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.

Remembering the time that passed

I had a long drive today and decided to fill some of the time with a continuous review of the images I have pinned to my internal calendar to remember every day that passes.

A quick run through the whole lot from 17 December 2011 when I began this process. I led into this starting two years ago and recalling the few images I have for the period before then.

But I didn't get far because remembering took me back to that time around Christmas 2011 and moving into a new flat with my wife just before new year.

The memory tags I have reviewed so many times they are familiar to me, orientated me to remember so much more about those days and information ballooned, sometimes reminding me of another fact from the week before. It was not just remembering, it was inhabiting that time again.

Three hours later when I arrived at my destination, I had only reached early February 2012.

Before I sleep, I will do my lightning review to reinforce the images for the intervening time until today. Having them is so precious.

It doesn't take long.

Addiction

All of the methods I have been using to remember every day that passes remain true.

Reviewing the memory tags pinned to my mental calendar reinforces them. I am still running a two-day window over each week starting from two years ago (I have a lot of blanks until I reach 17 December 2011 - the day I began this process). For the last month, I go through every day.

If an image is elusive, I can find it by running through the images for surrounding days.

There are no plot holes - events must happen in order. This also helps me when I get lost.

Having a theme for a week or sequence of days is a short cut to recalling them.

Visualising the layout of the calendar in my mind's eye helps me to orientate myself and move from date to date.

Generally I run through the review as I am waking up, but sometimes this is not possible.

And so I realise I am addicted.

I have to complete the review before I go to sleep again. I find I can pick up where I left off easily enough during the day.

If I fail to complete the review, which has happened a few times, the next day I will cover three days per week for the missing period, or even run through the full sequence of days.

What also continues to be true is this process gives me a grounding sense of perspective and balance, which makes the effort worthwhile.

Though it uses mental space, it does not dominate my day, but gives me something to fill odd moments - and though I am addicted to the reviews, I rarely obsess over events or thoughts as I might have done in the past as they fit into the broader perspective.

Moving through the world

I have just spent some time in the city where my office is based.

We lived here for most of last year and I posted a blog on 8 February 2012 about how when I return to a place it becomes familiar as if I had never been away, while other places fade - until I visit those once more.

It struck me on this visit that this is no longer the case.

In my daily reviews of the images pinned to my mental calendar I check in on most of the places and people I have visited over the past 18 months (depending which days of the week I cover).

This gives me a sense of them continuing without me, of friends and family getting on with their lives.

When we made a weekend trip to visit friends, they had been in my thoughts virtually every day since we had last met as they appeared in different memory tags.

It makes the obvious clearer: although my viewpoint is always where I stand, I am a traveller moving through the world.

Where I stopped

Sometimes I wake up and have to get up.

I don't have time for my morning review of past days.

And so I try to fit in the review during free mental time I might have.

Today is Saturday, so I review all Friday and Saturday tags. The last time I will have reviewed Saturday tags, will have been last Sunday, that is six days ago.

If I have to break off this process, I now find it quite easy to pick up where I left off.

There is a difference between a tag already recalled once today and one recalled six days ago.


At the moment this is not a concern, because I haven't lost any tags.

But it may be telling me something about how memories fade as the time between reviews lengthens.