It’s normal practice for large organizations, governments , and corporations to take periodic measurements to chart their progress.

But today, individuals are increasingly focusing on their own personal metrics as they gather and analyze data about themselves.

Known as life logging, self-tracking or self-quantifying, a growing number of people are measuring everything from their sleeping patterns to their tennis strokes.

Self-Tracking And the Rise Of Wearables

In the increasingly connected world we live in, it’s perhaps inevitable that data would begin to take a more prominent role in our personal lives.

The trend towards self-tracking was kickstarted by the arrival of Smartphones, with apps and GPS capabilities offering an easy way to record personal data such as tracking location and activity. An extra layer of data is supported by connected devices such as heart rate monitors and pedometers.

Recently, the arrival of smart, connected wearable devices with a range of sensors has made the self-tracking trend even more popular. Devices such as Up and Fitbit created a new market, while the Apple Watch has brought it to the mainstream.

With 111.1 million wearable devices predicted to ship this year –an increase of 44.4% from 2015– the trend for life logging looks set to grow significantly.

Lifelogging And The Workplace

While many might be forgiven for thinking that self-tracking is another fad that’s best left to nerds, geeks and technophiles, the move towards personal metrics holds huge potential benefits to the workplace.

Many of the areas that life-logging focuses on can improve the performance, alertness, mental agility, mood and well-being of employees.

Here’s how:

Sleep

Better sleep means better performance, alertness, concentration and health.

Health

Improving health factors such as weight, body fat, blood pressure and heart rate can lead to better work, less time off for illness and a longer working life.

Diet

Eating and drinking healthily can have a marked improvement on concentration and day-to-day performance.

Exercise

Doing proper exercise regularly can have a tremendous boost on well-being, productivity and performance.

Productivity

Tracking attentiveness, concentration and focus can help employees understand how, when and why they’re being productive.

Introducing Lifelogging To Your employees’

There are some strong arguments for introducing and promoting self-tracking in the workplace. The more personal metrics employees can track, the greater the likelihood they will seek to correct poor ones, resulting in improved health and performance.

In the longer term, introducing wearables or connected devices at work could be a good way to promote self-tracking. Recent research shows that workers are open to embracing them, with 73% of online adults seeing at least one potential workplace benefit.

Productivity Metrics – The Face Of Things To Come?

A great way to initially introduce employees to their own personal metrics is through productivity tracking software.

Software such as KnowIT measures employee productivity. Installed company wide, it can track attendance, Internet usage by site, time spent on applications, including whether that time was spent productively or not. With this wealth of data, employee computer monitoring software will then calculate a productivity score for each employee.

The results can then be provided to employees in an easy to understand format via email, giving them a clear insight into how productive they have been over the past week.

It’s a great tool that allows them to focus and reflect on their work – and importantly – decide themselves whether they need to work harder, without unwanted confrontations with HR and management.

To learn more about employee monitoring software and KnowIT, click here