Data-driven life

Companies have departments and teams, each setting goals for the next five years, the next year, or the next quarter. We define measures to see how close we are getting, then make plans to improve them.

While doing that work, a thought occurred to me.

Why don’t I have something like this for my own life?

I work as a leader in the Equipment Performance Management team at ASML. Part of my role is setting KPIs for the team. I also calculate and manage KPIs related to the performance of our EUV equipment.

One thing I have noticed while working in the Korean organization is how much attention goes into setting and meeting these measures. It is particularly noticeable in my own working environment.

And I find it useful. We can see how much we have improved and where we are getting stuck. Alongside the feeling that we are working hard, we can see which direction we are actually moving in.

Before we can define a KPI, we need a goal. A KPI shows which aspects are improving and by how much as we work toward that goal. An improvement in a number means something when it also brings us closer to the outcome we want.

Improving those measures takes consistent effort and change. We need to decide where to start, what order to work in, and when to check our progress again. A roadmap lays out that path.

We repeat this process to produce results at work. We set goals, check the numbers, adjust our plans, and try again. It makes me wonder how often I do the same for my own life.

What kind of life do I want? Is the way I live now taking me in that direction? If I want to change something, where could I begin? I started thinking I could apply a little of what I do at work to my own life.

Of course, life is much broader and has many more variables. The goal itself might change. Plenty of things won’t go according to plan. Still, I think it is worth choosing a direction and trying.

In the past, defining goals, choosing measures, keeping records, and reviewing them might have felt like too much work in itself. Now I can work through that process gradually with AI. It can help me organize what I have recorded, ask myself questions, and revise my plans.

Ultimately, I want to live a data-driven life.

Work isn’t my entire life. Shouldn’t I put at least as much effort into my own life as I put into producing results at work? I want to use what I have learned, with some help from AI, to record where I want to go and where I am now, and keep moving forward.

Which days felt good? What ways of living suited me? What kept making things difficult? I want to hold on to some of the things I have let pass with only a feeling or a memory.

To do that, I first need to think about what I want from life. It is an important question, so I don’t want to rush into an answer. I want to explore it slowly over several posts, and leave a record of the changes if my thinking shifts along the way.

Described this way, it might sound like a rigid approach to life.

But the goal I have in mind is happiness.

Even defining happiness will probably take more than one post. Health, family, financial freedom: many things contribute to happiness, and each of us values them differently.

I can’t have everything in exactly the way I want, so I will need to find a balance that works for me. When I give something up to gain something else, does that choice ultimately make me happier? There are plenty of things I will only understand by trying them and making mistakes.

That is also why I want to record questions like “Was I happy today?” and “Am I satisfied with how today went?” in the personal app I am building. I want to put those answers into numbers, reflect on the kind of day I had, and use that to explore what suits me.

It sounds like a complicated process, but I think it is worth trying. I don’t want to become obsessive about it, though. It would be a problem if keeping and managing records became a source of stress in itself.

Everyone has their own pace. Reading these records, you might think I am being lazy, or you might feel I am already trying hard enough. We all have different standards. What I share here is a diary of observing myself, and a way to reach my own judgments from those observations. In the end, I am saying I will do this at my own pace, so I hope you can simply enjoy following along :)

From here, I want to look back at my experiences, make my goals more concrete, and find records and measures I can maintain without too much effort. I will use those to work out the next steps, little by little.

My goals may change as I try things. I may arrive at ideas that contradict something I wrote before. When that happens, I can write about what changed.

This is the first entry in setting goals for my life, defining KPIs, and drawing a roadmap. Through that process, I hope to put a data-driven life into practice and gradually build a better life for myself.