Why I Stopped Tracking… Everything

Quantifying everything in your life can become a huge burden

Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash

In the modern age of technology, putting a number next to anything is so easy. We can easily see how much money we have, how many followers we have, how many people we text, and how many miles we just ran.

Almost every action can be quantified for both our personal knowledge and the knowledge of others.

In some ways, this is helpful. When trying to lose weight, tracking calories and workout repetitions can be useful in marking progress. Knowing how much money you have allows you to plan for the short and long term. Seeing how many people bought your book helps you see whether it resonates with an audience or not.

At a point, though, this amount of knowledge becomes too much, and the result becomes more important than the process.

“Process > result” is not a new idea, but I don’t think people break it down as far as they could.

When trying to lose weight, calorie-tracking will lead you to lower-calorie food rather than food more densely-packed with nutrients. Eating 1,000 calories of shitty food isn’t going to make you healthier than 1,500 calories of good food.

Tracking workouts can hurt here, too. Why stop yourself at running one mile when your body could go further? Just because you said you wanted to run one mile?

And how does knowing how fast you ran that mile help? The more you run, the faster you’ll be. Do you really need a number to prove that?

Numbers make our online homes a little less comfortable to be in, too.

In social media, our “social status” is easily defined: we can see how many followers we have, how many likes we get, and how many replies we get. When the numbers go up, we know we’re doing something right.

But that means there would be a wrong way of doing social media, and that just isn’t right. Social media wasn’t created so people could gain a following. It was created so people could share ideas and share their lives with people they know in real life and complete strangers alike. The numbers tied along to it are just a natural symptom of that.

At some point, though, it became about that symptom — and that’s why people are getting sick. Sick of social media, that is.

How often do you hear someone say they are on a “digital detox”? While the numbers aren’t the only reason for that, they play a part. People are sick of having to alter who they are in order to get acceptance and attention online.

It isn’t just social media, though. Content creators like those on Medium, YouTube, Twitch, and elsewhere quite literally live by their numbers. A certain amount of views, likes, comments, and shares can be the difference between having money for rent that month or not. The numbers are everything.

Anyone truly living and dying by the numbers should not solely be a content creator — there are way too many factors out of your control. The ones doing it as a hobby or side-gig, though, should probably stop worrying so much about the money, too.

Myself included.

It’s hard not to wake up in the morning and check out how much money I’ve earned this month or how many views I got yesterday. I don’t tie my self-worth to it. I don’t write articles that I know will get a lot of views. But still, constantly checking those numbers just further compounds the fact that even art (which writing is) is a quantifiable asset now.

I can’t complain about that. As someone that wants to make a living as a writer, I need my “art” to sell. The numbers help it do that. But aiming towards those higher numbers in order to sell more just dilutes the art in the process.

Some things do need to be quantified. In the business world, numbers are everything, and that’s OK.

In our lives, though, it’s the qualitative stuff that matters and is memorable. Instead of worrying about your time on the run, look around and enjoy the nature around you. Eat healthy foods to feel good, not to reach a calorie goal. Write because you love to write, not because it gets views and makes money.

After all, computers can track numbers and determine whether they are good or not. Leave them to handle the quantitative nonsense. Let us determine the quality.

Tracking everything in your life by the number will eventually become a burden. Stop focusing on quantifiable progress and worry more about the beauty in the process of growth.