While in Scottsdale, I have been wearing the FitBit that my son, Sean, gave me. It has begun to manage my life. It does not sense by heart rate but it does count my steps. By default it sets a daily goal of 10,000 steps which is equivalent to five miles of walking. I can also log my exercise in terms of time duration. What is interesting is that I am paying attention to the number of steps and make sure that I go out walking to get to the goal even if it is only to go out walking. Before I got the FitBit, I didn’t pay any attention to the number of steps and now I make sure I get them in even if my plantar fasciitis is painful and I have blisters from too much walking. I gues I am lucky the american heart Association didn’t set 15,000 as a goal.
But there is more. It measures my sleep and so I have gotten a pretty good picture of how much sleep I actually get. And I have now taken pains to make sure I get at least seven hours a night. That doesn’t mean I just spend seven hours in bed but am actually sleeping for seven hours. I am now managing when I go to bed in order to get the seven before I need to get up in the morning.
It confirms that old maxim: what you measure, you manage. And if you don’t measure something, you will not manage it.