5 ms·
One trick I learned to slow down time is to keep a journal and write both about the future (either as a narrative or plan a schedule) and about the past (either
by imranq 6y ago
One trick I learned to slow down time is to keep a journal and write both about the future (either as a narrative or plan a schedule) and about the past (either as a journal entry or an audit).
This could be about anything, any minute detail you encountered throughout the day or goal you are planning - the number of clouds outside or an application to graduate school you're thinking about or seeing someone interesting on the street.
Do this regularly, each day for 30 minutes, for 2-3 months and you will find that your memory improves by 10x and your days feel much more fulfilling and purpose driven.
The reason I think this works, is that by both explicitly planning and examining, your brain will create its own BS filter and guide you to things that are naturally fulfilling and worth your time.
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoTell us more. I went on and off with journaling for most of my life, but I wouldn't consider the effort successful. Just right now, and for the next two weeks, I am trying to journal every day, as a little experiment. Again, tell us more. Keen to hear.
- imranq 6y agoOf course. Just expanding on the idea behind journaling is that it is a scaffolding for your mind. For me, without journaling, my mind will wander and probably resemble a random walk. Instead, I found that by organizing my days into "packets" which have a forward-looking journaling session in the beginning and a backward-looking journaling session at the end was a tremendous boost to how structured my thinking is and how I spend my time. For me, each "packet" is 2-3 day period and each journaling session is about 30 minutes. So two journaling sessions is a 1 hour investment to get better results over 48 hours (~2%) doesn't seem too bad. More practically, I just keep two composition notebooks for these journals, and try to keep to a zettelkasten style[1] in Evernote. [1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NfdHG6oHBJ8Qxc26s/the-zettelkasten-method-1 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NfdHG6oHBJ8Qxc26s/the-zettel...
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoThanks a lot for the extra details!
- cthonicthulu 6y agoAgreed with child sibling comment, I would love to hear more. I used to journal so much more in college, whereas nowadays I do not. It seemed like life just got so busy all of a sudden and it fell to the wayside.