Personal Informatics.page

# Thoughts 

* Not much (as far as I can find) exists about how to get started with all the tools => motivation for [Gosu Guides]
* Use of numbers can be extremely motivating, e.g. "Your profile is 25% complete"

# Tools

* [Zealog](http://zealog.com) - simple tracking tool
* [Mint](http://mint.com) - well-designed tool for finances
* [HealthMonth](http://healthmonth.com/) - well-designed tool for personal health
* Tumblr or Evernote for "qualitative tracking", in particular use pictures and screenshots to remember things
* Git can be used to record things, and GitHub's impact graph can track the amount of contribution
* Combine with URL Shuffle to gradually enhance your distribution of things

# Examples

* In Four Hour Body, just tracking weight helps someone lose a lot
* In Flow, mood is tracked at random intervals uses a pager system
* Demetri Martin talks about [tracking his life](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzsEtafv-FA&t=5m45s)

Things I'd like to track, just as more examples:

* Time spent studying Chinese, perhaps with level of focus as well
* Weights lifted 
* Something with music listening habits, perhaps using Last.fm API -- could be used to build a better Pandora
* Where money is spent: Mint.com is good for this
* Where time is spent: I've tried RescueTime, but I didn't find it too worthwhile
* Being social/generous/kind -- could use a point system like Demetri Martin's
* Output of ideas -- could use the github system described -- would like to see whether there are any trends of when output is higher
* Start learning a skill and find a way to quantitatively track progress

# References

* Related to [Productivity]()
* [Quantified Self](http://quantifiedself.com/)
* [Personal Informatics](http://personalinformatics.org/)