Behavior
The behavior I sought to change was being perpetually late.
My Experience
I recorded information every 30 minutes for two days from waking up to going to bed about what I was doing and if I was about to, currently, or had just run late. I found that a 30 minute timer on repeat to be too distressing and intrusive. Moreover, it would potentially reduce the quality of the study, as all my classes start lined up to the half-hour, and stopping to turn off the timer, write information, reset the timer, and then continue to class may cause me to be later than I otherwise would. As a result, I backlogged information in 2-ish hour bunches, which was effective, as it lined up well with classes and my work habits.
Overall, I don’t know if tracking this behavior affected it, as I elaborate in the section below, but I will say that reminding myself that I am often late and having the concept of tardiness at the front of my mind made me consider actions more closely that might cause me to be late. So I hypothesize that a longer study would show that having a reminder or explicit goal you hold yourself accountable to about being late may have a large impact.
What I Would Do Differently Next Time
There were a few flaws or peculiarities with this particular study:
- Two days was not long enough to see an observable trend emerge on an intermittent behavior such as being late.
- Monday we did not have classes, and I needed to work the majority of the day to catch up due to course adjustments in week 1, so there was not much to be late to other than internal goals. As a result, Tuesday was the only day in which I had the opportunity to record tardiness and observe surrounding recorded data for set events such as classes.
- On Tuesday, I was unusually late to my second class due to rushing to complete work — which is unusual for me — and I was unusually motivated to be early to my third class as I had just added it and needed to get there early / on time for reasons other than the study. As a result, I can’t glean much from the data from Tuesday either. My first class reflects my usual level of tardiness, which is just a few minutes.
- These were an unusually work-packed two days for a variety of external factors, so they do not make for a generalizable sample.
Next time, I would measure for a longer period of time, at least 2-3 weeks. The first week, I would continue as normal, and then in the second and third weeks, I would to attempt to change my behavior. This would give me a control as well as a longer span to see the effects of my efforts. This timespan would also likely include enough opportunities for tardiness (given that it is conducted over a typical work period as opposed to vacation). For a longer time period, I would also consider recording just hourly, including information of what I did in the past hour — as opposed to snapshots surrounding the 30 minute marks — because that would allow me to have a more sustainable measurement goal for such a long time period.
Models
Measure Me Part 2 Models_JamieU
Data
Monday January 16 (no classes)
10:00 – my alarm when off at 9:45, hanging out in bed still.
10:30 – grabbing breakfast – had to run over
11:00 – just waited on a zoom oh and the ya never showed up. I was about 5 min late past my goal.
11:30 – abt to call parents
12:00 – continued calling people
12:30 – back exactly on time to change and head to gym with friend!
1:00 – arrived at gym
1:30 – working out
2:00 – leaving gym
2:30 – dilly dallied and need to get lunch but also start working.
3:00 – grabbing lunch
3:30 – walking to study with folks in dorm because library closed
4:00 – working
4:30 – working
5:30 – working
6:00 – working
6:30 – working
7:00 – working
7:30 – was going to go to dinner but kept working
8:00 – still working! Now I’m going to dinner
8:30 – sat down to eat
9:00 – walking back to dorm
9:30 – went to friend’s room to work
10:00 – we’ve been talking
10:30 – working
11:00 – working
11:30 – working
12:00 – working
12:30 – showering and going to bed
Tuesday, January 17
9:30 – alarm went off 10 min ago. Slowly coming into consciousness in bed
10:00 – walking to Arriaga for breakfast
10:30 – still biking over to pe class. 2 min late
11:00 – in class.
11:30 – biking back. Need to do hw and eat before 1:30 class
12:00 – showering
12:30 – sat down to eat quickly
1:00 – working
1:30 – finishing up work. Will be 8-10 min late
2:00 – in class
2:30 – in class
3:00 – in class
3:30 – walking to library
4:00 – working
5:00 – wrapping up work. Need to arrive in class by 5:30 (goal is to be early)
5:30 – I was early! Wow! A rare occurrence. I thought about going to make a stop on the way, but I really wanted to be early / on time, and it was good because everyone shows up early/on time for this class.
6:00 – working in the lab class
6:30 – working
7:00 – working
7:30 – working
8:00 – working
8:30 – working
9:00 – working
9:30 – working
10:00 – working
10:30 – helping others
11:00 – helping others
11:30 – helping others
12:00 – arrived back at dorm
12:30 – in bed
