Today, I want to talk about metrics. Performance metrics, to be specific, though applied to personal development.

Metrics. Let me explain:

I don’t know if you know this. I didn’t, for certain.

At my dental check up this week, my very nice hygienist, Mary Kate, was very good at explaining what she was doing. I was meeting Mary Kate for the first time, and perhaps she is always this thorough but no one else had ever talked me through the process.

I’ve had teeth for 50-some years now and I just learned from Mary Kate about perio-charting or probe scores. So there you go. There’s your new idea for the day. Perio-charting or probe scores.

The hygienist uses a tool which I’ve never looked closely at before. It’s kind of pointy, looks a little scary. There are lines on the probe that allow the hygienist to quantify the health of my gums.

The goal is to not have a lot of recession, I guess, or dips in the gums around your teeth. And the farther your gums recede, the higher the number of stripes on this tool that they see when they poke your gums, and the more damage you have and the more concerned you need to be, or the more work that needs to be done.

I didn’t know this. Did you know this? I thought it was very cool!

As I sat in the dentist’s chair, I was already reflecting about this article that I wanted to write about Metrics and here I was presented with an excellent example of quantifying something that I didn’t even realize was quantifiable, in the interest of gauging current status and also checking in again later to determine progress over time.

Yep, that’s a Metric. Performance metrics are used to measure the behavior, activities and performance of a business. Or a person, for today’s purpose of my podcast and newsletter.

Mary Kate explained there is an objective, standard, quantifiable, reproducible number to measure gum health. If you have a score of four or under, your gums are pretty healthy. A little higher and we should start to worry. And a seven or eight is cause for alarm. (Mine were healthy, by the way!)

A different hygienist in a different office would still get the same number. Because a metric is information that is quantifiable and standardized. And the best part about Metrics is if we measure something, we can also improve upon it and measure our progress over time.

Every six months when I go in, they’re going to use the same tool and the same charting method. We will identify if there is a problem. And if take action to alleviate the problem, we can measure if it’s helping or not. This is huge, right? I mean, we all need to know this!

There are metrics, or habits or activities or progress, that we can identify as being important to us and quantify in some way. Of course, lots of factors are measurable and therefore trackable. And if we can track something, we also can improve something. My website expert Claire reminds me that “if you don’t track it, you can’t improve it”. It comes down to metrics.

So, with metrics, we can:

• identify what metric, habit or data is important for us to track;
• identify how or in what increments we want to track it;
• consider what progress will look like (I would like to extend my walk time from 30 minutes daily to 40 minutes daily over the course of a week);
• identify how and how often we want to track the habit or data; and
• set up the habits and tools that help us make this all happen!

As you listen to my podcast about this article, consider that I can check the Podbean app where my podcast is hosted and see how many people listen. I can see the data (metrics) from day to day and from episode to episode. I have a “total downloads” over time. I can see that my numbers are much better at the 25th episode than they were at the first (thank goodness!).

Because “number of listens” and “downloads” are important metrics as an indicator of success, I could also try to boost my numbers more from week to week through marketing or advertising, and then track if those activities have a positive impact on my listens and downloads. Metrics.

Let’s look at where else this could apply.

Lately, I’ve been using metrics to track my health and wellness habits. I track if I completed the habit this day (“Yes, I took a walk” or “No, I did not take a walk”), how many minutes (30, 60, etc.), and how many steps overall in a day. Or…

• How many hours of sleep I get a night.
• How many cookies I eat a day (kidding!).
• How many ounces of water I drink a day.
• Did I meditate, and for how long?
• My daily weight.
• Morning journaling, by number of minutes.

Let’s make this useful to us. What is an area of your life you would like to improve upon, and what would be a metric around it?

• For example, recently I realized I need to drink more water, for myriad health reasons.
• I read the recommendations and committed to drinking 100 ounces of fluids per day.
• I tracked my normal water consumption and realized I was doing okay but I need to do better every day to reach the 100 ounces goal.
• To make tracking easier, I fill a 32 oz. jar with filtered water first thing every morning and fill my water glasses and bottles through out the day from that jar. I consistently refill the jar one time during the day (64 total), so the goal this week is to refill the jar 2 times during the day to bring me to 96 ounces.
• I TRACK THE NUMBER OF JARS! I set up an Evernote Document with the “ounces of water” metric, and also others (exercise, meditation, productivity, etc.). I can copy my list of metrics from day to day, and the the document has pre-formatted check boxes I can add to make tracking even easier. I broke the check boxes down into “32 oz jar” increments x 3 every day, and can click the box accordingly.
• I have reminders on my phone late in the day to track the ounces and also to remind me to finish up if I haven’t yet met the 100 ounce goal.

Since I am tracking my habits, I know if I’m hitting my mark or not. I can celebrate the successes! “Yeah Me! Establishing good habits!”, which helps me stay motivated for tomorrow!

And if I’m not there yet, I can stop and realize that I’m not hitting my mark. Perhaps I give myself a little pep talk! “You know what, I’ve been doing really great. I’ve been exercising for 30 minutes a day. I get good sleep. I’ve been making healthy nutrition choices. But… I’m not drinking enough water.” And then I can ask me, “What else can I do to support this habit?”

Some of the supports are the ideas I am already using.

• I made tracking fun by creating my own personalized Metrics Document with my list and motivational quotes at the top.
• I made it easy by creating the daily template of metrics and their check boxes. And it’s also easy because I use Evernote all day every day so adding another document to that habit is easy.
• I’m pretty consistent with tracking habits in the morning and mid day, but not so much in the evening, so I added another time for an evening reminder. And the timer goes off early enough in the evening that I can still catch up if I want to.
• It’s fun for me to track metrics, so there’s a dopamine boost that I get from crossing things off the list.
• And flexibility is actually a big plus, too. Creating my own check list based on my own metrics means that I can add a habit if I want to, or subtract it if I find that it’s no longer helpful.

So, do I want to meditate more, reach out to one family member daily, have time outside in fresh air… or what else? What else do I want to do that would support any kind of healthy habits or, um, wellness activities that I’m trying to accomplish?

Metrics are self knowledge, actual quantifiable data, that we can use to track and then improve behavior.

My challenge to you this week is to consider what is an area of your life you would like to work on, what would a metric to track to indicate progress and success, and to start tracking! I would love to hear from you about a performance metric, either personal or professional, that you want to improve and therefore track. If you have an app that you love and that I could share with others, please let me know!