Subtleties in Tracking Happiness

Jin Young Kimjink@microsoft.com / lifidea@gmail.com

Happy fami l ies are a l l a l ike ; every unhappy fami ly i s unhappy in i t s own way.

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

momentsmoment

Jin Young Kim, Autobiography

But there are repeated patterns!

What if I can pull out the best from myself, every moment?

LiFiDeA (Life+Idea) Project

The key lies in understanding the nature of (un)happiness!

About Jin

• Applied Researcher at Microsoft Bing– Day Job: relevance (search quality) measurement– A lots of number crunching + stat/math fun!

• Passion for Self-tracking for 10+ years– Experimented with self-built S/W btw. 2002-2006– Keep on experimenting ever since…

Turns out two have much in common!

Parallels between Search Quality vs. Happiness Measurement

Search Quality• How good are the quality of

results we serve for users?

Happiness• How happy do I feel for

given time-frame?

Search Quality Happiness

Purpose Max. searcher satisfaction Max. happiness

Ground Truth Relevance judgment (Judges)

Happiness judgment (my-self)

Next Steps Algo. ranking improvement Lifestyle improvement

Both aim at objective results from subjective human measurements!

MEASUREMENT METHOD

What to Measure

• Happiness– Self-reported 5-point Likert scale• Perfect (LIFIDEA) to Nightmare• Record 3 times a day

• Factors affecting Happiness– Sleep / wake-up time / events / states• Anything I believe to be correlated with H.

Both sides of the H. coin

How successful was it?• Hard side of happiness

– Goal achievement– Impact on myself/others

• Major factors– Preparation/planning– Task scope/breakdown

How good did I feel?• Soft side of happiness

– Sense of well-being

• Major factors– Energy level– Focus/awareness

How can we turn this into the rating?

Happiness Rating Matrix

How good did I feel?

Awesome Positive So So Awful

How succes

sful was it?

Very Successful

Perfect[LIFIDEA] Excellent Good Fair

Successful Excellent Good Fair Fair

So so Good Fair Fair Bad

Unsuccessful Fair Fair Bad Nightmare

Very unlikely

Very unlikely

MEASUREMENT PIPELINE

Allows natural and easy entry of happiness rating

and related factors

Pipeline Overview

Data Extraction in Ruby

Statistics Calculation in R

Journal Entry in Evernote

Web Front-end in JQuery

Allows real-time update of status anytime, anywhere

LESSONS LEARNED FROM 2012

Time-series of Happiness and Factors

• Per-day and per-week statistics of Wake-up time / Average score / Sleep time

Score > 4

Score = 3

Score < 2

Happy times vs. Unhappy times

Impact of Major Events

• Consistently more happy before/during major deadline/tasks

• Extended vacation is major source of unhappiness???

Vacation

Vacation

How wake-up time & location affects my happiness

• Early start is critical for happy morning!

• Better stay away from home if you want to be happy!

Findings on my Happiness

• ‘Initial condition’ matters a lot– Discipline at early morning / work start is crucial– Need to put yourself in the zone at the beginning

• Some structure/external stimuli helps– Weekdays/Morning/Deadline induces happiness!– Hard to be ‘optimal’ in relaxed situations

Findings on my Happiness

• Cyclical pattern is unavoidable– Get loose after good times, vice versa– Real question: how can I stay in the zone AMAP?

• Your rating affects yourself– Beware of self-fulfilling prophecy– Try to rate myself after the fact

Conclusions & Next Steps

• Self-tracking has made tremendous impact– On how I see myself and prioritize stuffs

• Need to turn the insights into results– E.g., How can I achieve 3.5 average for this year?

• A lot of things to learn about myself & tracking– I can probably write a book in the end!

OPTIONAL

Other Findings

• Tracking improves planning / awareness– Initial ‘shininess’ effect in January

• Timely (weekly) review / feedback is critical– Otherwise, the motivation for tracking is soon lost

• Implementing changes is still challenging– May work better in a (support) group

LOOKING ONWARD

Architecture of Happiness