One unexpectedly great application for Apple Watch: stochastic self-sampling. e.g. here's my mental energy level throughout the day.
Can use notification actions to respond in one tap, so it's low-friction enough for 10+ prompts per day; and works when away from computer.
Conversation
That's >500 data points over the past couple months. Hard to imagine collecting that if I had to remember to diary, or even if it required pulling out my phone.
1
21
I used this app to collect the data: apps.apple.com/us/app/tracker
Unfortunately, it only supports one prompt at a time. I'd also like to sample eg:
- "How curious am I feeling?"
- "How dutiful am I feeling?"
- "What am I thinking about?" (can use scribble / watch mic / top list)
8
4
41
At least for me, the conceptual model of most auto-"time trackers" doesn't work at all. Yes, I was hopping back and forth between a PDF viewer and a text editor all morning… what does that tell me? Storing the window titles adds little extra signal (for me). And I'm often AFK.
2
24
Stochastic self-sampling makes a lot more sense for me. i.e. at random periodic intervals, ask: what are you doing? This has to be extremely low-friction, of course. Unfortunately, existing solutions assume all my work is at my computer…
messymatters.com/tagtime/
3
3
31
I should warn folks trying this app: it has no data visualizations whatsoever; it just exports JSON, which you can then munge however you like. Not ideal, but…
Quote Tweet
I used this app to collect the data: apps.apple.com/us/app/tracker
Unfortunately, it only supports one prompt at a time. I'd also like to sample eg:
- "How curious am I feeling?"
- "How dutiful am I feeling?"
- "What am I thinking about?" (can use scribble / watch mic / top list)
Show this thread
1
12
Mr. has a very intense way to achieve self-sampling: a dedicated smartphone set up on his desk, which demands input every minute(!) about what he's doing.
Quote Tweet
Stochastic self-sampling makes a lot more sense for me. i.e. at random periodic intervals, ask: what are you doing? This has to be extremely low-friction, of course. Unfortunately, existing solutions assume all my work is at my computer…
messymatters.com/tagtime/
Show this thread
For those who don’t mind pulling out their phone and wish to accomplish this same thing, I’d recommend Reporter. reporter-app.com
1
Replying to
Thanks to for the prototype! Btw I'm very interested in having that app developed further, so if anyone is interested in working on this, pls email me.
2
4
This is pretty amazing — you might be able to hack this end to end with nothing but iOS shortcuts and Integromat webhooks feeding the data into a google sheet (I already have something like that running and it’s been amazing)
2
