Want to Improve Your Life? Get Better at Tracking These 5 Things

For a big portion of my life, I’ve suffered from weight fluctuation problems (+80lbs), skin problems, sleeping problems, brain fog problems and I will cut the list there for my own sake. You might have guessed that I lived a pretty “standard” city life during this time. High stress job, quick and easy diet and artificial light pouring into my soul until 2am.

But I’m a programmer, and I like data and graphs and such. So in my early 30’s I started to do what many people in their 30’s do. To stop abusing the body so much and to figure out why it was broken. I took measurements daily, hourly and to the minute at times depending on the activity. More than numbers, I took notes. I didn’t so much care that I ate 1800 calories instead of 2300, though that’s important too. More so than that though, I wanted to know why I kept waking up in the middle of the night, or why after dinner I fell asleep.

Since that time, I’ve lost those 80lbs, cleared up my skin and I can finally fall asleep at the drop of a hat at 10pm like a normal person. And it wasn’t through some magical ancient formula. I identified just 5 areas of my life that could be improved easily, effectively and cheaply with just a few changes.

• Hydration
• Sleep
• Exercise