How do you think of the year?

[pinklillie]

Is this just me but how do you think of and visualise a year?

I just had a discussion with MIL, FIL and DH and they have all looked at me like I am a bit daft! They don't visualise anything.

I think of the seasons in blocks and then they sort of form a circle round from January to December.

Anyone else?

Nope just words.
They may invoke memories if I allow them, like a walk with my.daighter on Halloween night, but there's no images that come to mind that are intrinsically linked when months or weeks are mentioned.

Same as objects and people I suppose.
If someone said my mum's got an apple, for example, I wouldn't see my mum or an apple in my mind.

It's a new one on me that people link images and such to items and weeks and months etc.

I'm not sure I understand it. 🤣

Also I separate my year out into "terms" like when you're at school, so from now until end of feb is for one set of goals and aims, and then from Feb/March to Easter is another, and then the "summer term" before "summer holidays" and then a final big push from September to Christmas

So just me personally, September 3rd I’d automatically see autumn colours and rich navy shades, feel a bit chilly, see grey skies, street lights are on.

April 9th is bright, sunny, still a bit cool, clear skies. Very green/yellow colours.

Hard to explain but with dates my brain just pings a picture of the general season and what I might be wearing / doing / seeing.

I'm so pleased with the replies to this as I thought surely it's not just me. I can visualise some of the ones mentioned now too. I wonder if that will change the way I visualise my year!!

I had to check the date on this thread. There was the exact same thread last year!

I find it fascinating how people visualize it differently.
I think of the year as a ruler, with 12 sections on it, starting with Jan, and a red line showing the current date. Maybe the seasons shaded in a different colour. (And if I'm thinking of work, the financial quarter-ends marked on it too).

If I suddenly start seeing that complex 3d wheel diagram for my year, I’m suing 🤣

That sounds marvellous.

I see nearly nothing, I hear a constant stream of chatter from distinct voices, but any images are very very dim, even if I close my eyes.

See now I’m really intrigued!

I wonder if the people who see diagrams, shapes, rulers etc are all more analytical lateral thinkers and the ones with colours and seasons and sensory things are more the day dreaming sort?

And the ones who see nothing have evolved all of us and have no need for such pathetically mortal things? 🤣

I didn't realise it had been asked before. I wonder if it's the time of year bringing it to the forefront.

I also have month end in mine too but I didn't want to mention it i case I really was being daft as like I mentioned there were just blank faces!

Im fascinated!

Can I ask what your recall memory is like? Or forward planning? How do you remember things or log things that are coming up, do you just KNOW without any help!?

My memory is awful.
If you've ever seen Columbo, my life is like his raincoat. Little notes and reminders and doodles.

So, if I have a GP appointment I'll note it down in my nice notepad with my nice penicl and that lives in my handbag and a reminder is set in my phone.

If I try to recall my life to this point, I can, but instead of being in the memory it's like it's projected onto a dark wall at night whilst a narrator tells me what happened.

I'm not sure that makes sense or answers what you asked.

"Can I ask what your recall memory is like? Or forward planning? How do you remember things or log things that are coming up, do you just KNOW without any help!?"

I've been fascinated by this since a threads few weeks ago where someone described their brain as like a set of shelves and they could access thoughts through visually locating them.

I don't have anything like this at all and I feel quite defective!
If I had to visualise my brain it would be like a soup that I had to fish around in to access my thoughts.

Im terrible at remembering dates, terrible short term working memory and very easily distracted

January starts at top left and the months (I see the words themselves written in my mind’s eye) run to the right in a straight, horizontal line until April. From May it starts to curve slowly down through the summer and autumn months right down to December. Then I jump back up to January at top left again. I don’t see colours as such but the months have a certain aura about them - from the cold, lifeless months of January to March, through the brightness of spring and the warmth of summer, then the golden glow of autumn down into dark December.

I see the big block numbers of 2022. Probably in black against a fairly neutral background. That’s what a. Year looks like for me.

I think each year has its own font and colour.

Until reading threads like this, I had no idea people visualize the year differently to the way I do. I just assumed everyone saw it my way!
I must ask family/friends how they visualize it.

I dont see anything at all, well none of the weird and wonderful shapes described here. If I need to remember sn important date, my brain marks it as "important" and I tend to just remember. Having said that, I still write appointments etc doen on my calendar/ in my phone as a reminder.

If you said to me 7th June or something my brain would flag that date and the imagery I usually get in my head is of blue skies, sunshine and green leaves on trees etc but that's more due to memories of being 36 and living through 36 June 7ths in my life span

I work in a school so it's split into 6 equal parts - well not that equal but I'm not over complicating things. And every 2 parts there's a thick line

Sometime I think I of it like a clock were September is 1 August is 12

A vertical list with the months in a black/dark grey colour and a white backdrop. Same with the days of the week too

@bubuzzswole now this I can clearly see - if someone says something I see a big endless wire track with files on (like the door track in monsters Inc) and a file with anything even vaguely related to the subject with pop up and open with things I could say about it. Usually I then tell my brain to hush as it's not the time.

For example if someone is talking about going to see their nan for a cup of tea, a file will pop up offering an image of my nans living room with her chair in and sentences like "I used to make a flask of tea for my nan to last the day so she didn't have to get up; do you know the reason for putting milk in first? China cup affordability; I like blue milk but I drink green and sometimes red and oat sometimes but not soya and sometimes coconut; I like tea..." followed by images of a blue and white tea set (don't know why); a London bus; the sky with clouds in (again don't know why) and so on... Then I see it all going back in the file and whizzing off when I don't use any of it.

So there you go I guess.

ooohhh love this
jan -march i see as dark and depressing.. i avoid all outdoor contact as much as possible.
April-June i get a new lease of life , become more sociable, start my gardening and becoming more house proud . post photos of myself drinking tea in the early morning sun. July -september the heat has started to get abit to much (looking at you 2022) the gardens dried out and its to hot to clean the house . dont even get me started on the fucking wasps . Autumn probably my favourite so much fun about to happen even though my kids are now 10 & 12 and don't love the magic anymore.

I see it as a calendar, rows of 3. December is top left and January is bottom right and I count right to left going up.

Never actually thought about it before now. Very interesting how everyone sees it differently.

I see it as a circle. If it was a clock, December is at 9, March at 12, June at 3, September at 6.
Each season is differently coloured.
I have a memory of a big picture of a year set out like that on the wall of a classroom, I think reception year. I think I've got it from there.

I see it like this;

January
February
March
April

May
June
July
August

September
October
November
December

No idea why I section off the months this way but it’s how I’ve always visualised them. It’s interesting to know I’m not the only one who does it!

I see it as a road stretching in front of me, sloping slightly uphill with slight bends where the seasons change.

I'm with @AnonWeeMouse I don't visualise it at all
If you asked me to try really hard to visualise a month, it would just be JANUARY written like that. I don't associate colours or sounds or images with it, it's literally a word that means a month and nothing else

But I don't visualise characters in books or anything either