This paper is based on a case study of one university's efforts in "self study," or "institutional research," presented at the first UK Institutional Research (IR) conference. It offers a critical account of work in progress at the University of Brighton to try to establish good data habits, embracing collection, analysis and usage. It does not pretend that everything is sorted at Brighton, but does suggest something of an institutional journey which has taken place over the last few years, as well as identifying some of the issues on which further work is needed. (Contains 2 figures.)