Really, Try Tracking for 30 Days

This month Denver hosted a TEDxMileHigh event showcasing numerous Colorado speakers spreading big ideas. TEDxMileHIgh describes itself as "a community of thinkers and doers, ideators and creators, activists and enthusiasts".  Even though it was a beautiful classic Colorado Saturday, I really enjoyed forgoing the sun and listening the the wide range of speakers.  The one speaker that gained traction with me was Ned Breslin, a life long water activist. Ned left me with the very simple thought of if you are not tracking how do you tell if you are truelly creating value.  In other words, without tracking your results you could be moving in the wrong direction and not have a clue.  Ned described a very simple scenario of water focused NGOs moving from town to town in Africa with presumably establishing life changing wells for communities.  The unknown downside was that the NGOs didn't track to see if the wells actually worked in future years.  You guessed it, some were still active and some were disappointments to the host community.  Ned proposes a system of continuous tracking of the wells to learn and establish best practices.

Now we all have big goals and habits for 2013.  What if we spent the next 30 days seriously tracking our progress and results what would we learn about ourself?

July 1st is almost upon us and it is a perfect time to spend 30 days tracking what ever habit you are trying to establish or abolish.  Several of my personal ideas for July tracking ideas are:

• Frequency of workouts
• Meals with vegetables
• Personal finances
• Relationship building through coffees, lunches, email, text messages and yes an old school phone call

As you know I am very keen on systems and platforms.  Some of my favorite tools I am currently using are:

• Nike Fuel Band - tracks my daily movement
• WorkOut - simple calendar iPhone app that tracks frequency and allows simple note taking
• Lift - simple habit creating iPhone app with a social network encouragement element 
• Simple Bound Notebook

What successes have you achieved by tracking? Any recommendations for our Basics Team Members?

Go for it!

-- Pat Roth