John Hendy <jw.he...@gmail.com> writes: > I've really been getting into the Quantified Self movement recently, > and by "getting into," I mean reading and watching videos and > /thinking/ about things I'd like to track about myself. [1] I've been > pondering what kind of "platform" to use for my data collection... > Excel? Some time tracking application? Those were after-thoughts. I > thought of Org-mode right away and it seemed like an obvious choice. > Why? > > 1) I have access to it at home and work pretty easily > > 2) The ability to quickly insert time stamps/clock data > > 3) The habit family of features -- set up some initial goals > (recurring todo headlines) and then just got to the headline and mark > done (possibly with a note) to record the event. > > 4) Exportability (though I have some questions on this one) > > 5) I recently got an Android tablet and have mobile-org on it now, > which I'm hoping will allow me to have even better access to data > entering. > > 6) Should some application "go under," I'll still always have my data > in plain text. > > On to my questions: > -- Has anyone done something like this? I see it as very similar to > habit tracking. To give an example, I've had a bit of a persistent > cough. I developed it when I was sick at one point, went on > antibiotics, and got better... but the cough kind of stuck around but > is on and off. Now I'm wondering if it's coffee/dehydration related so > I'd like to create headlines for Coffee, glass of water, and cough. > Then I can just mark them done whenever I finish a cup of coffee, > drink a glass of water, or cough. At some point I'd like to plot them > to visualize any potential relationships. > > -- On that note, what's the best way to get data out of > org-habit/headlines and into something a bit more usable like csv? I'm > looking for something more than just looking through headlines for > missed days. I'm going to need full access to the time stamps in a > usable format (say, R) and everything agglomerated into one single > data file. > > -- I see I can insert [inactive] timestamps in mobile-org. Making > something a TODO seems to require manual input? I find the > documentation fairly lacking with respect to simple basic terminology > (Outline view vs. Document view?) and have not used it much. Any > suggestions on using this in conjunction with the above would be > great. > > I think org-mode could make a very spectacular data tracker due to its > time stamp and clocking abilities along with what feels natural with > respect to adding in narrative text/notes and being able to structure > things how I'd like. In addition, I'll have git ability to sync with > my home computer. > > Thoughts? Thanks for any input! > > [1] For those unfamiliar: http://quantifiedself.com/ > > > John >
Hi John, If you end up storing measurements in properties you could use org-collector [1] to collect these values into tables. From tables they can easily be analyzed with spreadsheet formulas [2] or passed to code blocks [3] for more sophisticated analysis and plotting. Best, Footnotes: [1] http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-collector.html [2] http://orgmode.org/manual/The-spreadsheet.html [3] http://orgmode.org/manual/Working-With-Source-Code.html -- Eric Schulte http://cs.unm.edu/~eschulte/
