It's time for the sequel to my first quantified self report earlier this year. I track various metrics to learn more about myself and my well-being. I do my best to publish some version of this report at the end of each quarter to assess how things have been going. I've written explicitly about how I track this before, so let's get right into the data from Q2 2021.

😃 Happiness

Each morning, I rate my perceived happiness 1-5 depending on how I'm feeling. My average happiness came out to 3.16 (up from 2.93) with a 1.01 standard deviation (up from 0.98).

Takeaways: This was a little surprising considering the sustained dip in late April! But overall, I was 7.85% happier in Q2 according to perceived happiness. I'm sure this had something to do with the world opening up and the ability to leave my apartment regularly.

😴 Sleep

Sleep score is a less subjective metric since it's computed automatically with my Apple Watch + AutoSleep. As far as I can tell, it's a composite score of time asleep, movement, and heart rate.

My average time asleep was 7:26 hours (up from 7:05) with 1:25 minutes of deep sleep (up from 0:58). My perceived sleep score was 3.37 out of 5 (up from 3.01), scored subjectively.

Takeaways: I slept a good bit better in Q2 than I did in Q1. This isn't super surprising, as I feel like I've been much more consistent around my morning and nighttime routines.

👟 Fitness

I logged 96 workouts (up from 70) this quarter. As for the type of training, 76% of the workouts were weightlifting (down from 88%) and the rest were running. My average workout duration was 46:59 hours (down from 57:13) with an average heart rate of 124 beats per minute.

Takeaways: I worked out a ton this quarter, to the point where I should probably take more off-days. With that being said, I'm really happy about the running-to-lifting split evening out a bit. I can probably thank the warm weather for that, but I'd like to keep that up.

🎒 Movement

Steps is a tricky metric since running skews the data, but I averaged 8,923 steps per day (up from 7,073). I also automatically log the places I go with Swarm. I logged 246 check-ins this quarter (up from 155) across a few different cities, mostly in New York.

Takeaways: I expected these metrics to increase, but I'm surprised by just how much they did! The fact that I went to 37% more places than I did last quarter is pretty crazy, even considering the nature of reopening.

💻 Screentime

My average phone time was 3.42 hours (up from 3:32) with 1:50 (up from 1:44) of which coming on social apps. On my laptop, I spent an average of 5:43 hours per day (down from 6:04) with 4:04 of which labeled "productive" (up from 3:43).

Takeaways: A bit of a wash here across the board. I will say that it's cool to see my desktop screentime decrease, but the overall productive time increase. I should see if I can get that phone time down a bit next quarter.

✅ Habits

I log habits for a few different things that I've realized are important to me and my happiness. Average completion rates this quarter were as follows:

  • Wake up on time: 49% (down from 51%)
  • Meditation: 76% (up from 74%)
  • Journal: 80% (down from 85%)
  • Training: 89% (same as prior)
  • Writing: 43% (down from 44%)
  • Coffee: 36% (down from 67%)
  • Alcohol: 56% (up from 51%)

Takeaways: This quarter has largely been a tale of two halves. I started out in a bit of a rut and struggled meeting my habits. More recently, I've done really well here. It's a bit discouraging to not see it show up in the metrics, but oh well! At least we can see that I've stopped drinking so much coffee.

📚 Reading

I only finished 2 books (up from 1) on my Kindle this quarter, though I saved 349 online articles (down from 435). I still need to carve out more time for reading books in particular. Like a lot more.

As far as my favorite things I read, my current system is looking back at previous issues of Oversimplified, my weekly newsletter, and retroactively picking some out. Here are my personal favorite online reads from the last quarter:

Wrapping up

Overall, hell of a quarter. The world opened back up. I got to work on some really cool stuff at work. I spent a lot of time reflecting on my wellbeing and relationships. I picked up a few bad habits and then dropped them. And lots more. I hope you found something fun in here, stay tuned for the next report in a few months. Until next time.


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