Why measuring too often slows you down

(Part of the “Plateau Causer” Series)

With today’s technology, it’s easy to become obsessive about measurement. We track our sleep, count our steps, log our calories—sometimes down to the last crumb. The prevailing mindset seems to be: measure everything, all the time.

But more measurement doesn’t always mean better outcomes. In fact, research shows that measuring progress too frequently can backfire¹. Two psychological forces—myopia and loss aversion—make this especially dangerous when you're working toward long-term goals.

Frequent measurement can lead to myopia—an overly short-term focus that undermines meaningful progress. When we prioritize short-term gratification or quick fixes, we often sacrifice the deeper, more sustainable progress that long-term thinking requires. Frequent evaluation draws attention to the short term and short-term thinking can be disastrous for our ability to achieve important goals.

Loss aversion is the idea that losses are more emotionally impactful than gains². If you were to find $20 on the road, that would make you somewhat happy—let’s say it brings you five units of happiness. However, if you were to lose $20, then that would make you sad or angry. The science says it would cause you to lose 10 units of happiness. That’s twice the emotional impact although the economic value was the same!

These two forces combined make frequent evaluation very problematic. Anyone working towards a challenging goal knows that there are frequent setbacks. If you are frequently evaluating your progress, you will be exposed to these setbacks frequently—perhaps too much! Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight and you measure every day. If you lose a pound one day, you will get five units of happiness. If you gain a pound one day, you’ll get 10 units of discouragement! The path to success is rarely straight—and frequent measurement can make every twist feel like failure.

This doesn’t just apply to personal health, it shows up in investing too. Lee and Veld-Merkoulava (2016) find that people who check their stock portfolio too frequently are poorer than people who check less frequently. This is because the frequent checkers see the volatility in their stocks, they get discouraged, and then they underinvest! They would perform better financially if they evaluated less often!

I see this in my own pursuit of goals in all dimensions—physical, social, mental, etc.. When I perform a measurement where I assess my progress and a negative result occurs, I’m less motivated to continue investing my time, energy, money, and other resources. It causes me to a lose a little hope. Maybe I go through my next training session with a little less effort and belief. This leads to a plateau in performance.

And this leads to a surprising but important truth: sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.

Recommendation. Talk to an expert in your field and find out realistic time frames for progress. Then create a measurement plan based on those time frames. If you find yourself regularly discouraged and having a hard time executing your process, then consider reducing measurement frequency. Instead, focus on your process. Only perform key measurements when sufficient time for progress has passed.

References:

¹Benartzi, S. and Thaler, R.H., 1995. Myopic loss aversion and the equity premium puzzle. The quarterly journal of Economics, 110(1), pp.73-92.

²Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A., 2013. Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. In Handbook of the fundamentals of financial decision making: Part I (pp. 99-127).

³Lee, B. and Veld-Merkoulova, Y., 2016. Myopic loss aversion and stock investments: An empirical study of private investors. Journal of Banking & Finance, 70, pp.235-246.