Yes, but I haven’t, because what would I measure? I seem to have “more energy” from doing these exercises, but I expect that rating “energy” on a 5-point scale would be as impossible as rating “happiness”. I could instead keep a log of things done (which is, after all, the point of having “energy”). Come to think of it, that might be useful anyway.
I think you underestimate simple self-ratings. You could just do those, and yes, there are automated ways. For example, you could turn on a Web browser plugin like RescueTime but disable any blocking functionality—so it’s just tracking time spent. Randomize intervention X for a few months, pull the RescueTime logs, and voila! A (non-blind) randomized experiment.
Have you considered randomizing your exercises so you could begin drawing causal inferences?
Yes, but I haven’t, because what would I measure? I seem to have “more energy” from doing these exercises, but I expect that rating “energy” on a 5-point scale would be as impossible as rating “happiness”. I could instead keep a log of things done (which is, after all, the point of having “energy”). Come to think of it, that might be useful anyway.
I think you underestimate simple self-ratings. You could just do those, and yes, there are automated ways. For example, you could turn on a Web browser plugin like RescueTime but disable any blocking functionality—so it’s just tracking time spent. Randomize intervention X for a few months, pull the RescueTime logs, and voila! A (non-blind) randomized experiment.