The Joy Journal

💻I am a data geek and I’ve been collecting data about me for the last eight years. Data like weight, fat percentage, Resting Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Glucose levels and recently HRV, SP02, V0Max and a dozen more. Most of these data are tracked automatically by inexpensive hardware.

In 2019 I started tracking my mood on a daily basis, hoping to find any corrections that might be interesting.

• 22.2% was epic
• 70% was pretty good
• 7% was ok
• 0.8% was bad
• 0% was terrible

Yes, it was a pretty good year.

It is kind of difficult to explain and quantify “happy” as my definition of happiness is something between building stuff, lifting heavy weights (and getting physically injured), Startups (getting emotionally injured) and doing stuff with people I love. No pain, no gain, no happiness, right?

Someone asked me on LinkedIn why my 2019 was (in general) a pretty happy year. Was it gratitude? Friends? Drugs?

And I have no idea. I remember being super happy with Katya and friends, laughing, going on the beach and chilling in the sun. I remember being happy when we did a kick-ass release at AgentRisk and I was dropping off Alex 11pm at his home — knowing that the whole team gave their 110%.

But I don’t remember the exact moments.

📖Enter Joy Journal

For this year I am trying a Joy Journal — with a twist.

Joy journal is a physical book where you right things that make you happy. Then, you keep doing these things.

Yes, data geeks love actionable insights.

My JJ (that’s how cool kids call Joy Journal — and by “cool kids” I mean only me at this moment) is like a normal journal but with more data. Whatever you have in your mind. Double it. And then double it again.

The tools

I use my phone instead of a physical book and I write down:

1. Time & date
2. Who else is with me
3. The environment (context)
4. Why I feel happy

I also snap a picture and put everything in my Evernote.

My goal is to find the things (and the environment) that make me consistently happy and keep having more of it. No idea if that simple method will work out but it worths the shot.

Have you tried a Joy Journal? Do you have any cool ideas? I would love to hear them!

- Sat 08 February 2020