30 Days of Remembering - 10 Years On

This one is about 20 days late - I mean, it’s not really late because I’m working to my own timetable and I’m sure no one is waiting for these to be posted. But, it’s taken me a while to get to this. Mostly that’s because I’ve had a lot of drawing work and my brain is tired.

Remembering was based on two TED Talks - the main one was Joshua Foer Feats of memory anyone can do, this gave me the techniques and ideas. The second was David Kahneman The riddle of experience vs memory, which helped inform the importance of this activity.

How this has evolved

Like the fourth quarter review at the end of My Year of TED, I again regret losing focus on these skills - and on the general idea of remembering. In the last couple of years, I’ve found that I’m remembering less. I know that vagueness can be the result of my perimenopause, it’s also something that tends to happen around my depression. I think it’s more than that though, as there is a lot of my everyday life that has become samey (yeah I know it’s not a word).

This means that there isn’t enough difference or significant moments in my day to day to readily create memories from. Which means I have to be more intentional about it. And, when I’m using my bullet journal properly I do that by sitting at the end of the day and capturing some of the more memorable components of it. Interestingly, my bullet journal is also a means of outsourcing my memory, which is essential to do. So, it adds to the issue and also gives me a means of creating intentional memory.

This feels a little like talking round in circles, so I will stop here and commit to trying to improve my focus so I can become a more intentional rememberer again. It is a useful skill to maintain after all.