When it comes to understanding ourselves—our bodies, our health, our moods, and our actions—memory alone isn't the most reliable source. We are better, but not great, at remembering what occurred recently than at thinking back on what happened a few weeks or years ago. We confuse days, events, people, what was said, and what wasn't said. But there are triggers that can help us remember. It might be a complementary memory from someone who experienced something with you, or a photograph, or a ticket stub. Little things can trigger our memories and bring focus to an otherwise fuzzy picture. Technology gives us access to huge amounts of data that can help supplement these unreliable memories. The trick is learning how to interpret it, turning the vast number of facts into a narrative that can help you understand—and maybe even improve—your life.
I interviewed Dr. Paul Abramson, MD, last year while working on a story about wearable technologies and why they matter. Abramson explained how he uses fitness tracker data to help his patients. They each meet with a health coach go over their data once a week. They spend a good 30 to 60 minutes wading through it and talking about it. He told me:
"What we learned through the practice was that the data were interesting, but actually the story around the data is more interesting. Using the data to trigger someone's memory in a recent time frame, like within a week, was very accurate in getting information about what was going on when they collected data, what that data meant, and also what was going on in periods when they weren't collecting data."
That's interesting, but what does it mean in real life? Here's a series of examples from my own life. I recently left India, where I live, to visit the US for about a month. In the days leading up to the trip home, I was excited to return to my old lifestyle. I looked forward to simple pleasures that are hard to come by here, like walking along sidewalks, jogging in a park, and eating a huge salad for lunch.
But the trip had some unexpected surprises in store for me. I ended up sleeping on couches for a week when the apartment I had rented turned out to be well below the cleanliness level I can tolerate. Sometime around week two, my sick and very old grandfather went into hospice in upstate New York, so I traveled to see him. He died soon after, adding another unexpected trip out of town. On the way back to India, I took a stopover in London, landing the day the Brexit polls closed. I spent the following two days talking to a few of my London-based friends who work in international policy and whose jobs were all suddenly much less secure. By the time I touched down in Chennai again, all I wanted to do was sleep the whole thing off.
With the trip behind me, I started looking at all the data I had collected from the month of hell. I am always testing and therefore wearing various fitness and sleep trackers; during that trip it was the Garmin Vivoactive ($229.99 at Amazon) and Misfit Ray. I take my resting heart rate every couple of days with the Runtastic Heart Rate app. I log my mood and any general aches and pains in a period- and sex-tracking app called Eve by Glow. And I have a consolidated record of all the money I spend in the personal finance app Mint.
There were a lot of data, and I wondered if they told the story of what happened during this month. In addition to all the data-tracking I do with devices and apps, I keep my calendar up to date and write a daily journal, which could help me fact-check what had happened and when.
Heart Rate
Stress
My resting heart rate is generally around 50 to 55 beats per minute. A few days before my first flight, my heart rate was slightly higher than normal, according to the data in my Runtastic Heart Rate app. A week into the trip, it was above 60bpm. The day after I learned I wouldn't be staying in the apartment where I had planned to stay and that I'd have to crash on couches for a while until I figured out where to go, my resting heart rate was 70bpm.
I actually noticed my rising heart rate as it was happening and acknowledged that it was probably stress-induced. I made an effort to take a few deep breathes any time I caught myself worrying about how my sleeping on their couches was inconveniencing my sisters. A couple of afternoon jogs helped, too. After two days, my heart rate was back to normal.
Steps Annotated
Inactivity
My outdoor activity is limited when I'm in India, and I was looking forward to walking outdoors more during my time in the US. Looking back on my fitness tracker data from the Garmin Vivoactive, I noticed huge differences in my daily step counts during my visit. Sure enough, when I compared them to my calendar, the days of inactivity all mapped to unusual circumstances: flights, an eight-hour drive upstate and back, a jet-lagged day made shorter by a change in time zones, and so forth.
But I also noticed how much more activity overall I got during the month, which made it easier to excuse myself for the days when I was less active. It's important to look at fitness tracker data in the aggregate because it's the bigger picture that matters more than a single day. Still, I was relieved to see that the bad days weren't multiplying, as they sometimes do during stressful or painful events.
Sleep
Poor Sleep
I love the Misfit Ray ($0.00 at Amazon) for its style, but I am also grateful for its excellent sleep tracking. When I flew halfway around the world, the Ray added a note to my daily activity summary about how many hours time difference I just experienced. Because jet lag can affect sleep for days at a time, I was grateful that the Misfit app made a note of it for me. I didn't even have to look at my calendar to verify that the unusual sleep occurred on a day when I jumped time zones.
Spending
Spending
Spending money for a month in the US is quite different from spending in India, where the cost of living is very low. Looking at my data in Mint, I could easily see that I ended up spending a lot on expenses that were directly classified as travel, such as flights and lodging. I also spent a lot of money on food, which is to be expected because a lot of my meals were eaten at restaurants.
While in the US, I spent a little bit of money on general shopping and personal items, stocking up on things I can't buy when I'm in India, but not nearly as much as I thought I had. When I looked at my budgets, however, I remembered that I do indeed have a spending weakness when I'm in the US: coffee shops.
Budget
Spending data is actually very good at helping us piece together the story of our days. It's easy to pinpoint unusual dates of activity, such as a car rental or hotel stay, as well as small changes in our habits that add up, such as going to coffee shops every day instead of only twice a week.
Mood, Coping, Etc.
Mood, Coping, and More
Eve by Glow is an app where women can track their menstrual cycles and sexual activity, as well as related information, such as sex drive, specific kinds of pain (tender breasts, bloating, cramping, and so on), mood, and alcohol intake. The more you use it, the more trends it reveals. For example, you might tend to consume alcohol more in days 21-25 of your menstrual cycle, possibly to cope with hormones or pain, and Eve will highlight that trend.
On its own, it can figure out if there are any trends in what you experience or do during different phases of your cycle, but it becomes much more useful when you compare its information to other data, such as sleep data. For example, figuring out that a bad night's sleep happened on the same date that you experienced cramping for four months in a row is really telling (and might prompt you to take a painkiller preemptively before going to bed on the next date when it's expected to happen). On iOS devices, Eve lets you port in step and sleep data from any other app that's compatible with Apple Health, which makes it even easier to spot correlations.
I was surprised to see in my own data that my alcohol intake is scattered throughout the month except for a four-day window when I almost always have a drink. During my month-long June trip, the only trend I noticed was that I logged being stressed a lot more than usual. That makes sense, given the circumstances.
How to Turn Data Into a Story
The information we collect about ourselves, whether actively in a personal finance or fitness app or journal or passively with a fitness and sleep tracker, can help us understand ourselves better. We usually think of data analysis as bringing to light new information, but sometimes it does nothing more than trigger a memory that helps us see the past more clearly.
About Our Expert
I'm an expert in software and work-related issues, and I have been contributing to PCMag since 2011. I launched the column Get Organized in 2012 and ran it through 2024, offering advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel overwhelmed. That column turned into the book Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life. I was also the first product reviewer at PCMag to test fitness gadgets, including everything from early Fitbits to smart bras.
Currently, I'm passionate about the meaning of work and work culture, and I enjoy writing about how managers and employees can communicate better, with or without software. My most recent book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work. I also love a good workplace drama.Â
In addition to writing about work, I cover online education, focusing on learning for personal enrichment and skills development. I have a soft spot for really good language-learning software. Although I grew up speaking only English, some twists and turns in life led me to learn Spanish, Romanian, and a bit of American Sign Language. I've studied at the university level, as well as at the Foreign Service Institute, where US diplomats and ambassadors learn languages.
My writing has also appeared in WIRED, the BBC, Gloria, Refinery29, and Popular Science, among other publications.
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