What gets measured gets done

Last night my group made huge progress on our progress for our d.school class. We've been working on ways to encourage people to save even a little bit of money. Last week, we gave our 4 users really simple prototypes -- envelopes and a notebook to help them track their spending. We were amazed that they all showed up for our second meeting, with envelopes and notebooks in hand. And our prototypes worked!  

Our users' stories were pretty compelling. When he wrote down his spending, one man saw how much he spent on phone service, so he switched to a less expensive plan. A young woman managed to save a little bit, even though last week she laughed at the possibility of saving at all.  

My performance was not so stellar. I was $37 over my budget based on a fictional after-tax income of $20k/year. ("Income" is sort of meaningless for me since mine is a large negative number.) But I did notice that I was especially frugal this week, knowing that I was on a tight budget, and fearing writing down frivolous expenses. I also realised that my current rent would not exactly be sustainable on such an income. 

I share this story both because it was uplifting, but also because it reminds me how busy and exhausted I've been this past week (working on this and other projects). I've taken very little time for myself; I haven't been sleeping much; I haven't been doing anything creative; I've been eating crappy food and not exercising. I think I need to do a better job of measuring even just a part of these things. But I've been doing that (somewhat consistently) on my google spreadsheet... so where's the disconnect?

Maybe it's the accountability component. Our users seemed pretty invested in our process because we created a group -- a community. I've been pretty bad recently about making and then following through with commitments to take time for myself. I'm still posting here regularly, but things like creative morning activity have followed by the wayside. 

So, time to get back on the saddle. I really liked starting my day with something creative. So the my first 15 min of the day I'll devote to something for myself. Like reading, drawing, or meditation. I know I've tried this before, but I think these things take constant maintenance. 

Since I'm already exhausted, I need to gets me to bed soon so I can have an early and refreshing start tomorrow!

-Emma