The Apps I Use for My QS Tracking

In order to fulfill my personal stat keeping, as a Quantitative Self aficionado, I use a collection of apps to do the heavy lifting.

Exist and Dayone: I’ve already shared these and talked about them. They are great.

Insight Timer: This is my meditation app. I don’t pay for it, but there are paid tiers. What I love about it is the way they gamify keeping daily streaks alive. The free version also enables users to modify the details of their sessions very easily. Of course, they also have tons of guided meditations, virtual retreats, and a variety of teachings (Buddhist and otherwise).

Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen: Dr. Greger has written a few books that have been very popular, like How Not to Die. He has a free app that allows you to track your daily consumption of what he says are the key ingredients to a healthy (plant based) diet. There are 12 food categories and 1 supplement he recommends (B 12). I love tracking my diet with this easy to use app.

Oura Ring: Oura rings are pretty popular. Not much to say other than it does a great job of tracking sleep and recently it has been updated to allow for food tracking as well (just take a picture). Worth the money if you need any nudge you can get to stay healthy and like swimming in data.

Apple’s Fitness and Health apps: If you have an Apple Watch, I think you’d be silly not to look at the data you have access to. Otherwise, just wear a regular watch, right?

MapMyRun: This app was once owned by UnderArmor but they apparently sold it to the people who publish Outside magazine. App works the same and does a great job of tracking my (too infrequent) runs.

Google Workspace: I keep my QS stats in a Google Sheet and keep things like my daily gratitude list (3 things every day!) in a Google Doc.

Notion: Everything but my calendar is in Notion. I use it as my task manager and I keep all the other digital flotsam I want to keep a hold of.

I used to wear and use a Fitbit and when it worked, it was great. But it didn’t always work and it got worse once it was bought by Google. I am not using it anymore.

Introducing Exist: The Newest Tool in My Quantified Self Routine

I use several tools to keep track of things. Like many people with smartwatches and phones, I rely on Apple’s built-in apps for steps and exercise. I also wear an Oura ring, which gives me reliable sleep stats and now helps me log meals. Lately I’ve been keeping a text-based food log in Google Docs, uploading it each morning for ChatGPT to review and suggest improvements (which I mostly ignore). I also record daily meditation time and fasting windows.

All of this data ends up in a spreadsheet. Each month I average the numbers and copy them into another sheet so I can see longer-term trends. I’ve been doing this since January 2019, and it’s fascinating to look back for patterns. Truthfully, I also just enjoy collecting and organizing numbers.

The reason for this post is a newer app I’ve added to the mix: Exist. It recently had a thoughtful refresh and has become a solid addition to my tracking system. With Exist, I can score my days from 1 to 9, add tags, and review insights it generates from my inputs. I’ve found it useful for giving each day an overall grade and spotting the factors that shape whether it feels good or bad.

I know this kind of practice might seem unnecessary to most people, and that’s cool and very understandable. Even my wife pokes fun at me from time to time when she catches me tapping away in my spreadsheets. But I don’t spend time in bars or watch much TV (apart from a good college football game), so I have space for this in my life. If you already have the tracking habit and enjoy reflecting on your data, Exist is worth a try. Screenshot of my dashboard below.