“It’s the ultimate device for a healthy life.”
What invention touts this as it’s tagline? A library card, healthy eating guidelines, workout manual, or fitness equipment?
“It keeps you connected to the people and things you care about most.”
Perhaps an endorsement for a social media platform?
No. Both are blurbs for the Apple Watch, a fitness tracker worn on the wrist, promising health but falling way short. As it turns out, numbers alone don’t mean much.
Problem: Goodhart’s Law
Goodhart’s Law says once a measure becomes a goal, it is no longer a good measure. Once the numbers become the target, the numbers cease to matter. One of the most common examples is this recent phenomenon of wearable fitness tech. The marketing around these devices promises that once you strap their tiny computer onto your wrist, you’ll suddenly lead a healthy lifestyle, getting plenty of movement in daily, monitoring your heart-rate, and keeping on top of the calories you consume. We’ve ushered in a new dawn of exercise and healthy living, right? Not hardly [1]. More often, the quest to be healthier gets undermined. Walking seven thousand steps a day devolves into “stand up to make the notification stop,” or “do a few squats so I can get credit for today’s movement goal.” Instead of actually changing habits – walking a few minutes every hour and living an active lifestyle – we stand up and wave our arms around until the device registers movement. The metric has ceased to matter because it hasn’t impacted your motivations or lifestyle.
In chasing metrics, we lose sight of the bigger picture. The bigger picture is being active, having a decent cardio threshold, and be able to move well as long as possible over your lifetime. The aim is to move frequently throughout the day, keeping your heart, joints, and body healthy. The aim is to be more active. The goal is not to simply walk when your device nudges you. The aim isn’t merely to spend thirty minutes on apps on the phone; it’s to spend more time living and less time scrolling.
While these devices may help bring awareness and remind us to build healthy practices into our lives, that is the limit of their effectiveness. Sleep, exercise, food, work, meaningful conversation; it all comes back to the daily habits and routines we practice. Those numbers don’t make you healthy any more than not wearing a device makes you unhealthy. The numbers only tell a small part of the story. Metrics don’t measure meaning and they can’t give a full picture of reality.
“Tyranny of Numbers”
[2] We tend to fixate on what is accessible. We track everything from hours and minutes slept, to heart rate while exercising, to the steps we take in a day. We are swimming in numbers, but are we paying attention to the significance of those numbers? Do we even have a use for them beyond today? Seven thousands steps is not itself a goal; it’s an estimation of the amount of movement needed to be considered healthy. It’s the bare minimum. Likewise, time on a phone app can’t measure the quality of interactions; it’s a number of minutes you spent on a screen. I’m not saying these metrics have no place, but I do question whether literally tracking every movement or wearing this information on our wrists is making us any healthier?
Similarly, there is a level of nuance raw numbers don’t convey. For example, moving for a few minutes at a time throughout the day has arguably the same cardio benefits as doing one intense cardio workout and being less active the rest of the day. Having an hour-long phone conversation with your mother or best friend might exceed your screen time allotment, but it’s great for your emotional wellbeing. Conversely, you may only scroll your time-line for twenty minutes, but it puts you into a bad mood. As we’ve seen, numbers can not measure or evaluate what is truly valuable.
The problem is, numbers alone aren’t significant. We give the numbers meaning, but often mistake numbers for productivity. Forty hours in an office, a dozen watches repaired, bushels of apples gathered; all numbers, but not necessarily a productive measure. None of these measures say anything about the quality involved. They also ignore the complexity of humanity.
Humans are more complex than simply creating “output.” It would behoove us to remember that history’s greatest breakthroughs and inventions were accompanied by leisure time. Penicillin was discovered when Sir Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday and realized he’d accidentally left a culture out. Steve Jobs’ obsessive work habits were accompanied by long walks where he thought through challenges. Mary Shelley literally dreamed up Frankenstein’s monster in a nightmare. The melody for “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney while he was asleep. Creativity and innovation are sparked by leisure; dependent upon that time to think, recover and prepare.
This is the purpose of the sabbatical week, and the sabbatical year by which it was inspired. Time away to think and evaluate one’s decisions, options, and ideas as is critical to the proper, not to mention elite, functioning of the human mind. We require down time in order to perform. Time spent worrying about the numbers undermines our mental ability to work.
Breakthroughs happen because of leisure, not despite it. Take the numbers for what they are worth and get on with living.
Humans over Numbers
Relationships, empathy, celebration – all are important aspects of the human experience. They engender stronger family or community bonds, keep people happier – and more productive – and foster unity across ethnic and economic lines. Humanity is an asset, not a bug. Our endless chasing of numbers undermines families and household relationships, further weakening the nation’s workforce. Judith Shulevitz has studied and written about the importance of the sabbath in modern life. In a recent article for the Atlantic, she looks at the impact of odd work hours and continuous workweeks on the family. She writes, “What makes the changing cadences of labor most nepreryvka-like [3], however, is that they divide us not just at the micro level, within families and friend groups, but at the macro level, as a polity. Staggered and marathon work hours arguably make the nation materially richer—economists debate the point—but they certainly deprive us of what the late Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described as a “cultural asset of importance”: an “atmosphere of entire community repose.”
Put another way, our endless chasing of metrics – including the American obsession with consumerism and social signaling – erodes the traditional schedule of spending weekends and holidays with family. There are social and societal components to this discussion, but the fact remains that meaningful changes begin with the individual. Why are we chasing these numbers in the first place? At what point do we say, “Enough,” and focus on living well?
I recall the first Christmas at my first full-time job, during which the boss wanted his entire staff of about twenty people to work Christmas Eve. Mind you, this was a real estate development business and every adjacent business was closed – even if we wanted to, there was nothing of value getting done that day. The agent was out of town for the holiday, banks and title companies were closed – literally nothing was going to happen that day. Knowing this, I asked for Christmas Eve off , citing that I had family coming in that day. The boss, on his way out of town for his two-week Christmas vacation with his family, reminded me I wouldn’t be paid for Christmas Eve.
I repeated that I needed the day off to spend with my family. He gave me the day. Surprisingly, a few hours later, he announced the entire staff would have Christmas Eve off.
I don’t know if someone else talked with him, or maybe the idea he would be paying employees to sit around a quiet office on Christmas Eve finally landed. I do know I didn’t have to ask for that day off again, and we were all given the three-day holiday the rest of my time working there. Whatever the reasoning, I am happy the decent decision was made.
To me, this interaction illustrated everything wrong with the modern workplace. Humanity is not considered until it’s requested. For whatever reason, the concept of not making money that day was supposed to convince me to stay at the office, even when the owners knew no work would be done. The expectation was that losing a bit of pay would be reason enough to skip out on family during the holiday.
Companies have profits to make and shareholders to please. Those things have a place, but ensuring the health, safety, and long-term well-being of the workforce must take precedence. There is a reason productivity boosts after holidays and vacations. Companies are composed of, and ultimately cater to, people. Humanity is a feature, not a bug. When people are happy and able to enjoy themselves for a few days, they are happy to return to work. When we treat people with dignity, they respond well.
Which brings us to a rather simple, but profound conclusion. Life is long and humans require rest and down-time. Life is best lived without constant tracking and numbers ruling our days. Our practices therefore need to reflect this truth with long-term thinking and planning.
Growth without Goals
The solution to our conundrum may lie in shifting our perspective from short-term goals to life-long practices. In “Growth Without Goals,” the writer observes our excessive need to quantify and over-analyze most situations, habits, etc. To combat this tendency, he proposed that we include practices in our daily routines which will simply help us grow over time. None of these metrics are measured, but they all build on one another to improve the mind and body. They all contribute to growing inner strength and resilience. The aim is to become a better, more well-rounded, intelligent, and healthier person over a lifetime as we practice these habits. There is no expiration date or race day – just a constant drive to continue putting one foot in front of the other.
To pick up our earlier example, perhaps you simply schedule a daily walk, then grow that exercise habit over time. Or, allow some variety in your fitness routine; Pilates one day, lifting weights another, and hiking another day. Instead of limiting your screen time to minutes, you only follow people or accounts which contribute to learning or inspire you. There is more to growing than raw numbers. Some of his practices included walking in the woods every day, writing 500 words daily, and spending time with family.
Mine include:
- time with my husband and family
- stretching every morning and evening
- active movement every day
- eating mostly nutritious food
- reading a chapter from Scripture
- getting at least eight hours of sleep every night
- writing 1000 words each day
- journaling
- reading challenging books
I also aim to write one quote or note each day in my notebook as proof of learning something new every single day.
Setting goals isn’t a bad thing, but those short-term goals should be in line with the practices and lifestyle you want long-term. They should build the life you want. Prioritize practices, not metrics.
How does one decide on practices to implement?
Like Emerson and Thoreau advised, we must take a step back and examine and discover what truths we actually believe and build our lives and habits on them. It’s only from there we can navigate life and decision-making with any meaning or fulfillment. An excellent way to do this is by picturing the person you would like to be. What does Future You’s mornings look like? What are their hobbies? What do they do for work? How do they wind down in the evenings? Work backwards from there, building daily practices that line up with Future You. This will allow you build practices with clear purposes and let you define “better” for yourself. Chasing metrics because other people seem to find them valuable is a fast-track to burnout and despair. We need to have a reason for pursuing the things we do. Otherwise, what is the point? How can you improve if you don’t know what improvement looks like? Instead of measuring numbers, reflect on what makes you a better person. When are you at your best? Incorporate those practices into your daily routine.
Don’t mistake numbers for meaning. For example, walking daily and being active throughout the day are practices. Walking seven thousand steps is a metric. Reading fifty books a year is a metric, but learning every day is an ongoing practice. Leading an active and enriching lifestyle, so you can continue doing so years from now is the ultimate goal. Likewise, engaging with your community, and being of service to others are other lifelong practices to build toward. It’s when we choose to see numbers as a judgment of value the metric becomes harmful. Take the numbers for what they are – information – and continue with your practices.
Ultimately, there is no “hack” or number for living well. You decide what holds significance in your life, and build your days around that. By focusing on what makes us better people, we improve not only ourselves, but the people around us. The rest is just numbers.
Painting: Willem van Aelst, Still life with a watch (c. 1665).
Footnotes:
[1]This is one of many studies showing that devices like Apple Watches or Fitbits, etc., don’t actually improve health or anticipate healthy outcomes. These studies also concluded that fitness interventions don’t motivate people any more than traditional methods.
[2]This section was inspired in part by Thomas J. Bevan’s essay of the same name.
[3]Nepreryvka , or “continuous workweek” refers to the Soviet Union’s experiment in 1929 with cutting the week down from seven days to five and continuously employing labor. It was a resounding failure. The History Channel has an informative write-up on the experiment, as well.
