There are so many different health tech things on the market today. Like….SO MANY. There are as many watches from different brands that you could almost wear a different one every day of the week. There is smart jewellery that tracks your everything stats, and there are smart fobs that you can attach to your shoes to track your running route. With all of this data coming at you like a fire hose, you need to manage everything and distil it down to a manageable message for yourself. Luckily, you can do lots of things to make it so that you are sipping a manageable cup of water and not standing in front of a firehose with your mouth open.
1) The right device for the right purpose – I have said it before; every device you have on you has a base function. Your smartphone is an (ahem) a phone, your smartwatch is (let me go slowly here…) a watch. Your pedometer is designed to count your steps. The trick is that all of these devices can do what all of the other devices can do. Yes, your phone can, in theory, track your steps, but you need to take it with you for it to do that. It would be much easier for you to wear your watch, which is designed specifically for that, to track your steps.
2) Too much data can be overwhelming and confusing – As I mentioned, not only can all your devices track much of the same things but all of the different apps can as well. Sometimes with differing results. If you have a smartwatch and a smart ring that both collect the same data but come up with different results, which do you trust? I’ll be honest, as far as I’ve been able to tell, the difference is negligible. If you rely on certain bits of information that are a bit more vital (like heart rate from two different programs), it might be easier to pick one and go with that as your measuring stick. If you’re DEEPLY concerned about your health data, I would consult with your doctor and see if they have any recommendations.
3) Try to ignore the noise – With every device and app giving us information about everything, you need to think about what information you really want and what information you really NEED. As an example, I am in reasonably good health, so I don’t need to have my heart rate monitor set up so that it will track every little detail of my heart rate. It’s nice to know, and I check out my resting vs. Active heart rate every once in a while, but I don’t NEED to know it every day. If you are trying to ensure that you want to get a good night’s sleep and making sure your sleep data is up to scratch, then that may be something that you’d focus on. Paying attention to everything all the time will cause you too much stress, and all that noise is (for me) simply not worth the effort.
Your health data is there so that you can improve your health. If you have too much data or the wrong data, you may not be able to improve what needs improvement. What’s great about having all this data is that we can HAVE all the information; the trick now is knowing what to do with it. What’s great is that if you can organize your data correctly, you will be able to get your data to work for you. One of the things that I have done over the past year is that I have been able to keep an eye on my heart rate as I’ve been losing weight, and I have found that my heart rate has significantly dropped, which encourages me to continue with my journey. When you can use your health data correctly, it can help you inform how to organize your physical journey.
What data do you look at?
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