Jumping through the months

My reviews of past days are manageable again as dates more than 6 months ago drop out of my standard review process (a two-day-per-week window over the past 6 months and every day of the last month).

For these earlier months, I simply call up the image for the same date of the month as today. So after my standard review today - 29 July - I have gone through the images for the 29th of each month.

Jumping from month to month has become easier now that I have remembered the pattern: if a month has 31 days, advance the day 3 days, and so on.

So 29 July 2013 is a Monday. I know that 29 July 2012 was a day earlier, so Sunday. I know that 29 July 2011 was two days earlier, because 2012 was a leap year, and so Friday.

July has 31 days, so 29 August 2011 was 3 days later, or Monday.

August has 31 days, so 29 September 2011 was 3 days later, or Thursday.

September has 30 days, so 29 October 2011 was 2 days later, or Saturday.

October has 31 days, so 29 November 2011 was 3 days later, or Tuesday.

November has 30 days, so 29 December 2011 was 2 days later, or Thursday.

The images for these days often confirm I have landed correctly: 29 December 2011 was when we moved into the flat we rented for 9 months and I remember that it was a Thursday.

The map of my past since beginning this process is now familiar territory.

Story of the month

Recently I gave up on conducting large-scale reviews of memory tags older than six months old.

Now I just pass a two-day-per-week window over the last six months and recall the tags for every day of the past month.

For reasurance as much as anything, I recall the day of the month for each month prior to that. Today being the 23rd of July, I have pulled up the memory tags for the 23rd of each month since I began this process.

Having been following this technique for a while, I experience parallel stories spaced a month apart unfolding day by day.

Which makes the reviews of more historic times fun again, instead of burdensome.

Last year is over

My reviews of past days are much more bearable now. In fact, I only cover the past 6 months with the two-days-per-week window, so January is already dropping out of these reviews.

The year 2012 is over. I think I was wanting to let it go. There were many great things that happened last year, some not so great, but being half way into 2013, this is where my head needs to be. Time to move on.

I still dip into the images pinned to my mental calendar as memory tags, recalling the same date for each month (the 20th today, for example).

As I reassure myself the images are not lost, I become more confident that regular reviews are no longer necessary and can concentrate on the present in the knowledge the past is not forgotten.

Review burnout - I can't do it any more

Suddenly I have had to stop. Or at least scale back my reviews.

I have been running a two-week window over every week of the past two years to review the images pinned to my mental calendar, then every day of the past month.

Some times I did not complete the review and so the next day ran a three-day window to make sure images had their refresh. I was scared I would start losing them otherwise.

The two-year period stretched back before 17 December 2011, when I started this process of remembering, and there are many blanks prior to that date. I wanted to become accustomed to days dropping out of the reviews before the precious images from 17 December 2011 onwards were put at risk.

But I burned out yesterday. Two years is too much.

I had fallen asleep the day before without completing and was faced with three-day reviews.

I just couldn't get going. No energy. I skated over the surface of my mental calendar unable to engage with the images.

I compromised and began the process in January this year. That was not only comfortable, but gives all the positive benefits I have been writing about. I'm not stopping, but adapting.

Without regular reviews, memory tags for the whole of 2012 are at risk.

I've restarted my diary, which takes time, because it is not just the tags, but all the key things they conjure up I want to write into my narrative. Now I have a sense of urgency to catch up so if I lose what I had, I will be able to find myself on paper.

Today, I continued with this strategy, covering only this year in my review.

With free time on a bike ride, I did go back through the 6th of every month. Everything was still there.

The experiment of whether the memories are now entrenched and will remain without regular reviews begins now.