In the morning, I want my TV to turn on right as my alarm (iPhone) goes off. On the TV I want a few widgets to be there: news headlines, weather, my days appointments, and my media player. Think something similar to Jeff Jarvis’ Konfeedulator.

Then, as I switch to my computer (tablet PC preferably) I will have a dashboard populated with information (based on the date) that I need to see. It could be financial statements, research to read based on a meeting later in the day, emails, etc. It’s all curated for my day and coming days.

Lots of the prep work will be based on tags and what type of information I put in my calendar. This is fine with me as on the back-end of this system will be a highly customizable “information pot” where I put all the sources with search terms, etc to filter to my dashboard. I believe this will be the hardest part to do, but I think there are ways to make this easier. To track and report on my health, I can take pictures of food bar codes, for example.

Lots of jumbled thoughts here, I guess I should just start trying some of this stuff to see what works. Add to it to help me figure this out.

While the majority of this is my fault, I do believe that the whole process of storing my medical data is rather archaic. How do they organize, find, store and understand the information in those aisles of folders? And, how exactly does anyone, including the doctor, read his or her own handwriting? Usually that stuff is chicken scratch.

There have been efforts to take medical records online. Google Health seems to be the most easy-to-find option. But, I guess my biggest question is with all the advanced technology in use in factories, businesses and our personal lives, how is there not a way to automate make going to the doctor more technologically savvy?

I’d imagine there being a tablet pc on a secured network where the doctor can see all past treatments, clearly read notes from a previous diagnosis, cross-reference with other similar symptoms and update the medical record in question in real-time. Not to mention the possibilities of the user tracking his or her data (think: moods, food, exercise, drinks, smoking, blood pressure, etc) for the doctor to see hard evidence to recommend a treatment.

But back to my original point, the data to be tracked, organized and stored here could be used to help see trends in ailments, successful treatments, easily present the data to the doctor immediately and clearly.

The area where I think data viz could most quickly and easily make a difference is in the area of bills and statements. It seems like a dull topic, I know, but imagine the impact of suddenly giving millions of people genuine and immediate insight into their spending habits, cell phone behaviours or energy consumption. It’s data people are generally either bored or intimidated by but the impact of genuinely understanding and seeing patterns in it could be hugely empowering. Knowledge, as they say, is power.

Agreed. And, I’ve been saying that for a while now. I guess I should preface that with the fact that I’m an amateur data visualization wanna-be; I have no idea of the best way to do things, I just know that when I look at a good example, I love it (and vice versa with bad).

I think good data visualization can really help businesses make decisions and clear up any vague areas that data provides. I’d really like to partner up with someone to work on improving different areas where I see problems.

More to this point is the amount of data we can learn about ourselves. I’ve mentioned the quantified self before, but if we can find a way to easily track data on ourselves then present it in a pretty way using data visualization, I believe this will be a marketers dream.

We make tiny choices every day. Those choices become habits, and those habits develop into behaviors. your.flowingdata helps you record these choices.

Use your.flowingdata (YFD) to collect data about yourself and your surroundings via Twitter. Record what you eat, when you go to sleep, how much television you watch, or whatever else you want. What you track is completely up to you.