One of the goals I made this year was to practice awareness, noticing everything within and without me at the present moment. 3 weeks into January, I decided to start recording what I notice as data I’d study at the end of the year, an idea I got from a book I came across called Dear Data.

Every week for the rest of the year, I will try to focus on one thing and keep track of the data I get from it.

The last three days of the past week, I chose to focus on sounds around me and was surprised at some sounds I noticed. For instance, there were times I’d sit really still in a quiet place and end up hearing my heartbeat!

How I gathered data:

I set an alarm for every hour and when it went off I’d focus my attention on my surroundings and the sounds from it then record them, from the loudest to the faintest. There were hours I forgot to keep track though.

Incredible things I noticed:

Listening to my surroundings surprisingly increased my concentration on whatever I was doing at that moment. But what awed me the most was being able to hear my heart beating and my breathing. Deeper concentration even allowed me to block out all noise and focus on something as faint as my breathe. Another thing that stood out for me when I began to visually represent my data is, not once in the three days did I hear my phone ring other than for the alarm.

Because I started recording on Thursday, I only have 3 days of data; Thursday through to Saturday.

How to Read:

Every colored line represents my location.

Every unique symbol represents what I heard.

Each horizontal line represents a day.

Data representation is not too easy. I just hope as the weeks progress I’ll get better.