Logging & Tracking

Most journal users want to log and track information at regular intervals so they can periodically compare, contrast, measure, or chart the material against benchmarks, milestones, and goals.

Weight, exercise, diet, sleep, medicines, health, and task progress are things that are frequently logged and tracked. Once logged, Now & Then analyzes, charts, and formats the results to help you visualize and find meaning in the information's threads, patterns, arcs, and cycles.

Tracking Concept
Information that you specifically log and track is usually more quantitative or scalar and can be measured and represented using objective and subjective alpha, numeric, or other ratings. You track the ups, downs, progress, and setbacks using a scale, a range, and the units that will best support later analysis and examination.

What you decide to log and monitor changes depending on your interests and current life focus. Between 1 and 10, how would I rate my energy and productivity today? Was my mood today Manic, Sunny, Steady or Low? How many miles did I walk today? Or, how many hours did I sleep last night? Was my sleep deep, light, agitated, or did I have insomnia?

You can use entry forms, tables, or entry prompts to enter information into a "structure" of your design―for example, to track time spent walking, distance covered, and weight by date. You can speed information entry by using "quick pick", or "slider" tools customized for your specific information. Logged information may be linked to other journal information (linked either manually or automatically, based on your rules).  Rules can be set up to cross reference journal information that may help you to visualize or interpret a pattern, cycle or direction―particularly over a period of time.

Guided Entry
Guided entry can speed and routinize the logging of recurrent and structured information. Now & Then provides a variety of pre-built prompts, guides and templates to ease information entry. Prompted or structured entry techniques help assure the periodic collection and accuracy of both structured and narrative information. Prompts guide your entries by asking questions or suggesting thought processes. You can use the pre-built entry templates, select from template prompts provided by our partners, or design your own. Entry prompts and templates are great for logging daily information or as triggers that assure the entry of information on anniversaries or on special days or for special activities.

Focused templates provided by our partners prompt for, and organize both narrative and structured journal entries for exercise, health and diet milestones, medical conditions, energy levels, and current interests. All templates can be modified and customized for your specific need.

Data Logging & Presentation
Information logged routinely and periodically may, by its nature, suggest a structure for its capture and presentation. Tracking the time and distance of your walks suggests a structure that captures your activity information and tracks changes in mileage and MPH.

If you know you want to track mileage and time, you may use a simple two field table or prompt to record the results of your walking program. If your results are captured as part of your narrative journal entry, Now & Then's "Smart Discovery" feature can recognize the nature of the information and automatically place it in a data table from which graphs, charts and comparisons can readily be produced.

Now & Then uses "knowledge-based" data mining to continuously examine your journal entries and discover information that may be of interest to you. Automatically, or semi-automatically, using your input and modifications, Now & Then extracts and organizes your information. Over time Now & Then builds ontologies and meta data maps (knowledge about the content and context of your worldview) that it uses to make "good guesses" about what information you want to review and how you want the information represented.

Now & Then uses pre-built templates, user-defined templates, and self-organizing data mining technologies to personalize, format, display, and interpret the information you track on a periodic basis. Representation schemes for logged information include combinations of charts, tables, timelines, grids, narrative, and graphics.

Information representation, including scale, units, time scale, ratios, percentages and other data comparisons can be modified to fit the data collected and your current focus. Use a representation scheme that best displays trends and patterns and encourages information comparison.

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