shifted my “reading time” to reading books and so articles were ditched out, but I plan on getting back to them in 2023.
Courses
I am a big fan of learning, and online courses are one way for me to obtain more knowledge about different topics. I usually do it via Coursera, as I have gotten used to it.
My target for this year was 5 courses, but I took total of – lo and behold, 0!
I was honest with myself – aside from other stuff I was doing and having a baby, there was simply no time for courses. And I am completely ok with it. 🙂
Food
This year, I decided to track a few specific vegetables I know are good for my health but that I tend not to eat a lot.
And I admit, just tracking these foods made me eat them more. This is the power of measurements. Remember – what gets measured gets improved.
It also made me more grounded and present.
For example, I deliberately had to buy the carrot, prepare it and eat it rather than being on autopilot and eating anything that was available.
Looking at this list fascinates me, as it shows how rarely I eat some foods.
For example, kohlrabi – in case you don’t know what this is, you’re not the only one. Most people in the office where I’m working asked what it was when they saw me eating it. 🙂
Eating kohlrabi requires slightly more effort (peeling it is the worst part), and I admit this year, I didn’t have much patience to handle it.
Kale is my favorite healthy food. I have to force myself to eat it, however. 11 times this year! A few times, I put it in a smoothie – and yes, it tasted terrible, and a few times, my wife prepared it cooked with other stuff, and it was more manageable.
Celery, I discovered a personal hack: I blend it with lemon, and then it’s, in fact, tasty. I easily overkilled this one.
The beetroot is similar to kohlrabi regarding the effort, but luckily it can be bought pre-cooked, making it easier to eat. Making your habits easy is the best way to make you stick to them.
Overall, I find it very curious to see that I ate these only this much over the whole year. If I tracked eggs, chicken breast, tomato, cucumber, avocados, and paprika, I guess there would be hundreds…
Sauna
I am a massive fan of saunas. This year I set quite the modest goal of going to the sauna total of 10 times.
Sadly, I didn’t achieve it, as I spent sauna time for other things, mostly on being with my family.
I hit most in May when we went on a family trip to a hotel with a spa for a few days.
In August, my wife and I went to the spa alone, the first time out without the baby, and this is when I hit 2 more.
I plan to restore my spa habit in 2023 and visit it at least once bi-weekly.
Fasting
I love fasting. Quickly after discovering it, I turned it into a lifestyle.
More specifically, I love doing 24h fast when I don’t eat for at least 24h straight.
This year my goal was to fast a total of 30 times, but at one point, I lost the motivation to do so.
Without sounding like an excuse, doing a 24h fast requires big motivation, and I admit that I often lacked it due to all the sleepless nights that came along with having the baby. 🙂
Eating food changes your brain’s biochemistry, and dopamine gets released, so I often decided there’s no need to fast for 24h. I usually fast 19h per day anyway.
It’s pretty clear how motivated I was in January – New Year resolutions, anyone? Eventually, my motivation faded, but again, I was aware that it was happening, and I was ok with it.
In my defense, I did one 50h fast in September. Not eating for more than 2 days straight, and I loved it.
Books
My favorite metric. My goal this year was to read 45 books, and I managed to do so. I admit it was challenging and it pushed me into reading too fast sometimes, so I will probably reduce this goal, so as to enjoy the reading itself more.
Conclusion
Tracking various habits motivates me to achieve them, which drives my positive behavior. And this is what I like about myself – I know exactly how my brain works around these things and that it’s hooked to achieving these small milestones.
Even though I didn’t achieve many of my personal targets this year, I am satisfied with what I did. It took me some time to ditch my perfectionism attitude and realize that I have already done so much for myself.
My plan next year is to continue to track many different habits and foods I eat and push myself over my personal limits just to see where they are.
