What You Are Actually Trying to Find Out
Most personal tracking starts without a question, produces a lot of data, and stops. The question decides the method and whether any of it is worth doing. 4 min
Foundations
Two properties shape everything else: tracking takes the time it measures, and it changes how that time gets spent.
5 notes · about 19 min in total
Measurement Is a Cost
Tracking takes the time it measures. Most personal systems collapse because the cost quietly exceeded whatever the data was worth. 4 min
Observing Changes the Thing Observed
Tracking your time changes how you spend it, immediately and substantially. That is a property of the method, useful or distorting depending on what you wanted. 4 min
What the Evidence Supports
The research on personal time tracking and productivity methods is thinner than the market implies. What holds up, what does not, and how to read a claim. 4 min
The Question to Ask First
One question that sorts most decisions in this subject, and what each answer points to. 3 min