Collecting the data or living the data

Imagine you were to start collecting data about yourself over the next ten years (2020–2030) to store in a time capsule. What data would you collect and why?

Whenever I hear the word collecting data, I see myself logging and tracking every single little thing I do for the sake of that data collection result. As a personal experience, I’ve been trying to put all my calories in the Fitbit app with the expectative to actually put myself in a disciplined system to maintain my fitness… yet, it’s been a hard journey and not a consistent one to be honest, as you can see in the picture in the left, I’m missing some days because I just didn’t put that information in.
So, when I was asked what data would I collect and why, my first question was… Why would I put myself through that? After analyzing Data humanism from Giorgia Lupi, I realized I had to have a bigger picture in mind for this prompt to work for me. I am a true believer of the “everything happens for a reason” quote, not precisely that people should accept and conform on their own circumstances but how all of these events may shape your own path.
And with this in mind, I believe I’ll love to take care of particular data categories of my life for the next 10 years as I’m living them.
Places (Countries and Cities)
I would love to create a signature based on the places I’ve been, based on how long and the year, not yet sure how but I’d love to do that, and I know is not going to be a final result but an evolving one, since we never know for sure what’s ahead of us.

People I have contact with and I haven’t contacted in a while
People impact in our lives, and some more than others. So keeping track on who I spent most of the time talking to at some point may help me understand my own way of thinking and framing ideas and if I need to expand that social circle to the ones I haven’t touched based with in a while.

Important events in my life
2 years ago, I thought I would never feel depression. And then I did, such a low point in my life and that inspired me to become better. I take these highlights (good or bad) as important things to be consider since these were the things that changed me. Moving to another country, starting a master’s degree, graduating→ (fast forwarding) my first child, my first time being arrested (hoping not), etc…
Screen time and about what
Thinking in a quantitative approach also has its merits, and this idea of having myself tracked by my devices on how much I spent in a computer or the phone and on what, is a helpful dataset that could help me trace back my own habits and adjust them. I know I want to read more about many things, but I’m not able to since the masters assignments and work consume my time, so maybe just being aware of these screen readings of my life will help me understand that at some point I won’t be as busy as I am now and I’ll be able to achieve that change.

So, after 10 years… my data collection will be about my life, me living through all these experiences and sharing it with myself. I don’t mean to share this, since it’s a personal thing… life is individual, but just the idea of having so much people, places, events and time coming together to tell my story, is what makes it worth collecting, not just for the sake of the data collection results, but for the sake of living the data.
