Is it beneficial to stop checking stats?
 

I think I'm re-living my early days of being a webmaster. I ride an emotional high or low depending on what my Google Analytics stats say day by day. I can't help but think I'm probably harming my motivation. If I do a huge update over the previous days and immediately my traffic slumps, I can't help but lose sight of the long-term. But if I wait a few weeks without updates, it seems as if traffic goes on a major upswing that puts me on that high again.

I'm thinking a more solid strategy might be to update daily, and possibly multiple updates on the weekend... And simply not look at Analytics except for 2x a month to gauge progress.

Thoughts?

I used to refresh every 10 minutes. It's counter productive to check that often. I just know how many sales I should have by the time I wake up, by 6pm, by 11 etc. If something isn't right we investigate.
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Sounds like a good plan. Totally agree that over checking GA can and will play with your emotions and result in less work on the days the stats arent going as wanted.

I check out a brief summary of my network via Statcounter at the end of each day and if something is up (whether good or bad) I will then check out individual GA statistics.

i look at my stats all the time when link building

I am also stats junky from time to time...

i'm addicted to my stats... can't take my eyes of them....

I have a couple new projects going and have been checking stats like crazy with excitement and anticipation. I know that it's a waste of time, but still do it.

I was talking to a friend last night, would be considered a whale, and he told me once he has a system in place that he knows will work… He doesn't check stats for three months. He just lets it go and focuses on the work. Probably a pretty fair strategy, depending on your traffic method.

I check stats daily, but I analyse weekly - I only check daily to make sure there is nothing out of the ordinary, so it's a quick scan. But I find weekly is the only fair way to see if my traffic and sales are consistent, it used to be weekends were the high point of the week, tuesdays the low etc but it's way too erratic now, so a weekly detailed check gives me a better overall picture.

now a days it's boring, but in the good ol' days, it used to be quite fun... you could refresh every few mins and see another sale or 2 added each time... when there were no new sales, you would go into panic mode, "wtf? no new sales in the past 10 mins?!" would panic, check if the sites are still up, etc... :1orglaugh
oh, the memories... :thumbsup

It does seem that when you update your sites your traffic drops. Don't know why but thats what happens. Goes against everything they say to update often.

Summed up nicely.

Checking stats too much makes you crazy and can waste more time than people
think. You could spend 50% of your day just checking stats.

I love this idea and approach in theory but it only works with low capital investment projects. If you are investing 4 figs and up to me I would want to know whats going on with regards to progress. I may try this out with mine though on a 2 week timeframes. I really is so damn hard not to check though. I've checked 2x already and its not even lunch time yet....I should be building versus looking. :)

No. This guy is a whale. Four figures is low end.

The idea is? If you know a system works, checking it five times a day makes absolutely no difference.

If profit margin is razor thin and uncertain then sure, you may need to stay on it.
Otherwise try to relax and let the web do it's work.

I rather count the number of checks in my mailbox in the morning!

Obsess over updates and links until you have stats
Obsess over stats until you have sales.
Obsess over sales until you have rebills.