Do you wonder where last month went? Last year? The last six years? Me, too. My six-year-old is suddenly 12, tromping around in my shoes and borrowing my t-shirts. I want to stop time. Now.
Turns out there’s a way to trick your mind into believing the clock has slowed down. And, luckily, our brains aren’t hard to trick! 🧠 👉 ⏰
Off the Clock: Feel less busy while getting more done, by Laura Vanderkam (2018). I picked this book up after hearing Vanderkam on one of my favorite podcasts. Her research provides some great ideas for time management, but the chapter that really struck me was about how our brain catalogs time and our activities. “If there is nothing remarkable about the day, your brain won’t catalog it. In fact, all of those unremarkable routine-driven days get ‘telescoped’ into one day.” What?!!! That’s why a month can feel like a blur, she says–your brain is preserving its cognitive capacity.
Do something out of the ordinary every once in a while, Vanderkam suggests. Try to set experiences into your senses: Food, scents, music, photos are a good way to start.
And dwell in the past a little, too: Preserving memories requires returning to them again and again. I really liked her visual of treating memories like jewels–pulling each out of a treasure chest to “relish the feeling and beauty.” She recommends approaching some memories with a “forgiving mindset” and using self-empathy as a way to reconcile your feelings.
The Art of Making Memories: How to create and remember happy moments, by Meik Wiking (2019). In this lighthearted, illustrated, diary-sized book, Wiking (a legit happiness expert) provides a set of ideas for making memories. He suggests experiences with travel, adventure, and with emotional intensity.
He also examines our digital lives (this part is pretty scary). We’re all living with “digital amnesia,” he says. We collect thousands of photos, but we’re not organizing them or curating them, and we’re being crushed by this data (what a mess!). He suggests printing out the photos of the most meaningful moments so you don’t lose them–the photos or the memories.
💡 Digital Amnesia. Ugh! That’s why I bought a Bluetooth mini-printer to get some photos off of my phone. It’s a pretty neat device.
Here’s what else I’m doing to Stop Time. Maybe you can try these, too.
- Make the journey part of the experience. Learn to delay your experience and delay gratification. That could mean walking somewhere instead of driving, or savoring the process of cooking a special meal together instead of getting takeout.
- Collect objects that tell your stories. I hate the idea of having more things to clean, but I love the idea of displaying a special shell that I found on a memorable beach walk.
- Build your senses into your plans. Some of my strongest memories are associated with music, taste, and smell.
- Take time to remember. Visit actual places with happy memories. Or pull out a “jewel” and treasure the feelings you get. Remember to have self-empathy if you end up going somewhere dark.
- Do something that scares you. Step out your comfort zone and you will remember it!
