Tracking yourself: when a record helps and when it hurts

A meta-analysis of experiments found that interventions which got people to monitor their progress more often also promoted goal attainment ¹. A record is not only a set of numbers. In research on people managing their own weight, feelings of shame were linked with giving up ². None of the studies of record-keeping cited here was a study of ADHD.

What the evidence says

Monitoring progress promoted goal attainment. In the meta-analysis, interventions increased how often people monitored their progress towards a goal, and promoted goal attainment ¹. The effect on goal attainment (d = 0.40) was smaller than the effect on monitoring itself (d = 1.98) ¹.

Writing it down and showing it mattered. In the same analysis, progress monitoring had larger effects on goal attainment when the outcomes were reported or made public, and when the information was physically recorded ³.

Weight-loss research points the same way, with a caveat. The next findings come from research on weight loss, not on ADHD. They are used here for what they say about keeping a record, not about diet. One systematic review found a consistent, significant association between self-monitoring and weight loss, but called the level of evidence weak because of methodological limitations ⁴.

A record is not emotionally neutral. A review of qualitative studies of people managing their weight on their own found that self-monitoring influenced, and was influenced by, self-perception and emotions ². Feelings of shame were linked with abandoning efforts ².

What we don’t know

We found no trial of self-tracking in adults with ADHD among our sources. The nearest is a study of children learning the timing of a response from feedback, not a study of keeping records. In it, healthy control children responded closer to the correct time window than children in two patient groups, one of them with predominantly inattentive ADHD, and showed intact learning-based adjustments over time ⁵. Its authors describe ADHD as characterised by behavioural fluctuations during the learning process ⁵.

How much to record is also open. A review of dietary self-monitoring concluded that lower and higher intensity recording may both support weight loss, but that limits in the studies restrict what can be said about how the two compare ⁶.

Things to try

These are options drawn from research in other groups, not from ADHD trials.

• Write it down, and consider showing someone. Effects were larger when the information was physically recorded and when outcomes were reported ³.
• Record at the time if you can. In three studies where people estimated how long short stimuli such as videos had lasted, memories of how long past tasks took could be influenced by how people were asked about them ⁷.
• Consider a lighter record. In the review of dietary self-monitoring, lower intensity recording may also support weight loss ⁶.
• Read the record as information, not a verdict. The qualitative review suggests that explicitly framing self-monitoring as a positive tool to aid analysis may encourage helpful use of it ². If a record mostly brings shame, changing or pausing it is a reasonable choice.

If guilt about records keeps returning, it is worth raising with a qualified professional.