The habit I focused on was a classic: Drink More Water. As water is something we as humans can not live without, it’s strange that it’s such a hassle to get us to do it more. I went into this experience with a bit of intention (harnessing the power of the new year) and aimed to drink 96 oz. per day. A quick google search will reveal that I am below the recommended amount for adult males – about 125oz per day. My goal however was set based on my Owala bottle size (32oz) and I felt 4 bottles would be a bit daunting and unrealistic, so I went for 3. Baby steps!
My Experience
I definitely am suffering minor trauma from having to log my every 15 minutes for ~18 hours so I had a very different energy going into this next logging experience. I chose to log my reflections on my water intake every two hours from 8:30 AM to 12:30 AM. It was much more chill and manageable. It gave me material to actually reflect on and larger goals to set for the next check-in.
The main takeaways from this experience have been adjusting properly for my environment switches, adding in more hat tricks to encourage drinking, and minding my physical limits. I found that I have very different water drinking patterns when I’m on the move and traveling vs. stationary and working hard vs. surrounded by others or alone. I have to keep these changes in mind so that I can keep a bottle strapped on me before a long walk or take advantage of my social-anxiety-fueled sipping in social situations. I also found some great hacks to encourage drinking more water like making spicy meals and adding in ice to everything when I can. The biggest challenge overall was the immovable rock to my unstoppable force: my small bladder. I gotta be mindful not to build negative associations with water by forcing my body to cope with water intake in uncomfortable situations. This means no large amounts of water before long drives or before the night’s rest. Moving forward I would narrow these down into a list of quick principles so that I can just review them and make sure I am water-wise before I make any moves. Next time I’m sure I could make 96 oz per day easily.
Models
Here are my very very insightful sketches detailing my findings!
I’m trying to go fully analog with my sketches this quarter. We shall see if my mistake-prone heart can take it for the entire quarter.
LOG
BEHAVIOR: Drink more water (96 oz of water per day)
——– SUNDAY ——–
8:30 AM – I’m not going to drink a lot of water because we are about to start a long drive up to SF and my bla dder is built like a colander. Perhaps not wanting to drink water during travel is why I have had problems in the past.
10:30 AM – I am now in SF and I have to make conversation with people I’m not comfortable with. This is where I drink water like a mad man, gives my hands and mouth something to do.
12:30 PM – We had a meal and there was a lot of food on the table but only our original glasses of water. Probably could have drank more.
2:30 PM – We went on a walk and it is much longer than I anticipated. Sadly did not bring water with me but even if I knew it would be long I probably wouldn’t want to carry it the whole time.
4:30 PM – Stopped at Canes on the way back and got a sweet tea… that’s mostly water right?!? Should I count when I mix water into things? How about ice?
6:30 PM – Completely forgot about the whole measuring water because of the SF visit but i’ll make sure to have more and guestimate later.
8:30 PM – Had dinner and I made it a little too spicy. Good thing is this encourages a lot of water drinking.
10:30 PM – I’m finishing the second bottle of water and my owala is 32 oz. I’m guessing that 2 bottles of the owala and the water I had in SF got me a little close to my goal.
12:30 AM – Realizing a huge hesitation of drinking a lot of water this late is the whole small bladder thing. If I drink a lot of water right now I am going to be getting up all night going back and forth to the bathroom. It’s a really awkward sitch when I feel behind on water at the end of the day but I risk my sleep by trying to close the gap.
——– MONDAY ——–
8:30 AM – Went to the gym earlier today so I didn’t want to run the blender in the morning and be loud for my roommates sake. This resulted in me just bringing water to the gym instead of my protein shake and then following up with the shake after.
10:30 AM – Had the shake during my meeting that went over time but I try to add ice into my shakes to get a more slush texture. Maybe I should measure out how much water a handful of ice adds.
12:30 PM – I brought water with me to work in the library but it was out of sight so I did not end up drinking the whole session. My only hesitation with putting it on the desk in view is that I have lost my water bottles in the past doing the same thing.
2:30 PM – I was really tempted to have fruit juice with my lunch. However I found a hack. If I drink my tiny little Cool + probiotic drinks they have the sweet reward of juice but leave my mouth slightly parched. This made me drink water more and got me my first bottle of the day.
4:30 PM – Locked in and did not drink much water but still making progress.
6:30 PM – Drinking water a bit more intentionally and getting through the second bottle.
8:30 PM – I napped for a really long time. I imagine this is because I started my day way earlier than I usually would. Lost out on water time but I am sure with dinner I will drink way more water.
10:30 PM – I had dinner and drank almost a full bottle. I think I am feeling the pressure that I shouldn’t drink any more water starting in about half an hour.
12:30 AM – I’m about to head to sleep but I’m keeping a full bottle by my bedside just in case for the night. Probably won’t touch it much but I am guessing it’s not a bad idea. Ended the day with basically 96 oz if we are willing to include the ice in my shake this morning.
by Bryant Perkins
January 12th, 2026
CS 247B
Writeup: Measuring Me Take 2
