You may have come across this concept , if you are willing to put in 1 percent effort every day , at the end of 1 year or 365 days the expected output of all that effort will give a result that is roughly 37 times greater. But is this as straightforward as it looks? How do we even know how much is 1 percent of our efforts? If we try to measure effort via quantitative means that will require a lot of monitoring and tracking devices tailored for every field of human work. However if we are able to device a means of tracking the subjective perception of effort felt by an individual , I think this can be a much more useful, easier to implement and practical method of tracking effort.
Individual effort unit (IEU) quantifies the subjective experience of effort and discomfort rather than just measure the time or energy spent on activities.
1. Subjective Measurement : IEU focuses on personal perception, which provides a more accurate reflection of an individual's experience and capacity for sustained effort. This is particularly useful for tracking progress in activities like exercise, studying, or any task requiring sustained effort.
2. Adaptability : The unit adjusts as the individual's capacity and tolerance improve. For instance, as someone gets fitter, the effort required for a push-up decreases, reflecting their increased capability and reduced perceived effort.
3. Usecases : This approach can help tailor training programs, workloads, and recovery times to individual needs, enhancing efficiency and preventing burnout. Tracking IEUs can help set realistic and motivating goals, as individuals can see tangible improvements in their effort capacity over time.
Challenges
1. Subjectivity : Personal perception of effort is challenging to measure. Individual perceptions can be influenced by various factors like mood, fatigue, and external stressors.
2. Standardization : A standardized process to track IEU has to be developed that can track individual perception of effort
3. Data Collection : More research is to be conducted into reliable self-reporting methods or advanced tracking technologies that can ensure accurate collection and analysis of subjective effort data
The IEU concept can offer valuable insights into personal performance and well-being provided the challenges can be afdressed . It emphasizes more on personal growth and resilience, focusing on how individuals perceive and manage effort rather than just tracking quantitative metrics like mousetracking or calories burned.
By correlating IEU data of an individual with quantitative measurements recorded for the same individual , we can also predict or knowledge in advance where an individual is morely likely to be succesful and comfortable .
How?
- IEU measurements ideally would require hooking up electrodes to the brain and trying to measure stress brainwaves . More research can be done in this regard using a brainwave mapping headset
- A simple to do list can be employed by individuals to jot down how much effort they felt they were spending while engaged in various activities
Next Steps :
Testing out IEU using checklists . If succesful get a brainwave headset and start mapping stress signals to get a more "objective" measurement of "subjective" effort perception
And yes I'm finally back buggers,
Edwin
IEUs taken for this blogpost : 20 .
(Assuming 1 IEU is supposed to be the effort perceived by me when taking 1 pushup as of May 31st, 2024)
