What I No Longer Track

A list of metrics, habits, and data points I once obsessively monitored but have since abandoned. Each represents a lesson learned about the difference between measurement and improvement.

Productivity Metrics

• Daily word count: Focused on quantity over quality of writing
• Time spent on "deep work": Became performative rather than productive
• Number of books read per month: Led to skimming rather than understanding
• Inbox zero streaks: Created anxiety around email rather than improving communication

Health & Fitness

• Daily step count: Encouraged meaningless walking at the expense of intentional exercise
• Sleep score from apps: Often contradicted how I actually felt
• Detailed calorie counting: Created an unhealthy relationship with food
• Heart rate variability: Too much noise, unclear signal for actionable changes

Financial Tracking

• Net worth updates: Daily fluctuations were more distracting than informative
• Spending by category: Micromanagement that didn't improve financial decisions
• Investment portfolio performance: Encouraged short-term thinking
• Time-to-payback calculations: Made me overly focused on immediate ROI

Social & Personal

• Social media metrics: Likes, follows, engagement rates became vanity metrics
• Mood tracking apps: Reduced complex emotions to simple numerical scales
• Habit streak counters: Turned positive behaviors into guilt-inducing obligations
• Learning time logs: Quantified curiosity in ways that diminished it

What I Learned

The act of measurement often changes the thing being measured. Many metrics are proxies that, when optimized directly, lose their connection to the underlying goal. The most important things in life—relationships, creativity, wisdom—resist quantification.

Now I track fewer things but pay better attention to what matters.