A few years ago my Heloise bought me an Oura ring.

It’s like a mini computer that sits on my finger, taking measurements of everything from my heart rate and temperature to my sleep patterns.

Then it processes the data and hands me a useful number to tell me how I’m getting on in life.

For instance, I can get a score based on how well I slept the previous night, using data from the four stages of my sleep cycle, plus my heart rate and skin temperature change.

But it’s not always as helpful as you’d think.

For example, one morning I woke up feeling really good, enjoying the way that the morning sunshine slanted through the gap in the curtains.

Yet when I checked my ring, it told me that I’d had a poor night’s sleep.

The data had an instant psychological effect.

By the time I got downstairs, I felt tired.

Suddenly, the day ahead felt like it was going to be a bit of a slog.

All because of the number I’d been shown!

Last year, there was a scientific study into this.

In his research, Nicole Tang, director for the Sleep and Pain Lab at the University of Warwick revealed that your perception of sleep affects how tired you feel.

So if you THINK you slept badly, your body will start to experience the effects, even if your sleep was fine.

On the flipside, if you believe you slept well, you’ll feel more energy in the day (even if you didn’t sleep well at all)

It’s known as ‘PARADOXICAL INSOMNIA.’

And it shows how problematic it can be to view our success or failure purely in terms of numbers.

We’re constantly told that we need to get 7 hours of sleep each night, so we feel terrible if we fail to hit the target.

But it’s our feeling of failure that’s often the true cause of our low energy and grumpiness the next day.

This is why David Samson, an evolutionary anthropologist, believes that we should focus on trusting our bodies rather than metrics.

It’s the same for apps that track the number of steps you take in a day.

People become so obsessed with achieving the magic number of 10,000 steps that they’ll panic when they don’t, or do crazy things like marching on the spot while the kettle’s boiling just to rack up the points.

But is it worth feeling sad or annoyed that you only walked 6,000 steps when – in reality – you enjoyed the walk, bumped into an old friend, and felt mentally uplifted afterwards?

Surely those elements are as vital as the figure on a screen?

Or what’s most important – waking up feeling refreshed… or waking up and seeing “you’ve slept for 7 hours” on your phone tracker?

Why Points Aren’t Always the Point

The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen has just written a fascinating book on this topic, called The Score.

He argues that in our increasingly gamified digital world, we’re becoming too obsessed with metrics.

For instance, the figure on the weighing scales… the number of Instagram followers… the number of likes on your Facebook post… the step count on your phone… the streak counts on your language-learning app.

These numbers give you a hit of satisfaction…

Or a jolt of disappointment…

Yet you use them because they make you feel like you’re in control, and doing something constructive that you can easily measure with a simple number.

But it can get to the point that we forget WHY we are pursuing these metrics in the first place.

Suddenly, the points BECOME the point.

And that’s a mistake, says Nguyen, because we begin to obsess over numbers to the cost of our own progress and life satisfaction.

He uses the example of the American university league tables.

It used to be that universities described themselves in terms of their character, courses, facilities and values.

Then league tables came along… and squashed everything in single ranking number.

Suddenly every university had to chase that score or they’d lose out on students and funding.

Money that should have gone into better teaching got poured into gaming the tables instead.

Nguyen calls this ‘value capture.’

It’s where the score or target metric takes over the thing you truly care about.

Suddenly, you find yourself acting PURELY to notch up the score, rather than doing it because you enjoy it, or because it’s genuinely worthwhile.

But are the numbers the whole story?

Hidden Truths Behind the Metrics

Let’s imagine you embark on a fitness routine.

A month later, you might be disappointed to see that you weigh the same when you get on the bathroom scales.

But there are so many important factors you cannot measure on those scales…

For example, your growing powers of motivation…your increased resilience… your muscle strength… your endorphin levels… your blood pressure levels… your levels of bad cholesterol or your healthy new habit.

Even though the numbers tell you that you’re failing.

Your wellbeing might actually be improving.

Same goes for business projects…

For instance, you might choose to start a Substack newsletter or an Etsy shop, because you find it fulfilling and want to grow a side business from home.

But within a few months you FEEL like you’re failing.

Because you’re measuring everything on a scorecard…

Subscriber counts. Follower counts. Likes. Sales ranks.

It can keep you awake at night, filling you with anxiety and a sense that you’re not as successful as other people with bigger scores.

But your sense of dissatisfaction might be coming from the metrics, and NOT the underlying reality.

Perhaps you’re disappointed that your newsletter only has 137 subscribers…

But that might not matter if they LOVE what you write and pay for a subscription.

You might have as many eager subscribers on a list of 137 as someone has on a list of 500 free readers, or even 1000.

What’s more, if this list is growing it (albeit slowly) then you are on the right track.

And if you are enjoying the process, you’re going to persist with it – probably for longer than another writer with a better subscriber score who is bored with it all.

You could soon have enough knowledge of your niche to create your own product – which means you could make a lot more money from a small list than your subscriber count suggests.

Same goes if your Etsy shop gets only a handful of orders a week…

Those customers might be leaving good reviews, which will build your credibility and give you the confidence to make more products in the near future.

And while you might not be making loads of sales, you might be learning something useful every week, building your knowledge and long-term income potential.

So it’s not only the metrics that you should care about.

How to Rethink The Numbers

Look, some metrics are useful.

I’ll admit, I love tools and gadgets that give me hard data. Not just via my Oura ring, but for business too.

For instance, I always check the open rates and clickthrough rates on emails that I send…

And clearly, figures like costs and profit margins are crucial for anyone running a business.

But the score should be your servant, not your master!

Which is why I recommend that you decide what your true purpose is in any endeavour BEFORE you get too caught up in the numbers.

For instance, before you begin any project, habit or new routine, ask yourself:

“What is the actual point of this?”

For instance, if you start walking every day, the point might not be “10,000 steps” but “I want to feel more energetic, get outside, clear my head and look after my heart.”

If you start a Substack side business, the point might not be “get 1000 subscribers in 100 days.”

It might be: “I want to build a loyal, trusting readership who are interested in a niche subject I enjoy, so that they’ll respond to my recommendations.”

Those objectives are hard to measure…

So that’s where a few stats will come in useful.

For instance, a lower blood pressure score after 6 months of daily walking is a good sign that your efforts are having the intended effect.

And a consistently good open rate on your emails will give you evidence that your readership likes and trusts you.

But don’t let these be the only numbers that you care about.

For example, open rates do tend to go down a bit after a newsletter is established, so panicking about that would be wrong-headed.

You might find that the comments beneath your posts (ie. engaged and enthusiastic) are just as positive when it comes to indicating your levels of engagement.

So try to think of metrics like the dashboard in your car, which tells you your speed, mileage, and petrol levels.

Nobody in their right mind drives around purely to make the numbers on the dashboard go up!

But without a dashboard, you’d find it harder to drive safely, or realise when you were about to stall.

So by all means, keep an eye on your numbers, but just don’t forget what you’re really striving for, and why!