A simple and stupid way to keep every input and output of your mind in record, in a categorized manner by numbers.
- Define your dictionary with numbers (e.g., 152 refers to walking, 140 refers to drinking water, etc.);
- Fill the cells in the fluxRec spreadsheet with your numbers representing what you are doing or feeling;
- Do mu (monthly update) at the end of every month;
- Keep updating your dictionary or give up the record.
All these are just my rules and my way of making it work for your reference only.
It is a bold, crazy, insane, obsessive-compulsive way of Martha trying to record everything she does and feels.
Back in June 2019, at a time when she could no longer bear the sufferings of not knowing what had happened to her, she escalated her compulsion of recordings. There fxR went on. Starting from making notes hourly, to the present "digitalized" sheet which is supposed to be updated every 10 minutes.
She introduced this project to some of the people she trusted (and still trusts), including her psychiatrist who commented:
"It is not so good for your anxiety but yes it gives you a feeling of mastery".
Some were just amazed by the organization of spreadsheet, or just the color. Most of the time no one was actually interested in this project since it was purely compulsion, since after years of recording there was no certain conclusion drawn from the analysis of data. Not even any clear statistical pattern was found.
futile and feeble. That's what she believes life would be. In the end everyone leaves and nothing you do will be left. Even though she still loves the life and is recording hers every single day.
The only thing that may be counted as the outcome of this project can be found here in which some descriptive statistics plots were shown.
Figure Random selection of one of the plots which looks a bit intriguing
yeah, this is her life. with all her honesty, recorded.
so how about joining her with this horrible project.
The very beginning with only words but no codes/numbers.
Numbers were introduced. One cell represented 15 minutes.
One cell represented 10 minutes.
v3 had sub-versions in which parallelled columns were added to have more descriptions for every 10-minute.
For every 10-minute, a maximum of 3 numbers could be used to describe the doing and feeling.
This version is the latest. The kind of codename Jacaranda was related to the colors adopted.
There are several definitions may interest you.
| Name | Abbr. | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|
| channel | ch | A channel can refer to what she's doing or her feelings. she calls it channel based on the metaphor she likes. |
| flux | f | flux means content. Flow rate in the channel. The larger flux means the more she was contented. |
| aqueduct | a/aq | "An aqueduct is an artificial channel for conveying water" which refers to her effort to make a larger flux. |
cen wasn't an independent system but simply a part of fluxRec referring to the connection between the numbers and what they mean and the intuitive color in her eyes.
However, the numbers are so handy to use therefore she started to use those numbers in all kinds of scenarios outside fluxRec, such as file management, notes, etc.