For all of 2010 I tracked various aspects of my life using Daytum, which collects and graphs various data that you enter. I became inspired to do this by the Feltron Annual Report — though I must admit my data is not incredibly accurate since I am not always perfect about recording stuff.
I have held off writing about Daytum because I wanted to see what I would learn from using it to track random things. Here are some of the things that I learned:
Email Sucks
One thing that I tracked was my Email usage, specifically: amount received monthly, amount replied to monthly, and amount sent monthly (total, including replies). What was most interesting to me was how little I actually reply to emails — it seems I create more emails than I reply to them. Until I saw this I always thought that I spent more time replying to emails.
Kernel Panics
I also decided to track my kernel panics, or lack of them. I average 2 months 11 days and 17 hours between kernel panics as of this writing — surprisingly high. In fact since 1/10 I only had 3 kernel panics and one complete computer freeze that resulted in having to force the computer off. I am hoping that most of this subsides with the MacBook Air (haven’t had one yet).
iPhone Crashes
Like with my kernel panics I also tracked iPhone crashes: again I only had 4 this year. An average time between crashes of 3 months 20 days and 8 hours. Not too shabby.
Personality
I also tracked things relating to my personality:
- I kept track of the amount of meaningful conversations I had this year and I counted 130 meaningful conversations on the year. Seven of those conversations were with complete strangers.
- I was annoyed on average every 7 days.
- Surprised on average every day.
- I won one more bet than I lost this year.
Overall the tracking I did on my personality showed me that I am decent at making wagers, I like to talk to in depth with strangers and that I am constantly surprised. I am glad that the annoyance factor isn’t higher! One last thing: when I shop online I order from Apple.com the most, then Amazon.com.
