Some nerdy stuff about metrics and snooze buttons
Yesterday I wrote about how I want to use public commitment to decrease the amount of mad snoozing every morning. And: yay! I made it. Didn't press snooze a single time. I still feel kind of bad, though. Here's why:
Although my alarm was set to 7:00am, I somehow woke up at 6:15, not realizing I had plenty of time left. I put a lot of effort into not snoozing (turn lights on etc.) until I found out that it was earlier than I had thought. And what did I do (instead of getting up and being productive, as I was feeling quite awake)? I went back to sleep!
Here's the reason: my only focus was to decrease the number of times I press the snooze button. I worked towards a single metric, not the underlying goal. The authors of the Lean Analytics book coined the term "One Metric That Matters," basically saying, that you should focus on one number at any given phase. Although I understand the idea behind it, I disagree. 3 years ago I wrote a blog post about SaaS metrics, mentioning the term "Triangulation," an idea that says that you should never rely fully on one metric, but rather use 3 that, being interpreted together, help you reach your ultimate goal.
So, if I wanted to triangulate my "Getting up early" metrics, it would be something like this: amount of times I pressed snooze, time from alarm to getting up, time from getting up to being productive
Too much metrics nerd stuff?
- Jan
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