Regular readers are familiar with the fact that Tidy Bytes posts and pretty much all the stuff online focuses on digital data. Therefore, it may surprise you a bit to learn that this month, I'm stepping just a bit outside of this topic to bridge some digital organization ideas into the analog world--the physical realm we live in, where "data" takes up real space. Welcome to Analog Month!
Of course, at a microscopic level, digital data takes up space, too. But I'm not talking about binary bits stored on typical digital media. I'm talking about things like paper, printed photos, magazines, and newspapers. Do any of the things we've learned to do with digital data also apply to physical data? Or can we simply digitize that stuff and be done with it?
I use the term "analog" to describe this month's topic because it's commonly used as the conceptual opposite of "digital." This term primarily makes sense in the context of electronics; referring to a newspaper as "analog" would be strange without the backdrop of digital computers. But since digital electronics (and data) operate within the confines of binary logic--true or false, on or off, 1 or 0--anything that doesn't can reasonably be called analog: "of, relating to, or being a mechanism or device in which information is represented by continuously variable physical quantities."
There's your fun etymology lesson for today.
Analog Week 1: Physical Data Review
If you're like me, digital data stored on electronic devices isn't the only form of information you struggle to keep organized. I've gravitated towards technology and digital data storage since I was little, so I've managed (intentionally) to collect less physical stuff than some people. But I still live in the real world: I receive paper bills. People hand me printed receipts after certain transactions. I have to print and sign forms. And, despite their utter ineffectiveness on me, I still get direct mail advertisements and flyers.
On top of that, I have certain documents that must, for legal reasons, exist in the physical world: family birth certificates, vehicle titles, special financial records, and so on. I've also got some things that have purely sentimental value to me, like Father's Day artwork from my kids and even some of my schoolwork from an early age.
I also have a smattering of other media types, like cassette tapes of silly things I recorded when I was very young and home video recordings from magnetic video tapes. And let's not forget about printed photos from before the digital era!
How much of that is important enough to keep?
And, of the things I keep, what exactly should I do with it?
This month, we'll aim to work through some of those questions. Maybe you have little to no "analog data" to manage. Perhaps you have hordes of it, stacks and boxes and totes full of various forms of information. Or maybe you're somewhere in the middle. But the great thing about organizing physical stuff is that you can recover real space and use it for something else or simply enjoy the lack of mess and extra breathing room.
Whatever your situation this week, I invite you to pivot away from the digital world for a moment and think about what you have to manage in your physical world--especially things like papers, magazines, documents, vital records, photos, and videos.
Don't worry about what to do with it yet. Instead, simply make a note or list of whatever analog material you think of so you can refer to it in the coming weeks as we look at specific categories and what to do with them.
Happy (analog) data-taming!