The current technique I use for refreshing the images pinned to my mental calendar as memory tags starts with me thinking of this date 6 months ago. From there I move to the same day of the week. My review involves recalling the images for the day before and the same day for every week until one month ago (from where I run through every day until yesterday).
This is usually my waking routine, sometimes extending into getting ready for the day.
So today being Wednesday 2 July, I first stepped to 2 January on my mental calendar and found it to be a Thursday. So my review began with Tuesday 31 December 2013. The each Tuesday and Wednesday of successive weeks.
In other words, this was the last time the 6-month window started in the year 2013.
I feel a sad sense of letting go with this realisation.
It was not a good year: a young niece passed away towards the end of it after an illness diagnosed a little over a year before that. So the memory tags for 2013 are punctuated by final days shared and moments of suffering.
I still revisit each day of the year, but now on a slower cycle.
At some point during the day, I recall the same date in each month. So a day per month, starting from 2 January 2011, through the 2nd of each month in 2012, 2013 and the 6 months of this year that have already passed.
As more distant days only come to mind once per month, they are sometimes a surprise. Today it was 2 December that struck me. My memory tag is standing on a street in the capital looking at the Christmas decorations.
Before I began this process, a memory like this might well have dwindled to nothing. Or if I recalled it, I might not remember to which year it related.
I bought a laptop on that trip – then went for a walk to look at the lights while they fitted a memory expansion board (ironically enough).
Without my memory tags I would be hard pressed to remember when or perhaps even where I bought the laptop I am using now.
So 2013 lives on.
With the moments and the people that made up the days I lived through.
This is usually my waking routine, sometimes extending into getting ready for the day.
So today being Wednesday 2 July, I first stepped to 2 January on my mental calendar and found it to be a Thursday. So my review began with Tuesday 31 December 2013. The each Tuesday and Wednesday of successive weeks.
In other words, this was the last time the 6-month window started in the year 2013.
I feel a sad sense of letting go with this realisation.
It was not a good year: a young niece passed away towards the end of it after an illness diagnosed a little over a year before that. So the memory tags for 2013 are punctuated by final days shared and moments of suffering.
I still revisit each day of the year, but now on a slower cycle.
At some point during the day, I recall the same date in each month. So a day per month, starting from 2 January 2011, through the 2nd of each month in 2012, 2013 and the 6 months of this year that have already passed.
As more distant days only come to mind once per month, they are sometimes a surprise. Today it was 2 December that struck me. My memory tag is standing on a street in the capital looking at the Christmas decorations.
Before I began this process, a memory like this might well have dwindled to nothing. Or if I recalled it, I might not remember to which year it related.
I bought a laptop on that trip – then went for a walk to look at the lights while they fitted a memory expansion board (ironically enough).
Without my memory tags I would be hard pressed to remember when or perhaps even where I bought the laptop I am using now.
So 2013 lives on.
With the moments and the people that made up the days I lived through.
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