Memory failure

What a horrible feeling.

Yesterday I couldn't remember what I did on Wednesday 25 January.

Before I began this process of remembering every day of my life, this would not have been a big deal.

But as I now have a memory tag for every day going back to mid-December, finding a blank day on my mental calendar was a shock.

So far any memory failure has been short lived. Recalling the days from either side or week has been enough to remind me. This time I felt panicked as I drew a blank for 24 January too.

What was happening? Was my brain's ability to handle this level of detail failing after less than two months of data?

More likely, it was a case of being tired from getting to bed after two in the morning after a trip to the airport. I decided to let it go for now, thinking I'd remember tomorrow. But I was concerned that this experiment is running into problems already.

It came back to me while I was doing the washing up. We had our friends round for dinner on 25 January.

On 24 January it had been raining, and so I took the bus to work rather than cycling, and wrote my second entry for this blog on my laptop on the way in.

From these images I am able to recall more detail for each of the days. Meeting my wife at the bus stop, the rain still falling, to travel home at the end of the day.

Somehow I feel the act of having to exercise my mind to remember, rather than checking back over notes, will make these memories stronger now.