TASHA

“That which is measured improves.”

As technologists, this is a phrase that we’ve likely heard, perhaps several times, in reference to our work or the software we build. However, it is true for many things outside of our work, including our health. Tracking, measuring, and storing the data of our minds and bodies gives us valuable insight into the reality of our daily habits and practices. We have the ability to see what’s successful vs. unsuccessful, where we give in to bad habits we think we’re avoiding, what good habits we’re practicing, and ultimately, how all of this meshes together to objectively understand how exactly we’re putting a focus on our physical, mental, and emotional health. Remember that each of these diagnostic tools is about moving from vagueness to clarity.

(T)ime: Increase clarity by moving from a calendar to a Daily Action Plan

There are plenty of tools for financial budgeting, ranging from Excel to apps like YNAB. When we move from financial budgeting to time budgeting, most people default to their calendar. However, the calendar is not where we want to budget our time because it predominantly focuses on “defensive” items such as meetings. Keeping a calendar to budget time can be likened to creating a budget by looking at your bank statement. The information is there, but there isn’t a clear connection between where our time is spent and whether that time is used for “offensive” or “defensive” activities.

We suggest continuing to use a calendar for appointments or meetings but also building a Daily Action Plan outside of the calendar. While the daily action plan is a simple concept, it is a powerful tool for focusing our attention. We’ll take a deeper dive into the Daily Action plan at the end of Section 2.

(A)ttention: Increase clarity by moving from a lengthy to-do list to an Essentialism Plan

We have limited time each week, and our to-do lists seem never-ending. We constantly pile more and more onto the end, increasing the feeling that our tasks are insurmountable. We are not alone in this. Research shows that 47% of Americans have lengthy to-do lists.

The lengthy to-do list is similar to the calendar; it’s simply too much to look at, and many of the items are not value-adding. Instead, we suggest building an Essentialism Plan where the primary focus is only on the hell yeahs at work and in our personal life. These are the things that will truly change our lives or work 9-12 months from now. With this said, it’s important to acknowledge that this is intertwined with autonomy (more on this in Section 3: Team Health). Without adequate autonomy, an individual employee only has so much control over how/where they focus their attention.

At the end of Section 2, you’ll find more information about how to build your first Essentialism Plan.

(S)leep: Increase clarity by moving from estimating our sleep to Precise Sleep Measurement

We can estimate both the quantity and quality of our sleep, but most of the time, it’s not really based on anything more concrete than how we feel in the morning. The only way to get closer to understanding reality is by utilizing a sleep tracker for precise sleep measurement. For example, if you ask someone how much they sleep on average, they will most likely tell you the number of hours they spend in bed. This number is unlikely to be accurate since we don’t sleep 100% of the time we are in bed. For a younger, healthy person, their sleep efficiency percentage may be around 90% on average, which means they are sleeping closer to 7.2 hours on nights they are in bed for 8 hours. With a tracker, we can gain a much more objective measurement of our various sleep cycles, such as REM and deep sleep, which greatly affect how we perform and feel at work.

Here is a comprehensive overview of the best sleep trackers on the market. We highly recommend the Oura ring if you are mainly interested in sleep tracking. The WHOOP is ideal if you don’t like wearing rings or you are very active and want to monitor athletic training.

(H)abits: Increase clarity by moving from estimating our habits to Precise Habit Tracking

Trying to initiate new habits without tracking them is doomed to fail. If we’re not tracking our habits, how can we know how often we break them or if we’re seeing consistency? When we move to a simple-to-use habit tracker, we gain historical data that is more accurate than our memory, and we can share the data with a trusted accountability partner. Consistency is the goal when building new habits, and seeing progress helps reinforce consistency.

We suggest using HabitShare for the following reasons:

It’s free
It works on both Android and iOS
It’s simple to use with an overview of your recent habits
You can share your habits with others for accountability

(A)ddiction: Increase clarity by answering the question: “Do I struggle with work addiction?”

First, we’ll be focusing on helping to clarify if there is a struggle with addiction to work. Work addiction can be characterized by constant overdoing, over-scheduling, and a lack of margin that creates adrenalizing. In the Workaholics Anonymous Book of Recovery, workaholism is defined as: “Both a physical addiction to adrenaline and stress hormones and a process addiction to compulsive activity.”

A problem worker is someone who constantly overworks. When the overworking is removed, their life gets better. The issue is rooted in being pushed too much, either by themselves or someone else.

A workaholic’s life gets worse as work is taken away. This person uses work as a solution to or an escape from a deeper problem inside. This person will need more help to change because the root of the problem is addiction.

The following diagnostic resources can help determine if you may have an addiction to work. Workaholics Anonymous Sign Posts Workaholics Anonymous Knowing

After reviewing the links, we can help provide resources for the next steps if you feel that workaholism may describe your situation.

This section of the Developer Health OS corresponds to Cerebral Calisthenics #2 Identifying Your Level of Burnout in the DHOS Workbook