[personaldev] Live the Incompressible Life (now with research to back it up)
A year ago, I posted this:
I went on a walk this morning and found I could run through my entire trip (all 4 1/2 months of it), day by day, recalling the major highlights of what I did every day. I can say with confidence that I would not have had that ability nine months ago. Even though my job was interesting, Monday through Friday often slurred together into a big mush. I could probably have remembered the last couple of months of weekends, but that would be it. Routines make my top level of consciousness sleepy.
I've found that in general the human mind will compress experiences that are repetitive so as to store them in less space. Experiences that are not repetitive cannot be compressed as much. I value the presence of variety in my life, so I think it's a reasonable goal to live my life such that I can recall what I've done every day for the last couple of months.
Now there's psychological research supporting it. From the NYT article:
On another level, the research suggests that the brain has more control over its own perception of passing time than people may know. For example, many people have the defeated sense that it was just yesterday that they made last year’s resolutions; the year snapped shut, and they didn’t start writing that novel or attend even one Pilates class. But it is precisely because they didn’t act on their plan that the time seemed to have flown away.
By contrast, the new research suggests, focusing instead on goals or challenges that were in fact engaged during the year - whether or not they were labeled as “resolutions” - gives the brain the opportunity to fill out the past year with memories, and perceived time
I went on a walk this morning and found I could run through my entire trip (all 4 1/2 months of it), day by day, recalling the major highlights of what I did every day. I can say with confidence that I would not have had that ability nine months ago. Even though my job was interesting, Monday through Friday often slurred together into a big mush. I could probably have remembered the last couple of months of weekends, but that would be it. Routines make my top level of consciousness sleepy.
I've found that in general the human mind will compress experiences that are repetitive so as to store them in less space. Experiences that are not repetitive cannot be compressed as much. I value the presence of variety in my life, so I think it's a reasonable goal to live my life such that I can recall what I've done every day for the last couple of months.
Now there's psychological research supporting it. From the NYT article:
On another level, the research suggests that the brain has more control over its own perception of passing time than people may know. For example, many people have the defeated sense that it was just yesterday that they made last year’s resolutions; the year snapped shut, and they didn’t start writing that novel or attend even one Pilates class. But it is precisely because they didn’t act on their plan that the time seemed to have flown away.
By contrast, the new research suggests, focusing instead on goals or challenges that were in fact engaged during the year - whether or not they were labeled as “resolutions” - gives the brain the opportunity to fill out the past year with memories, and perceived time