[O] Org-mode as a Quantified Self platform

[John Hendy]

I've really been getting into the Quantified Self movement recently,
and by "getting into," I mean reading and watching videos and
/thinking/ about things I'd like to track about myself. [1] I've been
pondering what kind of "platform" to use for my data collection...
Excel? Some time tracking application? Those were after-thoughts. I
thought of Org-mode right away and it seemed like an obvious choice.
Why?

1) I have access to it at home and work pretty easily

2) The ability to quickly insert time stamps/clock data

3) The habit family of features -- set up some initial goals
(recurring todo headlines) and then just got to the headline and mark
done (possibly with a note) to record the event.

4) Exportability (though I have some questions on this one)

5) I recently got an Android tablet and have mobile-org on it now,
which I'm hoping will allow me to have even better access to data
entering.

6) Should some application "go under," I'll still always have my data
in plain text.

On to my questions:
-- Has anyone done something like this? I see it as very similar to
habit tracking. To give an example, I've had a bit of a persistent
cough. I developed it when I was sick at one point, went on
antibiotics, and got better... but the cough kind of stuck around but
is on and off. Now I'm wondering if it's coffee/dehydration related so
I'd like to create headlines for Coffee, glass of water, and cough.
Then I can just mark them done whenever I finish a cup of coffee,
drink a glass of water, or cough. At some point I'd like to plot them
to visualize any potential relationships.

-- On that note, what's the best way to get data out of
org-habit/headlines and into something a bit more usable like csv? I'm
looking for something more than just looking through headlines for
missed days. I'm going to need full access to the time stamps in a
usable format (say, R) and everything agglomerated into one single
data file.

-- I see I can insert [inactive] timestamps in mobile-org. Making
something a TODO seems to require manual input? I find the
documentation fairly lacking with respect to simple basic terminology
(Outline view vs. Document view?) and have not used it much. Any
suggestions on using this in conjunction with the above would be
great.

I think org-mode could make a very spectacular data tracker due to its
time stamp and clocking abilities along with what feels natural with
respect to adding in narrative text/notes and being able to structure
things how I'd like. In addition, I'll have git ability to sync with
my home computer.

Thoughts? Thanks for any input!

[1] For those unfamiliar: http://quantifiedself.com/


John