Life in Data – Hacking the ADHD Brain via Total Quantifiable Awareness
🚀 The Manifesto: Life in Data – Hacking the ADHD Brain via Total Quantifiable Awareness
So, here we are. The 'Save File' is created, the character is named, and the tutorial levels are officially over. I’m finally doing it.
If you know me, you know my brain is basically a supercomputer with about fifty tabs open, three of them are frozen, and there’s music playing from a source I can’t friggin' find. It’s that classic, undiagnosed ADHD cocktail—the 'everything and nothing all at once' energy that makes starting easy but finishing... well, that’s usually where the TPK (Total Party Kill) happens.
My brain, circa 2026. Probably.
But I’ve hit on a theory. What if the reason I lose interest isn't a lack of discipline, but a lack of data? If I can’t see the progress bar, my brain assumes I'm not moving. So, I’m hacking the system. I’m turning my entire existence into a giant, real-time data log. A personal stress-test for 2026.
The Rule: If it isn't measured, it isn't real.
⚔️ The Genesis: #OperationMammoth
This whole madness started with a bookshelf. Look, I’ve got George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and James Clavell’s Asian Saga staring at me. That’s roughly 8,800 pages of dense, political, high-lore heavy lifting. Normally, I’d read 50 pages and get distracted by a shiny new tech gadget or a Netflix documentary.
The ultimate boss battle: Paper vs. Brain.
Not this time. I’m tracking my Daily DPS (Data Per Session).
- The Goal: 100% completion by Dec 31.
- The Analytics: ~24.3 pages per night.
- Current Save: Page 142 of A Clash of Kings.
I’ve built a 'Siege of Paper' burn-down chart. Every page I flip is a point of damage against the boss's HP. Seeing that line drop on a spreadsheet? That’s the dopamine hit my brain has been starving for. It’s turned a 'reading habit' into a 'high-stakes raid.'
📊 The Expansion: Quantifying the Rest of My Life
If I can gamify a book, why stop there? I’m expanding the 'Life in Data' framework to cover every primary system in the 'Me' simulation.
1. The Physical Engine (Fitness & Health)
I’m bored of 'doing exercise.' I want to track the efficiency of the machine.
- The Stairs of Cirith Ungol: Tracking vertical feet climbed. I’m not just walking; I’m navigating the pass into Mordor. I’ll be comparing my monthly climb to the height of the Shard or the Eiffel Tower.
- Sleep Latency & Recovery: Using biometrics (think smart rings/watches) to see how my 'Nightly Grind' affects my next-day cognitive bandwidth. Does reading Shogun until 2 AM tank my focus for work? The data will be judge and jury.
- Nutritional Throughput: Tracking the correlation between caffeine intake and 'Deep Work' output. Is there a peak 'coffee-to-code' ratio? I’m going to find it.
Every step is a data point, every climb a quest.
2. The Processing Power (Mental & Cognitive)
This is where the ADHD brain usually glitches. We’re going to build a Cognitive HUD.
- Flow State Logs: Tracking how many 25-minute 'Pomodoro' sprints I can hit before the distraction-demon wins.
- Digital Decay: A YoY (Year-over-Year) analysis of screen time. I want to see a downward trend in 'mindless scrolling' vs. an upward trend in 'content creation.'
- The 'Side-Quest' Variable: Every week, I’m logging one random, non-productive stat just to keep things weird. How many birds did I spot from the window? How many times did the fiancée roll her eyes at my 'data detective' chat? 💀
3. The Guild Support (Family & Connection)
Data usually feels cold, but I’m using it to be more present.
- QIUs (Quality Interaction Units): Tracking intentional, no-phone time with the fiancée. Could be a proper chat, a board game, or just chilling without doom-scrolling.
- The 'Fiancée Happiness Buff': Logging unsolicited chores and 'support tasks.' If I see my 'Chore Velocity' dropping, it’s an early warning system that I’m becoming a hermit. It’s using analytics to be a better partner, basically.
Even quality time can be quantified... for science!
🛠️ The Tech Stack (How I'm Doing It)
I’m using a mix of Google Sheets (for the Master Log), Oura for the biometrics, and a bespoke 'Burn-Down' tracker I’ve cobbled together. I’m turning my phone from a distraction device into a Data Uplink. It's about making the tech work for me, not the other way around. No more getting personally attacked by my phone settings, hopefully. 😂
🧩 The Paradox of the Measured Man
There’s a bit of a head-scratcher here, a variation of the Observer Effect. By measuring my life, am I still living it naturally? Or am I just performing for my own spreadsheet? Does the data dictate my mood, or does my mood dictate the data? It’s a bit recursive, like a snake eating its own tail, but honestly? If it gets the books read and the stairs climbed, who friggin' cares?
Me, mid-spreadsheet update, questioning the fabric of reality.
🌌 Sky Lesson: The "Cosmic Distance Ladder"
When astronomers measure the universe, they use a 'ladder' of different methods because one single ruler doesn't work for everything.
- The Data: Parallax for nearby stars, Cepheid variables for galaxies, and Redshift for the deep cosmos.
- The Lesson: I can’t measure my fitness the same way I measure my reading or my family life. I need a Life Distance Ladder. Different metrics for different scales.
Join the Grind.
This blog is the public log of a guy trying to find the signal in the noise. It’s gonna be messy, it’s gonna be nerdy, and it’s definitely going to have some typos because I’m writing this at the speed of light.
Let the metrics begin.
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