Improve yourself with data

When I found out that my friend Will beat me to buying the ‘Whoop Strap’ fitness, sleep and recovery tracker, I was jealous.

I had been hung up on the $30 per month cost for a while, and despite a nagging curiosity to discover my personal biometric data, I had been unwilling to pull the trigger.

When Will suggested that we could form a team and track each other’s progress, I immediately had to buy one.

I was initially afraid that sharing my data with the team would expose some embarrassing heart rate patterns to my peers. Would a pre-bedtime heart rate spike divulge too much personal info?

Although it has only been four days of tracking I am in awe of the data and analysis.

• The “close to eight” hours of sleep I often tell people about is actually closer to six.

• My average resting heart rate is not quite the pro-athlete level I thought

• And the empirical evidence (spikes on the sleep chart) of taking Friendo outside for multiple nightly washroom breaks is almost comical.

Many of us are obsessed with personal improvement, yet often use no quantifiable data to support our behaviours and decision making.

If we aren’t measuring performance, whether with a journal, a smart watch, or a Whoop strap, aren’t we simply running blind?

It is pretty darn tough to improve what you don’t measure.

Ask yourself if can do a better job of tracking the important metrics in your world,

then ramp up the fun (and peer pressure) by inviting your favourite friends to join you for the ride!

• Now that’s a peak ethos.