In August, I was chatting again with Malaika, this time about the spreadsheet in which she tracks life variables. I thought this was a good idea, so we started a Discord server to each do this and invited a few friends.
The setup
Each member has a server channel + Google Sheet (or in one member’s case, a sourcehut git repo containing a csv). We put [the Google Sheets] in a Google Drive that only server members can access.
We set a requirement to fill out your spreadsheet daily (with occasional amnesty for slips/trips) & post something meaningful about your spreadsheet / habits at least once/week.
I set #rules-and-recs as follows:
I think these were a good set, esp. threading, which made it easy to follow habits of interest without drowning in overall content. Some members do roundups of currently active threads in their channel every now and again, which is super helpful.
What goes on the sheet?
Anything you like. Like system prompts, the columns are a cool manifestation of what you care about. I’ve included mine from Sept-Oct ‘25 in Appendix.
The columns can help you decompose life factors—e.g. when I noticed ‘Productivity (things I care about)’ and ‘Productivity (day job)’ diverging, I knew things needed to change.
It’s very symbolic & powerful when you get to retire columns because you don’t need them anymore (as I’ve done with e.g. ‘overflooded brain on dopamine from music’ & ‘feelings re returning to college’).
My personal bet is that qualitative data extraction / correlation analysis is going to become trivial, so I write tons of wrapped text on my sheet. Woe betide me if this does not come to pass.
Why do this?
One motivation is that when your friends see something’s wrong—something’s making you unhappy, you’re struggling with your goals—they can (with your agreement) intervene, make suggestions, and offer support.
It’s as Katya highlights:
“This is now my home because there are people here who will notice if I start going crazy”.
Are there people who’ll notice if you start going crazy? Or just not living as well as you could?
Takeaways
Please tell me about your sheet if you have one! It was lots of fun swapping column ideas at Memoria & hearing from people who’ve sheeted for 10+ years.
Related:
Appendix: Real Columns
