Mental Health

• Just my opinion, but I think for those with anxiety, depression, or habitual negative thinking, measuring aspects of life can be very detrimental. The siren call of self-help pulls on those who feel inadequacy, this is similar, "if I track 'things' I can find what's wrong with me and fix it." But turning a spotlight on one's life without treatment(like CBT), will just provide evidence to feed a bias.

Motivation

• I'm more likely to do a project I'm tracking in detail. I find I vastly overestimate my ability to remember tasks, and even simple charts are great reminders. However, this is very different than the claims that tracking a goal increases motivation. It 'seems' reasonable, but it hasn't worked for me. If anything tracking details of a task I'm unmotivated for makes the problem worse by adding complexity.