Chasing Metrics | When Measurement Gets in the Way

How overtracking your life can steal progress, presence, and peace.

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During the height of COVID, I started my self-improvement journey.

Like anyone delving into self-development, I devoured books, podcasts, and YouTube videos at a rapid pace. While intended to help, that content binge became its own form of productive procrastination. Something I unpack in Stop Endlessly Reading and Start Acting.

Much of this content espoused a simple concept: Metrics.

Start tracking and using metrics.

Having spent 15+ years as an Engineer and manager at manufacturing facility, I'm no stranger to metrics. In manufacturing and business, you name it, there is a metric for it.

• On-time delivery

• Defect rate

• Project status

• Daily output.

• Even how many steps someone takes

If it exists, it gets measured.

At this point in my life (height of COVID), I didn't track anything in my personal life. Not even the basics like income, debt, or savings. I knew I must do something different if I wanted change. So I tried to leverage what I'd learned and followed what worked for businesses and "successful" people.

After all, if it worked for them, it's gotta work for me... Right? So I did what any stereotypical engineer would do:

I went all in on numbers, tracking, and metrics.

Before I continue, I want to add once I commit to something, I become hyper-obsessed. Video games, business, health, technology or other. It doesn't matter. Once something grabs my attention, I go all in. (Side note: I'm not sure if hyper-obsession is a feature or a bug.)

Back to the story. Anything and everything got a metric...

I started measuring everything:

• Steps

• Books read

• Minutes studying

• Gratitude messages sent

• Wake-up time

• Bed Time

• Screen Time

And so much more. I could go on for hours listing everything I tracked.

If I deemed it important, It got a metric. And if it got a metric, it got recorded... Daily. It was exhausting work. At this point, I'm fairly certain:

I spent more time tracking than doing.

I have spreadsheets galore, each with dozens of tabs. Within each tab were a litany of charts and graphs. Notebooks were overflowing with hand scribbled notes filling every open space. Where space ran out, sticky notes and loose leaf paper adorned the notebook. Looking back, I realize this emphasis on metrics cost me...

True progression.

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The Double-Edged Sword of Metrics

I felt like I was progressing. But I wasn't seeing the results I wanted. Metrics are important. They can be powerful tools. But they aren't everything. Metrics can:

• Enable growth or slow you down.

• Bring freedom or imprison you.

• Sharpen your focus or shatter it.

• Bring success or setup for failure.

The metrics we choose shape the life you live.

Choose the right metrics and they'll enable your future. Propelling you to new heights.
Choose the wrong metrics and they'll bind you to the hamster wheel. You'll efficiently run in circles.

No metrics? You risk drifting. Progress becomes guesswork. Its impossible to know the progress you've made and where you stand relative to where you are going.
All metrics? You burnout. You miss the moment. Presence is lost in the grind (this is negative grind). You forget to... Live.

Not everything valuable can be measured and not everything measured is valuable.

It's important to remember, Metrics are tools to guide your progress.

Don’t measure just to measure. Be strategic. Measure what matters. Whether this is in your work, relationships, or family, use the information to guide positive change in your life. Above all, spend time doing what's important to you.

When we say yes and take action, we inherently say no to everything else.

Tracking something can take a lot of time. If you're not using the data to guide change, you're just creating busywork... Wasting your time and sanity.

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Make Commitments

All this discussion about metrics is great, but that's only a piece of the puzzle.

Metrics require alignment with your goals. But this isn't an article on goals so I will keep this section short. If you create a metric, ensure it's attached to a goal.

A metric without a goal is productive procrastination.
An exercise in futility.

Most metrics, even in business, can be replaced with one thing: Commitment.

But this is a topic for another post. Before I leave you I want to leave you with this suggestion. A simple mindset shift.

Replace metrics with commitments.
Honor those commitments and you have no need to keep the metric.

Until next time,

- Micah

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