Time tracking and memexes
I couldn't find where I first read it on the wired, but it goes
something along the lines of:
... the magical diary or journal is among the most powerful tools available to any practitioner...
(link added by me)
It stuck with me for good reason. It lined up with all the talk about having the "goal of religion" and "the method of science". Documentation. Of what? Of experiments. Of one's own knowledge. Of one's own goals and the process of achieving them. Of the changes in one's own person along the way.
If there is any physical artefact, barring anything made through more mysterious means, that can contain the imprint of a human soul, it must be their own personal record.
Therapy or Coping Mechanism?
Over the past few weeks, i've been wondering, if on a psychological level, this entire body of work is a way for me to cope with the varied horribleness of the world. Like, pick one, collapse of society, climate change, or the entire world going insane. One of them is bound to make your head go funny, even a little bit.
There's also arguments to be made about the memex being a method of psychoanalyzing myself, breaking down a given topic to sections and understandable concepts and definitions. Slay the fearful monster of doubt with the blade of logic, whatever that means hahahaha
Either way, both indicate some form of engagement with the self. I think that's a good thing in the long run.
Technical Nitty-Gritty
As I've mentioned in a previous post, this entire website is the publicly-visible results of my personal memex. The command I use to compile all of this also includes a time clock, and the data it gathers is insightful, yes, but currently not very "integrated" into the whole. This is a part of my personal record that I feel is underutilized. But before I actually go through the labor of further integrating it the rest of my system I need to make sure there's actually meaningful information there.
Currently, each row of the database represents a tracked activity, containing four fields:
- Start Time
- End Time
- A brief note or label
- A filename or URL related to the activity tracked.
When I began the project, this setup was fine, as I built it with the intent of logging the progress of the memex's development as I went. However, now that I'm relatively comfortable with its existing features, and logging more non-computer activities using it, I find myself having to use an existing filepath as a proxy for what I'm actually doing. I worry that this will increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the resulting database.
Right now, I am looking at three options:
- Just replace the filepath/URL field with another field.
- Add a new field
- use the filepath/url field for the new data as well.
Before I lay out the pros and cons of each one, let's discuss what sort of data should be collected instead of/as well as the other fields.
Activity Type
The ideas below are heavily from the horaire time-tracking system by Devine Lu Linvega, adapted to my personal needs. Likely subject to further revision in the future.
This describes at a glance what the activity is all about. It would have a two-character code representing the general "sphere" that activity belongs to, represented by one of the four hermetic elements:
- Fire [FI]: Spiritual Pursuits, Ambitions, Personal Goal-Setting
- Water [WA]: Emotional self-reflection, leisure, Art and games
- Air [AI]: Research into technical topics, detailed planning
- Earth [EA]: Personal life, mundane topics, meta-topics
It would also have a number, that represents how Introverted or Extroverted the given activity is, with regard to whether it produces an artefact that affects other people, or whether the activity itself involves other people.
- No artefact/file produced, involves only myself
- An artefact may or may not be produced, viewable only by myself.
- A publicly-viewable artefact is produced and small audience.
- A publicly-viewable artefact is produced and large audience.
An example grid of activities in this scheme includes, but is not limited to:
| # | Fire | Water | Air | Earth |
| # | Meditation | Media Consumption | Reading papers/newswires | Exercise |
| # | Personal Rite | Drafting a Scenario | Experimentation/Research | Personal Accounting |
| # | Tarot Reading | Write Session notes | Release Code | Write Blog/Essay |
| # | Group Rite | GM a TTRPG | Present Research | Visit Friends |
The completed shortcode for something like the "Release Code" activity
above would look like AI3, while "Personal Accounting" would be
given the code EA2 and so on.
Not as detailed as the implementation I took inspiration from, but I'm okay with something less precise in exchange for ease of logging. The only way a time-tracking regiment would be useful is if you use it! And for me, i consider the additional amount of labor involved in thinking HOW data should be logged be something that gets in the way of the actual logging.
Updating the current DB
The current timeclock database has collected some insightful information, and gleaning from the labels and files within, I'm able to see patterns in my own thoughts, as well as the ebbs and flows of my own personal energy over time. It's an interesting and sobering read, but currently does not lend itself to being machine-processed, and digested into graphs and averages.
I probably need to update the DB by hand. The tedium would probably be made harder if I went with a larger Introvert-Extrovert scale.