Fitbitten!!!

About a month ago, my wife and I each bought a Fitbit. I realize that I probably am a bit late getting on this bandwagon. The fact of the matter is that I spent a bit of time researching personal "metrics" devices for a while. After talking to some of my friends and my wife's friends, and polling Facebook, I decided on a FitBit. But what kind? I have so many things that I am keeping track of and have to remember to put in my pockets everyday. With that in mind, i decided that something that I didn't need to remember to shove in a pocket and take out to avoid putting through the spin cycle. With that in mind, I chose the FitBit Flex.

It wears just like a wristwatch. Unfortunately, it looks a bit silly on my wrist next to my regular watch, so about the only time that I wear the two at the same time is when I am out on a run. I have just been using my iPhone as my watch and just wear the FitBit. Most people I know most people use their mobile device as a clock, so this isn't a big thing to work with, however, I am use to wearing a watch and I lost count of how many times I have looked at my FitBit expecting to see what time it is. Maybe that is something that can get worked into the next iteration of the device. (Hint, hint FitBit).

As you can see from the chart above, I have become somewhat FitBitten. I doubt that I am the first one to say that, but, I am going to go with it. The bar graph shows how many steps I took each day for the first month that I had the device. Seems unreal to me that I traveled almost 132 miles on foot in one month. 

The business productivity expert, Peter Drucker, said "What gets measured, gets managed." I have found this tool to be great for measuring more things than just my activity. I can manually input what I eat over the course of the day into the FitBit Dashboard as well as how much water I drink. The biggest challenge I have with this is figuring out how to accurately account for dinner. I think I may actually be calculating high for that. 

The other thing that this FitBit Flex tracks for me is how I sleep. It measures restlessness as well as how long I sleep. I just need to tell it when I go to bed and when I wake up. I have a moderate case of sleep apnea and this really tells me if my CPAP machine is doing the job or not, besides my wife telling me when I have kept her up with my snoring.

Part of my day job is looking at things from an efficiency standpoint. Doing things in the least amount of time and with the fewest possible steps. I have found that with my FitBit, I have taken the time to walk down to a work area to talk to a coworker, versus sending and Email or calling them on the phone. I think this interaction actually helps get work done a bit faster and clearer with the direct conversation versus trying to interpret the subtext of an email. 

Overall, this has been a great tool for me to make more intentional decisions about what I do, how I get there and what I put into my body. Now, if only I can stop looking at it to see what time it is.

What tools do you use to keep track of your day? Your goals? Your Fitness?