Drawn to Data

Much like that famous quote about hating to write but loving having written, I love to have data about my life but I hate recording it.

I think it’s fun to look back on lists and charts of things I’ve done, books I’ve read, tea that I’ve tried and see how I got from there to here.

I’ve tried all kinds of spreadsheets and charts and the like but I always stop keeping track.

My ADHD brain gets twitchy about getting so detailed and I get bored with recording the info*.

Or at least I have up until now.

I’m currently working my way through a cool book by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec and I think that DRAWING my data might be just be quirky enough to keep me coming back to it.

A light blue book with the title 'Observe, Collect, Draw! A visual journal' on the cover in a font that looks hand printed. There are coloured drawing pencils depicted at the bottom and various symbols and shapes all over the front cover.

What does it mean to draw your data?

Have fun with this ‘data selfie’ exercise by Giorgia Lupi and see what I mean.

https://ideas.ted.com/how-to-draw-your-own-selfie-using-your-personal-data/

Here’s what my ‘selfie’ looks like:

A white sheet of paper sits above a computer keyboard. The paper is covered in lines and shapes in various colours representing different data, for example, there is a red right angle triangle that slopes to the left at the base of the photo indicating that the author is an optimist.

Looks just like me, hey?

*Especially if it is in a spreadsheet – those things hate me.