Friday Recap: Life and a Data Strategy

As the pattern goes, Friday is a day of reflection.  How can we understand the concepts of a data strategy and use them outside of the office?  Well the truth is a data strategy is just a way to organize yourself to reach a goal, it just happens to implement information as part of the path.  We all have places we want to go.  Are you trying to lose weight?  Worried about your budget?  Do you have more than one personal goal that you need to divide your time to accomplish?  All of these scenarios and many more work better with data.

So what principles of a data strategy can be applied to our day-to-day lives to help us accomplish our goals?

  • Understand your goals. What do you want to achieve by using data? Once you know your goals, you can start to collect the right data and use it to make informed decisions.

  • Gather the right data. Not all data is created equal. The data you collect should be relevant to your goals and accurate.

  • Clean and organize your data. Once you have collected your data, you need to clean and organize it so that it is easy to understand and use.  This one should be easy because in most cases you are creating the data.  A log of your weekly weigh-ins or the amount of time you spend focused on one goal.  

  • Use data to make decisions. Using your "gut" feeling can work, but it can also take you down a road you do not want to be on.  Data can help you make better decisions by providing insights into your situation.  

  • Communicate your findings. As always you cannot be held accountable if there is no one around to count.  Once you have made a decision, you need to communicate your findings to others so that they can help you on your journey.  Who knows maybe they will even benefit from your insights.

So principles are great.  But how do you make the rubber hit the road?  Here are some specific examples of how you can apply these principles in your day-to-day life:

  • You want to save money on your grocery bill. You can use data to track your spending and identify areas where you can cut back. For example, you could use data to see which grocery stores have the best prices on the items you buy most often.

  • You want to improve your health. You can use data to track your diet, exercise, and sleep habits. This data can help you identify areas where you can make improvements to your health.

  • You want to be more productive at work. You can use data to track your time spent on different tasks. This data can help you identify areas where you can be more efficient.

Now is the  time to mention the one main principal of a data strategy.  There is no finish line, only stops along the way.  We all want to always be improving in one way or another.  Providing for our family or deepening our skills in a hobby we can always get better.  So remember when you have used your data strategy to reach a goal, set the next one.  Always look forward and keep moving.  

What else do you need to know while you are on this journey?

  • Be patient. It takes time to collect, clean, and organize data. Don't expect to see results overnight.

  • Be creative. There are many different ways to use data. Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things.

  • Be open to feedback. Get feedback from others on your data-driven decisions. This will help you improve your decision-making skills.

Data strategies are not just for the office.  They help provide the guide rails needed in many different aspects of our lives. Using data to help direct our decisions will help us all make it to the goals we have set.  Your personal data strategy can be just as helpful as your business data strategy.  So go experiment with your personal goals.  I am sure that at least one of them will benefit from more data!


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