quantified self – Page 3

“There’s some things that keep me coming around.” – Talko Uno (Prefuse 73 Unplugged In Catalonia Remix), Jolly Music

I’ve been thinking a lot about time. About how much there is in a day or in a life. How much time I have to do the things I care about. How to be more deliberate with it. How to make the most use of it.

How to bend it to my will. Some might think this is a futile pursuit. Whatever we do, time keeps on slippin’ into the future. True, and yet:

We will never have total control over this extraordinary dimension. Time will warp and confuse and baffle and entertain however much we learn about its capacities. But the more we learn, the more we can shape it to our will and destiny. We can slow it down or speed it up. We can hold on to the past more securely and predict the future more accurately. Mental time-travel is one of the greatest gifts of the mind. It makes us human, and it makes us special. – From Claudia Hammond’s Time Warped as referenced by Maria Popova

I want to change my experience of time. Take, for example, the 90 minutes to two hours between my waking in the morning and my walking out the door for work or adventure or whatever.

I could use it or it could use me. I could turn the tv on or poke around the internet or anticipate the things that may or may not happen during my day and how I might react when those things do or don’t happen. And then I could be caught off guard by what time it is, quickly pack my bag, say my goodbyes, and push out into the day having accomplished little in those precious minutes.

Or I could write.

“Tell me the truth am I losing you for good?” – Solange, Losing You

I didn’t go to the gym yesterday. I bargained with myself around 9pm at the moment when I was either going to put on my tennis shoes or curl up on the couch with Wolverine. I argued that my tooth hurt and that it was too late and I could just double up on Friday. Ultimately, though, this was the winning argument: it wouldn’t count.

My fitbit ultra had been dying for much of the last month and finally kicked the bucket on Wednesday in the middle of my workout. I had already bought a flex to replace it but it came missing the wireless dongle over the weekend so I was now in this un-trackable abyss. While I mostly held to the habits I’ve developed while using the device, I took the elevator for the first time in months at work. Without regularly checking my steps, I found fewer reasons to get up and move. And I didn’t workout yesterday because I wouldn’t get the sense of accomplishment I get every time I see I’ve hit my goal and leapfrogged my friends and knew that my good marks for the day would go on my permanent record.

I’m a sucker for the quantified self (a topic of which my friend, lynne, is very fond). Scrobbling music to last.fm is the biggest reason why I listen to just about everything digitally. I check into foursquare and getglue for the same reasons. I want the data. I want the history and insights. I want the real.

If some cloud service has no record of it did it really happen?

I’m joking. Sort of.

My fitbit wireless dongle arrived today, though.

And I’m about to lace up my gym shoes and go workout.

Because it counts.

Bonus: My favorite workout tracks of the last 12 months (semi-regularly updated)

Category: quantified self (page 3 of 3)

On Warping Time

The Quantified Jason