How journaling made Dyrdek human optimization
How did millionaire Rob Dyrdek morph from skater-dude to human optimization? He keeps a journal. His routine consists of two parts and his approach can help us level up our journaling too.
Quantitative - What counts
Dyrdek consistently records whether or not he completed his daily habits like waking up at 5am or eating healthy. Keeping track of his habits helps him to stay focused and reminded about the activities he wants to complete.
Habit tracking also shows progress toward a desired goal. And checking of a box or crossing a line through a task gives a satisfying dopamine hit too.
The opposite is true as well - seeing lack of progress toward a goal can be discouraging and deflating.
Quantitative is how I describe the first half of Dyrdek's journaling method. And the reason why it's so powerful for him is because it removes guess work from the equation. Everyday Dyrdek knows what he is tracking and he just needs to record it in his journal.
We can do the same by including quantitative measures in our journal practice. It can be structured using a habit tracker or be more freeform. The key here is to record what we've done on a consistent basis.
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted. " - Albert Einstein
Qualitative - What matters
In addition to tracking his habits, Rob Dyrdek also records how he feels about his life. This makes up the second half of his journaling approach - qualitative.
Family, health and work are the most important aspects of Dyrdek's life. Therefore everyday he records on a scale from 1-10 how he felt about these different aspects. Any given day of the year he can see if he completed his habits (quantitative) and how he felt about specific aspects his life (qualitative).
Keeping track of quality measures isn't the most natural for many (✋🏾 ahem, aka me - I mean who cares about feelings, we want results!) Well...I've been one to complete everything on my to-do list just to find out I really wasn't happy about something in my life. So I can see why Dyrdek has included qualitative measures in his journaling.
By recording quantitative measures, Dyrdek is capturing the external results. When recording quality measures, he is capturing the internal impact. Dyrdek then has the opportunity to truly ask himself if his external results are congruent with his internal desires. If something is off, he can course correct by modifying what he does on the outside or by modifying his mindset. Do you see what Dyrdek is doing here?
Say for example, 7 days in a row, Dyrdek recorded that he completed all his daily habits but saw that towards the end of the week he was scoring 3s and 4s in the area of family. He would then need to ask himself why.
Perhaps he was taking on too much work late in the week that took him away from family dinner. Or maybe he spent time with family but everyone was on their phones the whole time. Regardless of the reason, Dyrdek is able to recognize the issue earlier than later and now he can course correct.
On this site, I want to bring you the best tips and tools to upgrade your journaling and we will definitely get into the mechanics of it all. But lets not make journaling (or any other external activities) get in the way of what is most important to us in life.
Do Now: Begin qualitative journaling
Let's start today by introducing qualitative journaling. If you've never done this before, you're in good company - I'm starting today too! I think a great way to start is by asking one or all of the following questions for any event or aspect of life from time to time.
- What was it like?
- How did it feel?
- Am I satisfied?
Simple and quick. Subjective and open-ended. You can answer these however you'd like. Answer using a scale like Dyrdek. Or maybe answer with one word responses like happy 😃, surprised😮, somber 😔, or confused😵.
Like I said, I'm new to qualitative journaling as well but I'm looking forward to how this will enhance my outlook on life.
If you're a pro at qualitative journaling, please let me know! I'd love to glean some tips from you 🙂.
Write on,
Tim