Welcome to the fourth Tidy Tuesday in July.
It's also the first one this month where I've been able to return to my 2025 Consistency Challenge project: cleaning up my multi-decade data archive. If you recall, I was quite proud of the last week of progress I made before this month-long PC hiccup, but I couldn't quantify how well I'd done. Now, finally, I can:
- I deleted 4,689 files comprising ~104 GB
- I sorted 7,801 files comprising ~917 GB (!!)
- Overall progress: 44% (from 44% last week), but in overall data quantity: 82% up from 66% last week
This is another case where I only dealt with a small-ish quantity of files--12,500 or so out of 2.4 million remaining--but those files were very, very large. Mostly videos and some photos. I still have more to do, but I'm definitely whittling it down. There's at least one large chunk that I can just hand off to one of my brothers, because it's his data and I just ended up with a copy of it somehow.
I haven't mentioned the Consistency Challenge for a while because of being kept away from it myself for a few weeks, but I hope at least some of you have kept it in mind and been able to make some progress despite a few missing weekly reminders. I definitely know how easy it is to forget or even just stop prioritizing it.
I also realize that we crossed over another quarterly boundary in the year: July 30. I clearly didn't finish my project by the end of June, though I do have a small excuse of my computer being down for the last two weeks of the quarter. Honestly, I don't think I would have managed cleaning that last 18% of data even if my PC was working perfectly the whole time. It was a busy time.
However, my stated goal for the project was, among other things, to cut my overall file count down to half of what I started with (2.3 million instead of 4.6 million). I'm actually quite close to that: I have only 2.4 million left. So, even though I have more to work through, I made huge progress in
If you, like me, could use a refresher on what the Consistency Challenge is for, here are the main points involved in choosing a quarterly goal:
- Choose one thing to work on for each quarter of the year (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, and so on).
- Pick a measurable goal to reach by the end of the quarter.
- Determine a measurable action that will move you toward that goal.
- Perform that action at least once per week, noting the progress you made.
- 🏆️ BONUS: Report your weekly progress to somebody else each week, or ask them to remind you. 🗨️
At this point, I'm a little torn. Last time we wrapped up the first quarter, I easily chose to continue towards my existing goal for the second quarter. Since I'm most of the way through it, I could do the same thing again...but I don't want to let myself stagnate or spend too much time doing only one thing. I want to finish this archive project, but I also want to tackle other things.
For example, I've been experimenting (pretty passively) with Immich, the self-hosted photo management app I mentioned a while ago. I'd like to try switching over to that in conjunction with iCloud Photo Downloader to create a headache-free family photo organization workflow that my wife can use easily and intuitively.
It's a different sort of a project than what I've been doing for the first half of the year, but one that that would benefit both of us if I can pull it off--not just scratch an organizational itch for me.
For Q3/2025, that's what I'll be working on. I'm not going to drop the archive clean-up project completely, since I got into a pretty good rhythm and I'm close to done. But it won't be the top priority--at least not while I'm figuring out the Immich thing.
So how will that look as a Consistency Challenge project? Let's see:
- 📋 I want migrate to Immich and iCloud Photo Downloader for automatic, intuitive, Apple-friendly self-hosted family photo management.
- 🎯 By the end of this quarter, I will have set up, tested, and rolled out (to our devices) the required apps and processes so the system is as smooth and transparent as possible.
- 📅 Every week, take at least one specific step towards this goal and identify and unexpected hurdles or misunderstandings on my part.
- 📈 I'll keep my wife informed about my progress to make sure everything fits with her expectations and preferences, and report to all of you how it's going in this post.
I don't expect this to be a long, drawn-out process. I also don't expect there will be much to write about most of the time. I just want to document enough that another technically inclined person could follow along and avoid any unexpected hiccups that I happen to run into along the way (if there are any).
If you're ready to start a new digital organization project, or even if you're continuing the same thing you were working on last quarter, let me know! Photos and videos, notes, old archives, backups, security improvements, consolidation onto a NAS, or anything else. I'd love to find a way to help you achieve the consistency you're after.
I'm also considering some different ways to make this "consistency goal" aspect of Tidy Bytes into something more engaging and helpful for those of you who want to participate. Knowing what everyone is (or would like to be) working on would help narrow down the possibilities. Discord server? Telegram channel? Heartbeat community?
I'll keep brainstorming. 🧠
Until next week, happy data-taming!