Vibe Logging: The Value in Tracking Emotions Through Time
For many years I tracked how I spent every minute of my time – and I learned fun facts about myself – over the course of three years of data my average time spent reading fictional novels per day was forty-four minutes. But eventually I stopped logging my time; I’d learned it added roughly twenty minutes to my shower to wash my hair, and that I didn’t feel happy with my relationship when we spent under two hours of quality time together per day. The experiment was a success, but the returns were diminishing. Then, seven years after the original time-logging project began, I had a new inspiration: vibe logging. The premise was that each day had a “vibe” to it – wistful, industrious, melancholy, frustrated, introspective – and that by keeping track of these vibes I’d learn something about how my mood shifted over the course of days, weeks, months, and – maybe, if I was ambitious enough – years. I’ve been “vibe logging” for four years now, and I can say this project has been an asto...
