Remembering by distraction

I am now attaching full date information to the image I pin to my internal calendar as a memory tag for the day.

So, for example, on 25 February 2012 I was walking round a lake with friends and we sat in a hide to watch the birds on the water.

My memory tag is the view across the lake with my friends seated and standing beside me. The date is there in black font in the sky above the lake. This image calls up the other events of that day.

Thinking back over the past few weeks and adding the date information to my memory tags, something struck me. Somehow having the date to focus on made the image more vivid.

Memories can be slippery things. The more I try to focus on a particular memory and call up details, sometimes the harder it is to latch on to.

For a while I couldn't remember the image for 2 February 2012, so I just focussed on the date. The image then came to mind, fading in behind the date.

It may be an illusion, but it seems easier to pick up on extra details when I have the date there to direct my attention to, as if they are in the corner of my mental eye.