From Paper Piles to ChatGPT-Powered Google Sheets Life Loggerz

From Paper Piles to ChatGPT‑Powered Google Sheets — Welcome to LifeLoggerz 📊✨

Subtitle: How I turned scattered notes into an automated habit-tracking, lab-logging, life-analyzing Google Sheets system — and how you can, too.

Hi — I’m Jose (23), a civil‑engineering PhD student and the person behind LifeLoggerz. This site started because I love designing systems. What began as sticky notes and whiteboards turned into interconnected Google Sheets that track labs, habits, music, moods, and more.

Below is a cleaned, blog‑ready explanation of how LifeLoggerz grew, why I keep building it, and how you can replicate (or simplify) any part of this system.

Why LifeLoggerz? (Short version)

I used to end up with towers of paper, half‑finished notebooks, and scattered ideas.
Obsidian and note apps didn’t give me the same flexible structure + live calculations.
Google Sheets gives me both: spreadsheets that think (formulas + scripts) and dashboards that tell stories.
Also — designing the system scratches the same itch as solving a good engineering problem.

Am I overboard? Maybe. Is it working? Definitely. LifeLoggerz is my life, and I enjoy it.

The evolution (V1 → V3)

Year	Version	Big changes
2023	V1	Manual logs: sleep, food, basic habits
2024	V2	Added dozens of variables: moods, symptoms, work contexts, music listening
2025	V3	ChatGPT + Google Apps Script automation, HTML form input, dynamic dashboards

(I’ll add screenshots of V1 & V2 in the gallery — they show the slow, iterative design process.)

What I track (hundreds of variables)

A non‑exhaustive list so you get the idea:

Health & sleep: bedtime, wake time, nap yes/no, sleep hours, dreams, symptoms
Work & research: lab batches, mix designs, experiment metadata, time spent on coding/PPTs
Habits & routine: Duolingo, guitar practice, treadmill minutes, morning routine ticks
Personal life: meals, social visits, clothing choices, gratitude / blunders log
Media & learning: books listened, classical pieces by date, Raindrop.io saved links
Misc: location logs, who I saw, daily weather, mood tags

Key benefits (why this is worth the hours)

Self‑insight: discover patterns that actually matter (e.g., how naps affect lab focus)
Automation: one HTML form can update multiple sheets in a single submission
Scalability: dashboards and formulas scale from tens to tens of thousands of rows without rewriting logic
Shareability: export charts, share templates, or onboard teammates quickly
Creative flow: designing the system becomes a productive hobby

Roadmap — what’s next for LifeLoggerz

Finish packaging the unified Stats Log modal (HTML + GAS) so anyone can drop it into a sheet.
Add real‑time alerts (e.g., boss leaves office → suggestion to take a break).
Enable a SQL backend + Power BI for heavier analytics and cross‑sheet joins.
Publish a how‑to series: templates, Apps Script snippets, and ChatGPT prompt recipes.

ChatGPT prompt examples I use (copy/paste friendly)

Mood & energy classification

Analyze the diary text in cell D5:
- Return tone: Positive | Neutral | Negative
- Return energy: High | Medium | Low
Write the outputs to columns H and I respectively.

Automatic Raindrop bookmarking

Given title in C2 and author in E2, search Goodreads (or the web), find the canonical book URL, and add it to my Raindrop collection with tags: #reading #books.

Daily summary generator

Summarize today’s key entries: sleep, top work items, one learning, one blunder, and one gratitude. Keep it ≤ 80 words.

Inspirations & Resources

Template: Stats Log HTML + GAS (download link coming)
Guide: Connect ChatGPT ↔ Google Sheets — step‑by‑step (coming)
Examples: Dashboard patterns and chart templates (coming)

(If you want early access to templates or to test a sheet, drop a comment or sign up for updates.)

I won’t gatekeep — want help?

I’ll gladly share templates, Apps Script snippets, or help you design a lightweight version that fits your life. Reply in the comments, DM me, or sign up for the LifeLoggerz newsletter.

Questions for you (let’s talk)

Do you track anything obsessively? What tools do you use?
How has tracking changed your habits or productivity?
Has anyone taken tracking to the extreme like this — or am I alone?

SEO meta (paste into site/head)

title: LifeLoggerz — From Paper Piles to ChatGPT‑Powered Google Sheets
description: How a PhD student built an automated Google Sheets system to track research, habits, music listening, and daily routines. Templates, scripts, and ChatGPT prompts included.

Social share text

X/Twitter: “I turned my life into Google Sheets — from sleep & labs to music and moods. Here’s how I built LifeLoggerz and how you can too. 📊✨ [link]”
Mastodon: “LifeLoggerz — my experiment in living with spreadsheets. Templates & prompts coming soon. Open to DMs for help!”

Suggested featured image idea

A tidy screenshot collage: left = 2023 hand notes, center = V2 sheet, right = V3 dashboard (alt text: “Evolution of LifeLoggerz: paper → sheets → dashboard”)

If you want, I can:

Paste this as a ready‑to‑publish Markdown file with frontmatter formatted for your site (done).
Create a “starter pack” folder (template sheet, Apps Script stub, prompt examples) you can import.
Write the first tutorial: Install the Stats Log modal in 10 minutes with code and screenshots.

Which of those do you want next? I can start the starter pack or the tutorial — your call.