What Does My Garmin Know?

I bought a Garmin watch about 2 weeks ago to use as a stop watch. I forgot that it came with features to manage sleep, steps, and identify stress levels to name a few. With no intention of using the features, it is impossible not to be curious about them.

The first is the sleep score which seems absurd. It tracks the amount of time you sleep and then builds a body battery. There are ideal recommendations that it bases this off and it’s mildly interesting. For instance, my scores have been 86, 72, 78, 76, 63, 72, 78, 76, 71, 74, 93, 59. My average sleep duration is 6 hours and 19 minutes and I should be getting 8 hours and 9 minutes. My college professor said, “why waste your life sleeping”. What does my Garmin know?

Another score it registers is a body battery. Sleep will restore your body battery. Life depletes it. For reference, my scores have been 54, 94, 81, 90, 90, 87, 98, 98, 97, 80, 90, 100, 69. So even though my sleep is low, my battery body seems charged. Counter intuitive. What does my Garmin know?

My Garmin has decided a step goal is 7,680 steps a day. Yesterday I hit 22k. I’ve reached that total every day but one where I purposely rested because my Achilles is busted from running outside and needs days of rest. Of note, I never have Achilles issues when I’m running on the treadmill which makes me know that the hardness of the surface makes a huge impact (that’s a pun) on your body. So, the steps goal isn’t much of a goal for anyone who has an active lifestyle. I assume if you’re revolving your life hitting this goal, and it’s a challenge, you need to get off the couch more. What does my Garmin know?

The stress level is tracked and I imagine the heart rate is a main indicator. Yesterday it spiked hard when I rolled a 289. Show me a better bowler? You can’t.

Interestingly enough, my life isn’t very stressful. My daily readings are 18, 25, 21, 29, 20, 16, 23, 33, 20, 18, 35. What does this mean even though I feel like I do a lot of shit that may be considered stressful. Either it’s full of shit or I manage it well. What does my Garmin know?

All in all I put very little credence into the Garmin and will stop wearing it daily. My intention for life isn’t to micromanage these indicators. How is that healthy? It almost seems like it’s unhealthy to “try” to be healthy. Clearly this isn’t accurate as you want to be healthy, but at what point is the watch running you? I’m a data guy. I’ve tracked my life diligently in a spreadsheet for 7 years. I know what it’s like to micromanage life. The watch feels a bit hollow to me. When does data become less of an indicator than intuition? As always, it’s a balance. What does my Garmin know?