This year, I’m trying to keep better track of my life. That includes tallying how much I exercise, how often I use my phone and how well I sleep. To do all of that, I’ve turned to a trend called “quantified self,” which is essentially using technology to monitor many daily activities. Not surprisingly, I’m relying on a bunch of apps for this.
Perhaps the simplest quantified-self app is Instant, which is $3 on iOS and free on Android. Instant requires little personal input because it largely runs in the background, tapping into a phone’s systems and sensors to log how many times you unlock your device, how many minutes you use it, the geographic locations you’ve been to, how much time you spend traveling, how many steps you’ve taken and how much walking or running you’ve done.
