Week 5 – Distraction Visualisation

Figure 1 – Distractions

Since the beginning of the year I have been getting distracted easily from work or masters related reading. I noticed that since we are stuck at home my main way of distracting myself was getting cups of tea so thats how this visualisation came to be, I wanted to see all the times I distracted myself along with keeping track of all the times I had a snack (normally always biscuits).

Description of the Visualisation

This visualisation is similar to an ECG, each ECG is a different day starting from top (Monday) to bottom (Friday). Along the top you can roughly see the time (that was more for me) which only covers 9am to midnight as these are my active hours.

Legend

Figure 2 – Legend

Reasoning

I went for an ECG style drawing as most of my time is spent sitting down at a laptop which doesn’t really get my heart going in the literal sense. Each time I get up my heart has to work and start to beat more (albeit only slightly).

I took the approach over this block to keep my visualisations quite simple, I have quite a lot of data hidden behind each heart beat such as what I ate for each snack, dinner, breakfast, etc. My goal over the next block will be to expand the complexity of the visualisations.

5 thoughts on “Week 5 – Distraction Visualisation

  1. Ben Williamson

    I like the simplicity of this dataviz. As you say, there is a lot of data ‘hidden’ behind it. That. of course, is the nature of data visualization, and one of its problems. These graphics can produce a kind of visual argument, or trigger certain forms of interpretation (e.g. your ECG-based form of representation immediately made me think of medical emergencies and bodies under medical observation), yet the underlying data from which they are drawn often remains hidden, and perhaps even take for granted. They might also be used to ‘disguise’ certain things too, or smooth over serious complexities.

    Reply
  2. tmadden

    Hi Colin,
    I am also finding myself very easily distracted these days, and working from home it’s so easy to snack!
    But perhaps, getting up and walking away is better than sitting there, trying to refocus? Maybe the tea breaks are filling time you wouldn’t be productive anyway, and give a boost to getting back to the reading?

    Reply
    1. Iryna Altukhova

      Hi Colin! I also used ECG to visualize distractions. However, your focus is different and looks very interesting. With my disctragram, I discovered that my phone and work-related notifications are the major source of distraction for me, whilst I treated breaks for food/drinks as natural and very important blocks in my day. You see how subjective our data visualizations can be, and this is by mo means different when performed by an algorithm.

      Reply
      1. Colin Walsh Post author

        Thanks Iryna I just viewed your ECG visualisation and it is brilliant, far more detailed than mine.

        Definitely agree on the algorithm side, we would be looking at probably a very similar outcome if something was tracking both of us.

        Reply
    2. Colin Walsh Post author

      But perhaps, getting up and walking away is better than sitting there, trying to refocus?

      I agree but at this moment in time I think its more a force myself into focusing as I have not had to do it for a long time. Also possibly being in the same place all the time with nothing new is very bad for my concentration. I like to be able to go to a certain place (library, office, etc) and study and leave that place (come home) but we can’t do that right now.

      Maybe the tea breaks are filling time you wouldn’t be productive anyway, and give a boost to getting back to the reading?

      Absolutely agree again but sometimes personally I need to force myself to do it and then I get into the swing of things and that is the big problem right now.

      Reply

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