Day by Day: The Quantified Self: Sketching

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

-Annie Dillard

"Live all you can; It's a mistake not to."
-Henry James

At my last job, we had these awesome whiteboard walls--four blank canvases for thoughts, ideas, sketches, possibilities.

I adored those walls.

They opened up a new way of thinking for me--visually, rather than analytically--by nature, I am less likely to draw something and much more likely to write it out. Like in a blog, for example.

I can't draw. Okay, I can barely draw. Stick figures are a challenge.

But since then, I've been looking for a way to add some kind of data visualization to my life.

I am also what you might call "between jobs" (unemployed), and so with large blocks of unscheduled time (*gulp*), I want to quantify in some way how I am spending my life.

I use the term "quantify" loosely--I might eventually get to actual numbers and graphs. We'll see.

"I spent my life marathoning 'Breaking Bad.'"

"I spent my life making sure that people in Germany would be able to watch CSI, season 13."

"I spent my life eating ice cream to battle the heat, while refusing to turn on the AC."

"I spent my life talking to people and asking questions."

"I spent my life doing fun things with friends."

Each of these is true, in their own way--

I started reading about the quantified self via Sacha Chua and her index card sketches. I also downloaded the Cardflow app on my iPad (I'm loving it so far!)

By sketching out what I do on any particular day on a virtual index card, I can record and visualize both how I am spending my life and whether I am living all that I can, à la Henry James.

My attempt

Inspiration. Photo by Sacha Chua

Hopefully, this will be the first in a series about using different apps to record life on a day-by-day basis in different mediums: words, pictures, video, etc.