Minute With Mallon: Wearable Tech -> Shaping Behavior for Success
Welcome to Minute with Mallon!
Something I Taught:
A few newsletters back, I introduced you to Pearson’s Law. This week, let’s dig a little deeper.
With the rise of wearable technology, many individuals now track daily steps, heart rate, sleep cycles, and other health metrics using devices like smartwatches. While it's common knowledge that tracking steps can encourage more walking, what's been more revealing is the broader positive behavioral change that wearable tech has ignited in some people.
I have been wearing an iWatch for about three years now. I have other watches, but I NEVER wear them. They tell me the time, but the iWatch is a multi-purpose tool that I use throughout my day.
While coaching, I use the Countdown Timer and the Stopwatch often to track certain things that I'm doing with my clients. ⏱️ I also use alarms to help me remember to pause the coaching session while allowing clients time for implementation. Using the timer, I track time between sets or intervals at the gym so that I can rest, but not rest too long. This keeps me on track and turns a strength workout into a cardio one too!
Let's consider sleep tracking. By measuring and reporting on sleep patterns, many individuals have been motivated to improve their sleep habits. For instance, when a person sees that caffeine after 6 pm reduces their deep sleep duration, they might decide to limit evening caffeine intake. Or if they notice that reading on a screen before bed causes them to take longer to fall asleep, they might switch to a traditional book.
What's fascinating about these examples is how people are making lifestyle changes based on wearable data. The constant feedback loop about their behavior and health metrics helps them discover connections they might otherwise have missed.
So here are a couple of questions to get you thinking:
Are you currently using any wearable technology to track health metrics? If so, what benefits have you noticed in your behavior or lifestyle as a result?
How do you think tracking your daily activities, like steps or sleep, could impact your overall well-being and productivity?
Can you identify one specific habit or behavior you'd like to improve, and do you think wearable technology could help you achieve that goal?
Something to Ponder:
"You can't manage what you can't measure."
Peter Drucker
Something I Learned:
One of my favorite author/podcasters is Tim Ferriss. I've read his books and listened to his podcast for years. This week I listened to an interview he did on episode 699 with Apollo Robbins, also known as The World's Greatest Pickpocket! It’s a fascinating conversation and I highly encourage you to listen. You can find out more about Robbins at his website IStealStuff.com. No kidding! That's the name of his website.
I get to travel a good bit and have found myself in some sketchy places at times. Sandy and I were in Rome a couple of years ago at a very famous fountain and we were surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands of people. I couldn't enjoy the experience because I was sure there were tons of pickpockets in the area (call me paranoid, but I know they were there!) 👀
Apollo talked about how to lessen the threat of being pickpocketed or mugged. He referred to a concept called Satisfaction of Search: a pickpocket is looking for a thing, they find something, and it satisfies the looking. So you have to give them something to find that's valuable, but not that valuable.
Two examples I'll use here:
Take a water bottle or coffee cup with you or have it in the car. Take things of value or that are sentimental and put them in the coffee cup then put a lid on it. Then keep a few dollars in your pants pocket. Even if you're robbed, tasered, pickpocketed, etc., they're unlikely to look in the coffee mug.
Or let's say you're staying in a hotel. Many of us use the safes. These are truly not as safe as you think, even in nicer hotels. So leave a little bit of money in the safe, and then hide your truly valuable things in something like a “diversion safe stash can” and leave it in the bathroom. (Here’s a great example of one I use: Barbasol Diversion Safe Can). When they hit the safe, which would be about the first place anyone would look, and they get a little something, they just won't look for anything else. There has been "Satisfaction of Search."
Again, super fun podcast. He even talked about picking the pockets of several Secret Service Agents at a show he was doing in Las Vegas. Hope this helps you!
Something I Saw:
My newest granddaughter, Ileigh! ♥️
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See you next week!
Robert
