Using gadgets to track how much eat, sleep, and exercise could have an unseen cost—enjoyment.
“In general, tracking activity can increase how much people do,” says Jordan Etkin, professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “But at the same time, measurement has these pernicious effects. Enjoyable activities can became almost like a job, by focusing on the outcomes of things that used to be fun.”
Etkin conducted six experiments in which participants colored, read, or walked. She studied the effects that tracking had on the amount of each activity that participants completed, and on how much they enjoyed it.
In the first study, 105 students spent 10 minutes coloring simple shapes. Those who were told as they worked how many shapes they had completed were more productive, but reported enjoying themselves less—and colored less creatively—than the group whose output was not tracked.
