Behavioral Analysis
The topic I wish to discuss, the quantitative analysis of human behavior, is one that I have examined for several years. I hope to continue to expand my observations on this topic for many years to come, as I find it captivating and believe that it has many different applications in daily life. I wish to preface this discussion by clarifying that I do not have professional authority in this area, and do not believe that my interest in this topic constitutes science. Despite this, I believe that methodically examining one’s behavior in the way that I describe can approximate some of the utility of science, insofar as I believe that it will provide readers valuable insights into trends and patterns that exist in their lives, and perhaps ways to overcome challenges constructively. The realm of science is the demonstration that empiric observations do not falsify theories about the structure of reality as it presently exists in a general sense and did in the past as well. Analysis of one’s own behavior is intrinsically a much more subjective exercise and not generalizable to others or to the description of a generalized model of behavior. However, I hope by writing about this topic to convince the reader of its usefulness to their own life. I also hope to contend that quantifying behavior in a more formal context may one day have valuable applications within the realms of science and medicine. Perhaps if daily behavior is measured in a relatively objective manner in the longitudinal and quantitative manner, I describe it can begin to be implemented into formal scientific studies as a useful variable.
My examination of behavior essentially began as an offshoot of my journal, which I keep in the form of an excel spreadsheet titled by the present year (i.e., “2021”). I write entries throughout the year and begin a new spreadsheet each January first. My journal entries are listed by date in one column and entry in the next. I also tag journal entries with different letter abbreviations to describe content, i.e., “w” for writing ideas, “d” for dreams, “t” for thoughts, or “s” for scientific ideas. If one day’s entry discusses multiple topics, I separate these topics with forward slashes (“/“). Although excel began as a convenient way for me to catalogue my thoughts, I have gradually expanded my use of it over many years to record various types of information about my life. Besides a journal I have sections of my spreadsheets that I use to keep track of my calendar (personal and professional), movies I have watched (and with whom I have watched them), books I have read, addresses, and birthdays. At one point I separated these sections into different tabs but have more recently consolidated them onto a single tab entitled “Journal.”
I use a second tab, “Finance,” to keep track of my expenses. I began monitoring my finances in a manual fashion around 2015 to keep track of my spending and with the specific goal in mind of spending less yearly on food. I am not an exceptional cook and eat out too frequently. Keeping a log of my personal finances also afforded me the opportunity to learn more about various topics in finance that interested me, such as simple moving averages. Finally, I used this tab as an excuse to learn more about various excel formulas, which I used to partially automate my record keeping process. One column of my finance tab records expense descriptions, i.e., “Walmart” or “gas,” while adjacent columns list price and date of purchase. Another column to the right records the amount spent per week by category of expense, such as groceries or transportation, with embedded excel formulas used to automatically record these sums based on the week’s various expenses and their descriptions (i.e., this formula ensures that all purchases from “Giant” are added to the “grocery” total). These subtotals are then summed to give the week’s total expenses. Columns across the top of the Finance tab consolidate this information across the entire year, with one row for each week, and various columns for total weekly expenses, total weekly grocery expenses, total weekly transportation expenses, etc. Additional columns keep a running tally of averages and 10-week simple moving averages, and a final row is used to project the likely yearly expenses based on current total expenses and the proportion of the year that has elapsed.
I use a third and final tab of my spreadsheet, “Health,” to keep track of behavior. This third tab initially began as a way for me to keep track of my running, which I enjoy but am decidedly mediocre at. To motivate myself to run more, I would log every run with the time ran in one column and the date in an adjacent column. Eventually I began tracking weightlifting as well, and had one column for date, one column for running, and a third for weightlifting. Subsequently, I expanded the use of this tab beyond exercise and began recording the amount of time that I mediated throughout the week, the amount that I read, and the amount that I cooked to encourage myself to do these activities more often as well. Initially, I would keep track of time using the same watch I took with me when I went running - a very simple black $5 watch that I purchased at Walmart a few years ago. I kept a running total of the amount of each activity I did throughout the year. It was very gratifying to watch the totals slowly rise over the course of the year, and over several years I could compare my habits and determine whether I was becoming healthier (exercising, cooking, and meditating more) and more scholarly (reading more). In this way I have found that monitoring my behavior quantitatively to be intrinsically motivating and fulfilling. I have tried to avoid being too anal retentive and needlessly recording information about all the recurring activities of my daily life. I have restricted myself to those that I wish to do more because I find them particularly gratifying, interesting, or good for my health (running, reading) or those behaviors where performing them more frequently would confer some essential utility to my daily life (cooking, grocery shopping).
I discovered a more concrete, practical application for this tab when I began medical school. As you may know medical school demands students read a very high volume of material (thousands of hours) to pass their classes, pass their board exams, and complete their degrees. These classes encompass a wide variety of topics, from the basic sciences pertinent to medicine (i.e., biochemistry, genetics) to the body’s various organ systems (cardiovascular, gastrointestinal), to the practice of various medical specialties (internal medicine, surgery). Each semester of classes builds on the previous and it is essential for all students to keep up with their readings. There are simply no shortcuts to the accumulation and consolidation of this body of knowledge, which continues to grow larger every year. Keeping track of the amount of time that I spent studying on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis was critical for me to pass my exams. Some students are gifted with incredible memories and only need to go over material once to memorize it and recall it on exams. I am not so fortunate and required what I believe to be somewhat longer than average to receive passing grades. I could not have effectively kept track of the amount of time I spent reading without this spreadsheet tab. It allowed me to establish weekly standards for myself (i.e., study four hours a day) and also helped me to anticipate how much I would need to study for certain classes (i.e., if a certain class required 50 hours of studying for a passing grade, another class known to be similarly challenging would likely require a similar volume of studying). Initially I used my watch to keep track of the amount of time I read. Later, I switched to mainly studying off my iPad and using the “screen time” function available in settings. This allowed me to identify the amount of time I spent specifically on apps dedicated to my studies (i.e., UWorld, Acrobat) without accidentally rewarding myself for distracting myself with social media or the internet.
Recording the time I spent studying methodically in a spreadsheet also allowed me to graph my studying habits throughout the year and observe visual trends. Besides graphing weekly totals of the amount of time I spent studying throughout the year, I eventually also decided to chart running averages and 10-week simple moving averages as I did with my finances. After about two years of tracking these averages, I wholesale converted the format of the “Health” tab to reflect the “Finance” tab. I overall found this format useful for recording quantitative information about different types of behavior and monitoring long term trends. Recording behavior in this manner also allowed me to fluidly vary the specific behaviors I tracked as my interests or goals changed while still tallying totals across a few global categories (i.e., two different study techniques I used often in medical school, Anki and UWorld, as well as the amount of time I spend on research projects, are all tallied in the study column, whereas running and biking are both tallied in the exercise column). In this way I began to scrutinize my behavior in much the same way that I analyze my finances or the prices of stocks and began thinking about their trends in a similar fashion (i.e., what caused them to go up or down at certain points in time, and what they were likely to do in the future if certain conditions presented themselves).
After charting my behavior for a few years, several patterns began to emerge. First, I noticed that even if activity trended in a certain direction over the course of the year (i.e., I studied more as classes became more difficult) that weekly totals fluctuated constantly. Some weeks I would study more and some I would study less, and as much as I sought to simply “study more” the reality was that I was not able to improve my habits with robotic efficiency. Secondly, different habits exhibited different trends throughout the year. During some parts of the year, I would exercise more, during other parts I would read for pleasure more, and still other parts I would study more. These periods would sometimes correspond with one another, but sometimes not. With regards to this point, my behavior has exhibited several trends throughout the years - periods of high activity of specific behaviors over the course of many weeks, often in response to certain environmental stressors. One such example: I spent much more time meditating while studying for my board exams (likely to avoid placing too much stress on myself and to take periodic breaks from reading). Another such example: I tend to exercise the most in the spring and late summer when it is most comfortable to run outside. In these examples I cannot demonstrate any level of causation between environment and behavior but only say anecdotally that I seem to observe these trends and am able to identify environmental factors present at those times. Whether there is a link between the two I can only speculate but I can say with some confidence that I believe there is a relationship between the two. If I were to try to establish a more concrete link between behavior and environment, I believe that I would probably try to record variables over time outside of behavior and look for correlations between the two (i.e., record weight at the same time every week and look for a correlation between exercise and weight). Of course, as noted above, if I were to ever desire to demonstrate that relationships existed between behavior as tracked in this manner and environment with any level of scientific accuracy, it would be necessary to conduct a study with many participants and most likely a more objective means of behavioral record keeping than self-reporting. I will conclude this point by noting that although I sought to identify (or perhaps impose) some sort of order on my behavior by charting it, the more precisely I observed it the more organic it appeared, invoking a reflection of the body’s natural circadian rhythm on a longer time scale. However, I have observed a few trends over the course of several years that I believe are not wholly organic but are in fact a direct result of my behavioral analysis to begin with. The first year that I recorded behavior formally, 2019, I logged 108 minutes of activity a day across multiple categories. This number has risen successively over the course of the last four years, and I currently am recording about 7.6 hours of activity a day. Even though I have gotten slightly busier over the course of the past four years, I believe that tracking my behavior and specifically the amount of time dedicated to useful activities, the better my time management has become. This has afforded me more time to spend on the parts of life that are most important to me. I believe that my attention span has also improved, which I would here offer the amount of time I spend weekly reading for pleasure (3 hours in 2019 and 5 in 2022) as an informal proxy. Consequently, at this point I would contend that quantitatively analyzing behavior over a long period of time is not merely a useful way to identify trends but also to condition behavior.
I mentioned meditation above and would like to place more emphasis on the utility of rewarding oneself for recording information about this category of behavior. By meditation I mean a few different activities that I group in the same category of the Health tab, titled “Mindfulness.” First, sitting quietly for a dedicated period and thinking about things that have happened recently in my life without distraction. I permit myself to drink some tea if I am so inclined. Next, going for walks throughout the day, which I always find are able to help me clear my head. Finally, and I cannot stress enough the utility of this choice enough, dedicated blocks of time during the day when I do not check the internet, social media, or my email. To keep up with essential electronic communications, during these blocks of time, I permit myself to check my messages and work email at 8 am, 12 pm, 4 pm, and 8 pm. Otherwise, I avoid electronics completely (except for, for example, my iPad on airplane mode for studying purposes) to remain focused on other activities. Then, when I record this block of time in the Health tab, I subtract the total amount of time I have spent on my computer and phone during the day (again using the “screen time” function) to discourage nonessential use of electronics. I have found that the more effectively I have learned to carve out specific blocks of time away from electronics to focus on various tasks, the more my attention span and memory have improved. I also reward myself if I avoid electronics completely between evening and morning by recording this interval and have found that developing discipline in this realm has greatly improved my sleep hygiene. I would subjectively say that my sleep quality has improved over the past few years, and I also find that I am better rested and more focused during the day.
These methods may possibly seem excessive, but it is the alternative I have willingly chosen to several (in my opinion) unhealthy coping strategies that society tolerates as ways to get through the day such as smoking, alcohol, and the various distractions available on television and the internet. With regards to the latter, I believe that while the internet is a very powerful, useful, and essential tool in the Information Age, we are fallible as human beings to using it for vice. It is an easy way for us to distract ourselves from our daily, necessary work. However, the more dependent we grow on it, the more damage I believe it has the potential to inflict on our attention spans and mental fortitude. The internet has now become a deeply integrated component of our daily lives: people spend an average of 3 hours and 15 minutes on smartphones and check their phones an average of 58 times a day. Interestingly, this figure varies widely by both country and age, suggesting that there are several cultural factors at work influencing daily smartphone use and likely technology use altogether. This is more time than I generally spend exercising, reading, and cooking altogether on any given day. Currently, per screen time data, I spend about 2.5 hours a day on my iPhone but hope to decrease this figure moving forward to perhaps 1.5 hours if possible. I believe that it is essential that we regulate the use of this tool which has become such an essential (but at the same time, I fear, addictive) element of our daily lives, so that it does not supplant more critical components of our hierarchy of needs. To summarize, mindfulness has received increasing attention over the past several years as an important element of health and I could not agree with this trend more emphatically. Mental health and physical health are intimately interconnected, and it would be a critical error for me to recommend the analysis of behavior relating to one’s physical health while neglecting mental health as well.
Relating to our hierarchy of needs, I have also used my spreadsheets to reward socializing. I started using my Health tab in this manner when I noticed that I was becoming lonelier and more isolated during the middle of medical school after a difficult break up. My studies were quite challenging during this period, and it was very difficult to justify spending my time on almost anything else. Carving out dedicated blocks of time to call my friends on the phone or go to dinner with them helped me to rise above my partially self-imposed isolation and get past the behavioral inertia that was leading me to study at the expense of other, equally important parts of my life. While I keep track of the amount of time that I dedicate to my friends and family to ensure that I do not needlessly isolate myself in my studies, I believe that other individuals could find many other potential applications to this kind of timekeeping. Perhaps individuals with social anxiety disorder could reward themselves for going to parties or on dates, for example. I would further contend that individuals with ASD may find this sort of timekeeping a useful way to understand on a deeper level the amount of time required for activities of daily living (i.e., cooking, grocery shopping) and to manage their time more effectively as adults in particular.
I would say that what I have accomplished with the guidance of my Health spreadsheet is quotidian. I am not an exceptional athlete or student. The furthest I have ever run is a half marathon, and most of my classmates are smarter and more successful than I am. However, I will say that my spreadsheets helped me to accomplish some of my goals, such as passing my medical board exams, and that I might not have accomplished these goals otherwise. I hope for the reader, by applying my thoughts and recommendations to their own lives, to achieve even greater ends themselves. I believe that tracking behavior has value for students and athletes, people struggling with social anxiety, and even individuals who are simply busy and wish to manage their time more effectively. At a few different points, I have sought to convert my spreadsheets into an app with the hopes of making my ideas more accessible to others. However, I continue to regard excel as a very powerful piece of software – easy to use, adaptable to numerous different applications, and conveniently accessible from any computer or phone using google drive. Additionally, the software’s features make it easy to graph longitudinal behavioral data and analyze trends. As a result, I continue to use excel, believing no alternative to be superior.
Finally, if this topic still seems banal to the reader, I will contend that there is perhaps no more valuable resource than time in the Information Age, and no more critical task than its appropriate use or allocation. The global population may continuously rise, and inflation may continuously diminish the value of the dollar, but time remains absolute and unchanging, like the total mass of gold on earth. There will always be seven days in a week, and we will only ever have a finite amount of time in our lives to expend towards our various endeavors. Every day, many different venues of activity and entertainment compete for our time. However, we ultimately have the agency to decide how to spend our time within reason and the constraints of our individual circumstances. I will end this thought with a hypothetical question which inverts my argument: if our free time is not valuable, why do so many forms of entertainment and advertising compete for it on a daily basis? Furthermore, how much money are those companies generating from the amount of time that you spend engaged with their products, digital or physical? My personal response to this hypothetical question is as follows: I believe that the old platitude, “time is money,” is likely true.