While our forebears depended on their senses to evaluate their wellbeing, we are increasingly reliant on technology.

Today, if you possess curiosity, you can track your heart rate, step count, exercise intensity, and sleep quality—often all from a single, sophisticated device.

In ideal instances, these gadgets create a connection between your subjective feelings and the objective data you can obtain.

This is generally quite impressive and remarkable.

While our personal feelings and evaluations are significant, they aren’t always the most trustworthy. Humans simply aren’t particularly adept at measuring our experiences and actions with exact precision.

Consider, for instance, a coworker of mine. He thought he was consuming calories within a limited range, but after meticulous tracking, he discovered that he was indulging in an extra 500 Calories each day—in barbecue sauce.

That being said, some individuals excel more than others.

Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, was reported to have been capable of estimating his 100-meter time within a tenth of a second of the stopwatch result.¹

That’s exceptional performance, just to clarify, but it still prompts the question:

How well can you evaluate yourself?

And, how can you enhance your accuracy by judiciously using technology—such as fitness trackers—to assist you in making better choices regarding your health?

In the upcoming article, we’ll explore this question along with:

• How reliable are data trackers in the first place?
• When is tracking beneficial? (And when isn’t it?)
• Can you train yourself to assess experiences more accurately by intuition?

Let’s dive in.

First, how reliable are data trackers, anyway?

Not all data holds the same value.

Some brands create superior products compared to others. This involves not only the hardware but also the caliber of their software and datasets.

Furthermore, not everything is equally straightforward to measure.

For instance, heart rate and step count measurements are generally dependable,² but many other output types—from calories burned to movement speed—possess significant error margins.

The chart below illustrates the reliability of different tracking devices.

(If you’re interested, we discuss the accuracy of various progress markers in greater detail here: Are Fitness Trackers Worth It?)

Next, when is tracking truly advantageous?

The positive: Tracking devices provide us with more information about our behaviors and bodies than ever before.

The negative: Tracking devices provide us with more information about our behaviors and bodies than ever before.

“What’s truly striking,” remarks Samantha Kleinberg, a computer scientist who investigates decision-making, “is that even a minimal amount of excess information can have a significant adverse impact on our decision-making.”³

This embodies the paradox of tracking: Insufficient detail complicates the decision-making process, but so does an overload of information.

This can be visualized as an inverted U, with the optimal point positioned at the peak of the curve.

Nowadays, it’s surprisingly simple to have an excess of information.

Think about the analysis paralysis you experience after browsing countless reviews for different taco spots in your area. (All you desired was a decent el pastor, but now you’re unsure of which taqueria to choose!)

Finding just the right amount of information to make sound decisions is an art—especially in the realm of health and fitness, where it appears everyone is competing to provide more research, more personalization, and more intricacy.

But when all that data starts to blend together without a clear direction, what should you do?

To start, you can pose a straightforward question to yourself:

Does tracking enhance my wellbeing and performance?

If the response is a definitive yes or no, you know what action to take. (Either continue tracking as you were or abandon the device and step away.)