This is the presentation that I gave at the Triangle Quantified Self Meetup on Wednesday evening 11/28.

1. Tools of the
Trade
The best tools to encourage self
quantification.

2. What Am I Tracking?
• Sleep
• Physical activity/Fitness stats
• Happiness
• Calories

3. Three Lessons Learned
• Data collection must be passive
• Low involvement is good, automatic is best
• Almost every tool is worth the money

4. Sleep
• There are really only three players:
• Zeo - http://www.myzeo.com/sleep/
• Lark - http://lark.com/products/lark-pro/features
• Sleep Tracker - http://www.sleeptracker.com/

5. Quick Comparison
Zeo Lark & Sleeptracker
• Measures brainwaves • Measures movement,
• Costs $99-150 heart rate, etc.
• Mobile accessible • Costs $99-150
• Mobile accessible

6. Physical Fitness
• Too many devices to count, here are a few:
• Fitbit - http://www.fitbit.com/ $99
• Bodybugg - http://www.bodybugg.com/ - $99
(requires online subscription)
• Bodymedia - http://www.bodymedia.com/ - $150
• Nike Fuel Band -
http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/products/fuelband -
$150
• Fitocracy - https://www.fitocracy.com/
• Withings Scale $160 -
http://www.withings.com/en/bodyscale

7. Quick Impression
• Review of Bodybugg vs. Fitbit:
http://tweakfit.com/fitbit-vs-bodybugg-reviews
• Review of Fitbit vs. BodyMedia:
http://quantifiedself.com/2011/05/fitbit-vs-body-
media/
• I’ve found Runkeeper to be more accurate but less
convenient: http://runkeeper.com/
• Fitbit is easiest, tolerably accurate

8. Happiness
• PACO for Android devices (still in Beta):
https://quantifiedself.appspot.com/Main.html
• Random Reminder $0.99 + Notepad:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co
m.appspot.sohguanh.RandomReminder&hl=en
• Annoyster (iOS only): http://www.annoyster.com/
• Experial looks cool (iOS only):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/expereal/id57104
1935?mt=8

9. Quick Impression
• Happiness data is worth 10x more than other data
• Whatever keeps you collecting is worthwhile
• Testing PACO, close to ideal
• Would be interested to hear about different tools

10. Calories
• Lots of devices purport to track calories
automatically, mostly it’s manual though
• Calorie Tracker $Free:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/livestrong.com-
calorie-tracker/id295305241?mt=8
• Lose it $Free: http://itunes.apple.com/app/lose-
it/id297368629?mt=8
• Daily Burn $Free:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/dailyburn-calorie-
workout/id378928008?mt=8
• MyNetDiary $Free: http://www.mynetdiary.com/

11. Quick Impression
• I have experience with Calorie Tracker, works well
• Still takes a lot of effort
• Biggest problem with any of the tools: packaged
food vs homemade food

12. Stuff I Haven’t Tried
• Lifebox for audio recording life (Beta) -
http://lifeboxapp.com/
• Memoto (Not released) -
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/martinkallstro
m/memoto-lifelogging-camera
• RescueTime ($6/mo) - http://www.rescuetime.com/
• Beeminder $Free - https://www.beeminder.com/
• Last.fm - http://www.last.fm/

13. Quick Calculations
• Average cost of doctor’s visit: $60
• Median ER visit cost in 2009: $615
• Average cost of hospital stay in 2011: $15,734
• Cost of every app/device mentioned: $1,174.50
• All of them would only need to decrease your
expected lifetime medical costs by .4% to be
profitable.

14. Wishlist
• Waiting for LumoBack: http://www.lumoback.com/
- $150
• Basis Heartrate Monitor - https://mybasis.com/