Workflow Archive
Initially, I started this project because I was already familiar with pivot tables due to a STEM education course I took, Statistical Reasoning in the Classroom, that showed students real-world applications of data analysis. For the final project, I had tracked different styles of art I made during the semester (presentation link HERE). This really jumpstarted my interest in data visualization!
I wanted a panoramic view of how I really spent my days on campus, so I documented my hours in a spreadsheet for the Fall ’22 and Spring ’23 semester. Using the ‘pivot table’ feature in Google Sheets, I was able to compare various sets of data to gain insight into my habits — hence, the Workflow Archive.
As I write this post, my Fall ’22 project is complete and Spring ’23 is in progress. After my first semester working on this project, I realized some things I would’ve done differently had I not been hundreds of rows deep in an excel sheet. The second time around, I chose to also document my location, have more specific labeling, and review data trends at the end of each week. Here are the variables I recorded:
- Date (mm/dd/yyyy)
- Type
- Lecture
- Study
- Work
- Extra-curricular
- Exercise
- Personal
- Topic (specific organization/course/etc)
- Subject (general description of event)
- Duration (in hours)
- Documents (relevant links for homework/pdfs/etc)
- Notes (to-do list and reminders)
- Location
Here’s an example of how I’d track a math lecture in my spreadsheet using these variables:
| Date | Type | Topic | Subject | Duration | Documents | Notes | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/9/2023 | Lecture | MATH 402 | Set theory general definitions | 1.3 | Link to lecture PDF | Review chapter 2 | Mathematics Building |
Fall ’22 Presentation
Art Projects
Peony Study
Peonies are in season right now and I was gifted a big bouquet of them! They’re in a vase on my desk, and despite all the literature-based studying I’ve been doing, I decided to start painting again as a gift to myself. I love drawing flowers, so the peonies were a great realism-based study.
I realized I haven’t painted, let alone drawn anything, since before the Spring semester of this year. I practiced by drawing an American-traditional style of peony (few petals, basic geometry), followed by a second draft with an intermediate-level of detail, then gradually transitioned to an accurate styling of the actual flower. After a few drafts, I drew the final outline on a small 5×7 canvas and layered the acrylic base of the painting, followed by outlining the peony using an India ink pen.
Since peonies can have dozens of layers for their petals, I had to pick and choose which angles I referenced to avoid any chaos while painting.
