Lots of different 'maps' in my head....

[LNY1986]

Having an interesting conversation at work this morning.....

I asked people what their time 'maps' looked like? As in how they 'see' the months of the year, the days of the week etc, in their own heads? My 'map' of the year is like a big anti clockwise daisy chain loop, and each month within that large chain as its own mini chain, I can see clearly where we are today, Sept 28th, I am at the 9pm position heading down toward 6pm, which is New Year, where the chain starts again. The chain is blueish white in winter months, and golden coloured in the summer, presumable due to the seasons.
I can also shrink this year right down so it becomes part of an even larger loop, which symbolises this century. It starts at the bottom left in 2000, and finishes up at the top right with 2100.
When I think of myself in 2050 I can see clearly where this is, strangely though this bigger century chain goes in the opposite direction (clockwise!)

I have similar chain for days of the week.

These maps have been with me forever, I cannot ever remember NOT thinking like this, even as a tiny child.

I have ALWAYS just assumed everybody thinks like this.

Yet... EVERY single colleague (6 of us) all laughed at me and thought I was totally nuts!! And they all said they just look at a calendar and they don't need to 'see' where they are in time? Omg, I was blown away, Like, how do people 'see' where they are haha?!! And where they are going in the future?

And now I am sat back at home and suddenly now feel like I am either really weird and freakish, or super intelligent?

My question is this, am I alone in having time space maps in my head, or does anyone else completely get me?

(2 of my colleagues I know are avid MN users, so they will no doubt recognise this as me if they read this haha!!!)

No it isn't just you.
My 'map' of the year is based on a big circle, going clockwise. So January is at the top, Sept at the bottom. I've no idea why I've got more months on the right side than the left. It's just the picture I've built in my head.
One thing I do remember is a big display in my school hall when I was at infant school which had something similar. I think that inspired it.

My week view is horizontal, and continues horizontal indefinitely, so no loop. I see Friday as being further to the right of the line. If I get to Friday then anything later is further along the line, as Friday was.

It's strange isn't it, but sort of cool at the same time.

My year is a rectangle. Summer across the top, winter across the bottom. I can see each month in the rectangle and place events, birthdays etc on the rectangle. It is clockwise. We're currently around 1/3 of the way down the right hand side. Autumn goes down, spring goes up. And I'm sort of stood on the rectangle facing the direction of travel.

I don't have it like the OP but I do see dates days and months in colours, and years to a certain extent although I tend to associate years with music more often than colour - but music often comes with a colour anyway.

I have my own ways of visualising days, weeks, months, years, decades and centuries. But the examples posted by @natura on the previous page are making me feel frustrated, because they’re wrong! They’re nothing like mine look like, so they’re making me feel confused 😂

For anyone who sees months or years in relation to seasons, I’d love to know what would happen if you moved to Australia.

@LNY1986 what a wonderful thread and I’ve found my people!

I see the year as a disc on an incline and move through it anti-clockwise, but the winter months rather than having colours, occupy the lower place so I’m looking up at spring and summer.

The days of the week are more like a bar chart with the weekend days standing taller than the working week, so I can easily relate them.

I ‘see’ decades as squares and centuries as columns. And I can move the decade-squares when I need to hunker down into more detail for the century.

When I was a child I used to use maths in the same way for addition - adding squares or chunks of numbers together.

Totally fascinating topic this! Love it!

Ha! We must write in to the book author and make sure the publishers add in yours to the next edition!

When you said map, I thought you meant actual map as in my head which is why I opened the thread. My map has a floating compass and is in relief. I always know which way we are facing, and when in a new area to me I know exactly which road to follow to get to where we are going.
Drone footage is how I can best describe it, I can pop above the actual terrain and see it all.

for those posters who experience this I have a question. Does this automatically happen when you close your eyes or do you have to 'summon it'...I remain fascinated

This thread has me gobsmacked. I finally understand what my son has been trying to explain to me about words having colours, I just thought he was batshit 😁.

I don't have a "map" like that OP but I wish I did - it sounds wonderful! I'd actually love to see it all drown out. Gorgeous

Of course, you are wrong about starting the new year at 6 pm, not 12 but other than that you're not bonkers at all.

Oh @Ariela that truly is a super power - and one I wish I had!

I'm very impressed! I experience nothing like this, I often don't know what day of the week it is.

@Gatekeeper it doesn't need eyes closed, it's just kind of 'there', like literally in my minds eye. I'm thinking now about it being Monday - it's the bottom left of an oval with weekdays along the bottom stretching away from me, and the weekend sitting across the top (weekend days are bigger). No need to 'summon' it, it's just the natural way I think about days.

I never knew it was a 'thing', so I'm equally delighted by this thread!

Sounds amazing but i can’t even see a map in my head of where I’m headed in real time (thank goodness for sat nav!) let alone a map of time! I know the day I’m in and the time it is and if I don’t j look at my watch but I don’t see it in my head. Fascinating

I have Aphantasia so I'm always envious of anything anyone can 'see' in their minds

For me, days of the week are like a diary list, with Saturday and Sunday separated off from the rest of the days by a solid black line. Months of the year are boxes in a year planner, in different colours; for instance, January is silver and white, May is fuchsia pink, June is sky blue, August for some bizarre reason is bottle-green, November is slate grey. Years are hard to explain. I see years in my life as a pathway, but historical years are more like grids, decorated with different images, like crinolines for the 1870s and old style cars for the 1920s.

Just been linked to this thread by another one on aphantasia, and I'm so delighted to know there's a tribe of us! (DH really doesn't get it 😁)

I have synaesthesia - I've always 'seen' days of the week, letters, number, names etc in colour. I also have a time map in my head - like others have said, the year is a sort of oval shape and in different colours, with some months appearing a bit longer than others - mostly the summer months.
Longer time periods are more linear, like blocks stretching forward and back.

However there is a downside to this, which I'm wondering if anyone else experiences - seeing time like this as you're getting older (I'm mid fifties) means that you become really aware of where you are on it, and how you are closer to the end.

My year is round and anti-clockwise, but the months are not evenly spread, so my August (at 6' o'clock) is opposite my December (at 12'o'clock) and January is at half past eleven. We're current just coming up to 3 o'clock.

My years are in a sort of undulating ribbon, with different colours for each decade.

My days are more like a diary list going from top to bottom from 6am to 12am, but the hours between 12am to 6am are on a curve from this heading off to the right.

My weeks are also on an undulating ribbon, with different colours for each day.

If I try to change any of this - e.g. picture a clockwise year - it really, and I mean, really jams my head up and makes me panic.