Try a habit as an experiment

Habits are the easiest longevity advice to test on yourself, because they cost nothing and you can measure something real. Here is the shape of a fair self-test:

1. Pick one habit — say, a walk after every meal, or one more meal a week with friends.
2. Pick one thing to measure that you can’t talk yourself into: resting heart rate in the morning, hours of sleep from a tracker, daily steps, or a short standard mood questionnaire.
3. Measure for a week before you start, then four weeks with the habit. Same time of day, every day.
4. Write down your prediction first — how much you expect it to change — so the result can surprise you.
5. Keep every reading, including the bad weeks.

One person’s four weeks is a log, not proof. Many people logging the same habit the same way starts to say something — that is what we’re building, with HiveJournal. Not open yet; this page will say when.

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