Exploring Old Habits: Recording Different Things

I was always really good at ”recording” things.

What I mean by that, is that from a very early age I used to write down all sorts of things about what was going on around me. I wouldn't exactly say I was keeping a diary; most of what I wrote down was things like whether it rained on a given day, or whether the sun was out, or what the high temperature was, or even what time I went to bed… but generally I had very little to say about my actual life.

A while back, Mrs. Denmarkguy asked me why I thought I did those things; where I thought the habit came from.

After thinking about it for awhile, I think a large part of it can be attributed to ”training” — even if somewhat unhealthy from a psychological perspective — by parents who expected me to back up any requests I might have for things I wanted with facts and figures, rather than vague statements of ”because I feel like it.”

It wasn't safe to simply ”think” things, everything had to be backed up with hard facts… and what better way to do that than to write everything down so you could refer back to it, and point to it on a written down page. And I have to admit that it kept me out of trouble on a number of occasions!

Over the years, some people have suggested but I should have become a statistician but that profession honestly never appealed to me very much. When I consider that, I have come to realize that I mostly keep information as something to refer back to, more than as something to serve a functional purpose.

These days, I still record lots of things.

For example, I keep a very detailed log of everything we harvest out of our vegetable garden. From year to year, I have a complete list of what was harvested on which days and how much of it… enabling us to look back at how long it took to get from seed to harvest and how long each harvest was, compared to the weather.

Is it useful?

Maybe it is, in its own limited way. But over and beyond that it gives me a bit of a sense of purpose!

Of course I also record quite a few numbers related to cryptocurrency and investing. Again, this is more for my own edification then it is too serve any actual functional purpose, like "technical analysis."

All in all, it is a pretty harmless "hobby," even if a little strange.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Do you think this is a strange pastime? Are there things in your life you keep track of? Are there different pastimes you have or know of that might be seen as a little strange? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 202207016 01:45 PDT
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