17 ms·

Show HN: Life calendar – use the concept of Memento mori to embrace every week

116 points by chestercodes 5y ago

stbtrax 5y ago
The thought of not having anything significant to remember a week by, and then thinking about how finite those are seems to depress me more than inspire.
- edf13 5y ago
  Same here... the whole idea of this depresses me! I couldn't bring myself to fill in the form to create the calendar1
- OJFord 5y ago
  I feel the same way, and also about those apps people use to record a short clip or take a photograph every day. But I gather they are relatively popular, so what do I know!
  - busymom0 5y ago
    Those short clip apps seem like an Instagram profile which has been converted into a video.
  - escapedmoose 5y ago
    I've been using one of those "short clip everyday" apps for the last 6 years. The only noticeable effect it's had on my life is that I have mundane/everyday/real-life footage of people/pets who have passed away unexpectedly. So when family members are looking for a way to remember them, they tend to ask me if I can dig up any of my "one seconds." It's a bittersweet job, but I'm glad I'm able to provide some comfort that way.
jfk13 5y ago
If you're going to use terms like Memento Mori, please at least spell them correctly and consistently.
- chestercodes 5y ago
  Oops, that's embarrassing, cheers for pointing it out :)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
rvieira 5y ago
This may work wonders for others, but it would be terrible for me. This would make me think (obsess) about running out of time and on toiling to make a "legacy". I like the exact opposite, _not_ thinking about mortality or legacy. This gives me the freedom to just enjoy every week and try to do things that make me happy.
- quaffapint 5y ago
  You're not wrong. I get more stressed when I can't just think and live in the moment. Not that we should ignore the big picture, but life is the moment to moment. Trying to live like all we do is what people post on social media would just lead to a downward spiral.
machinerychorus 5y ago
I made an Android live wallpaper with a similar premise: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.machinerychorus.lifeprogresswallpaper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.machineryc...
dhimes 5y ago
This is interesting. I once calculated the approximate number of weeks I had left to live and wrote it on my whiteboard, estimating my lifespan from family history and trends (+ 4 years/generation for my family's men). I subtracted 1 every Monday. My wife thought it was pretty morbid. I never thought to deliberately punctuate each week, though. It was motivating at first, but wore off.
ziggus 5y ago
I really like this idea, and have thought about doing something similar - glad somebody did it! However, why on earth do I have to sign in?
sebastianconcpt 5y ago
This is really good!
4gotunameagain 5y ago
Being asked to sign in after spending time to customise anything, should be illegal.
- toyg 5y ago
  Only if you lose such customizations; otherwise I actually think it's a Good Thing that I get to play without handing out an email address (or worse).
dddddaviddddd 5y ago
Great idea, but why the need to sign in!?
danielskogly 5y ago
The Kurzgezagt shop also has some nice "Calendar of your life" posters[0] based on the "What Are You Doing With Your Life? The Tail End" animation they did last year, which is again based on the Wait But Why article "Your Life in Weeks"[2]. [0] https://shop-eu.kurzgesagt.org/collections/existential-dread/products/lifespan-calendar-poster https://shop-eu.kurzgesagt.org/collections/existential-dread... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeJANDKwDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeJANDKwDc [2] https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html
- gurkendoktor 5y ago
  Thanks, I didn't know kurzgesagt had them on their shop as well. I've ordered mine from the waitbutwhy shop after reading the blog post, which was pretty silly for a piece of paper to be sent to Germany. Oh well. Then I got stuck filling it out: Is week #1 (the square in the top left corner) the first calendar week of my birth year? Or is it the first week of my life? The latter makes more sense, but then it gets really tedious to translate timestamps for university graduation etc. (OP takes the birthday into account and offers month markers. Good idea.) The life calendar is now posted next to my desk, still empty half a year later. Once/if I get to filling it out, I should mark this long period of time where I have it but don't use it. Time flies.
yessirwhatever 5y ago
I read a quote today that I think is relevant: > “Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.” - William Martin The idea that one needs to do something memorable every week sounds like a recipe for disaster, burnout at a young age or depression. So no thank you, I'll take my ordinary life which is full of ups and downs. Sidenote: The fact that a sign up is needed to download a PDF makes me think that you're using this as a way to farm for user data and makes me distrust your intention.
- z5h 5y ago
  Thank you for this comment! I'd like to add another detail, which is that people generally accept the idea that "deathbed perspective" is a highly privileged perspective, but with no real justification for this position. Here's a good article that questions this idea: https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-considered-so-valuable https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-consi...
  - wnolens 5y ago
    I always thought it was kind of silly to live your life so that for 1 day at the end of 80 years, you have some pleasant thoughts (assuming you are know you will die and aren't absolutely in miserable pain anyway). I get that it's more a heuristic for living a good life. But life is so uncertain and your goals subject to change significantly every 5-10 years.
    - BeetleB 5y ago
      You don't need to wait till you're at your deathbed. You can do this assessment every 5-10 years. When you're past 40, you've lived quite a bit. You can look back and see what was worth it and what wasn't. For me, stuff I regretted wasting time on while younger (e.g. too many video games) bring back much better memories than doing things I (mistakenly) thought had more value. Quitting gaming in my early 20's was, in retrospect, not a great idea. But yeah, I agree with you somewhat. A lot of people who live to a fairly old age actually have said that if you live long enough, you'll realize that "nothing matters". So probably not best to put too much weight on their perspective.
probably_wrong 5y ago
> What have you done in the last week that you will remember on your death bed? I will probably be murdered in my sleep by the person in charge of maintaining the code I'm writing right now. So, that. But more to the point: I write code, I like writing code, and I have embraced the fact that writing code makes me happy. At the risk of sounding like the comic book guy in the Simpsons movie, I will probably look back and say "I regret nothing". I never regretted the weekend nights I spent exploring the Web with my 56k modem, and I don't think I'll start now.
tmarice 5y ago
Love the concept, not so much the execution. The "Login after customizing everything" and "Pay to remove the watermark which renders the calendar useless" are borderline dark patterns. But on the positive, it gave me an idea to make my own version of this calendar, sans the money grab.
- jehb 5y ago
  The watermark literally just fell off of the document when I opened it in Inkscape. Everything else (except the watermark) rendered there, so it was completely clean just by opening. (Sorry, OP.)
  - mrleinad 5y ago
    It can be removed using Acrobat too, so...
- trevormcneal 5y ago
  - What you did that week ? - I tried to scam some people on the internet with some cheap pdf
- iakov 5y ago
  If you get to do it - let HN know. I like the idea but despise the dark patterns that author employed in his work.
- m_a_g 5y ago
  Totally agree. Dark patterns making it to the front page always baffles me.
- foobiekr 5y ago
  I’ve been meaning to work on one that I can incrementally add to over time both historically and present day. I would really like to have one That has labels external to the life calendar itself poking into it like a giant cactus. I don’t want to create want to go, I figure it’ll take me a full year to actually populate the thing with the events that I either recapture by residing old photos, journal entries or otherwise talking to my wife. What can I say, I’m old and remembering important events isn’t going to happen all at once.
trevormcneal 5y ago
Just to download a pdf... The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes: To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service. To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user. For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service. To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application's push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation. To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information. To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us. For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred. For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.
- chestercodes 5y ago
  Cheers for the feedback :) I used a free privacy policy generator, which in retrospect was a mistake as it is much broader than my intentions. If anyone is worried, no data will leave the identity provider service.
  - leetrout 5y ago
    Yea, but why do you even need an email if everything is running locally?
alpineidyll3 5y ago
Screw deathbeds. I'm just a guy looking for his ice floe..
Brajeshwar 5y ago
If you are into this, have a look at Timestripe[1]. It is done pretty nicely and well executed. I almost went into it but I didn't want to get stuck, and gave up on the tool but I do like the idea. 1. https://timestripe.com https://timestripe.com
hnthrowaway0315 5y ago
Approaching the age of 40, I have to admit that I'll probably live a very boring and forgettable life. I guess I'll guide my son to find some passion early in his life, so that even though his life might as well be a boring one, he himself may have the luxury of regarding it as a slightly more interesting one.
dukeofdoom 5y ago
I know some youtube channels are basically "a week in my life" concepts. Seems to me trying to make a good video about your week, would motivate you to have an interesting week. Making the video would the reflective part. Seems to me it would work better than a calendar.
bertr4nd 5y ago
This isn’t exactly the same as a deathbed experience, but about two years ago I had a devastating lumbar disc hernia that landed me in the ER with such pain that I couldn’t stand, or even roll over. I remember thinking that my biggest regret was that I had prioritized my job over my health. I’d stopped exercising and was overeating because my work was in a bad place and I was trying to scrape together every moment to make progress, and I’m sure that had a deleterious effect on my spine health. I resolved that going forward I would prioritize my health (and my family) over my job. I succeeded at maintaining those priorities for a while, and luckily my back healed relatively well. But I’ll admit that job stress ramped back up, and as I felt physically better it was all to easy to shift back into the same old patterns.
druadh 5y ago
I love the idea and the simplicity, but that's all out the window as soon as I'm asked to log in. Remove the login requirement and you'll likely see more use! Good luck
sAbakumoff 5y ago
>> What have you done in the last week that you will remember on your death bed? Why would I need to remember ANYTHING on my death bed? It's not even clear that it will be a "bed". Climate change, nuclear war, next pandemic, political violence could kill me. Even if I am happy enough to have a "bed", I will spend my last minutes watching the transition and not giving a sht to my memories.
phtrivier 5y ago
That's nice. May I suggest you make it clear from the front page that the design costs 10$ ?
vanka 5y ago
I did once a similar project, but for Mac only. The project was not successful at all, maybe I didn't market it properly, but it seems people don't know how to use it (it needs a lot of determination from a user). Now I'm thinking of pivoting this thing, maybe someone want to collaborate? The siteL https://motley.place https://motley.place, sorry but the intro video is in Russian.
davchana 5y ago
Around 2014 I came across this article of Wait But Why, https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html Which lists the same things, same concept, but instead of a pdf, it gives you a jog of same grid. I personally used an excel sheet with first column listing my age in years, like 0,1,2, all the way till 90. First row has months spanning across four columns, so B1:B5 will be Jan, & so on till Dec. Last column has year in YY format, so it starts from 84,85,86 etc for total 90 years. First row & first column, i.e. headers are fixed view. Each of the actual cells are all light grey border, with month bounry (every 4th column) a bit darker grey. The overall boundary, 12x4= 48 columns and 90 rows have thick black border. All columns have vertical center text, and left aligned. All cells, columns, rows have exact same width height, not headers. Each of the month is roughly divided between 4 parts, 1 to 7, 8 to 14, 15 to 21, & 21+. First entry simply says Born. On my birthday. Then school classes, they all start in April first week. First, Second etc. Then college. Some personal events, like birth of my siblings. Every time something major happens (like relocation), I change the background of those cells to another pastel color. Text left aligned, so overflow flows over to next columns. Someday I will make a blog post at davinder.net & will attach a blank all setup excel sheet, for no money :)
groby_b 5y ago
Slowly approaching the point of being... well, let's call it "mature" ;) ... I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective. When you're young, constantly focusing on your deathbed is frankly a waste of time. Focus on your friends. Focus on having experiences that make great stories to share with your friends. Enjoy life. Don't worry, as you age, you'll certainly focus on mortality. But I'm firmly convinced that having a full, joyous life always trumps striving for doing things you'll recall on your deathbed. Once I get there, if I feel loved, that will be enough.
gurjeet 5y ago
The OP is paid (else watermarked). I had made a crude version of this for myself some time ago [1]. It's available for free and is somewhat customizable The preview on the right seems to be blank, but if you click on the 'Download' link, it generates the PDF correctly/as intended. To get a sheet where you get to cross off everything on your own, just use 0 as the age in the input box. [1]: http://q.ht/life-in-weeks-on-one-sheet/ http://q.ht/life-in-weeks-on-one-sheet/
phgn 5y ago
I created my own calendar like this 2 days ago. You can mark all kinds of significant events you remember and see how they fit into your life so far. It's incredible how much things change over a few years time. Tip: If you're from the EU, A4 paper pages with 0.5cm lines perfectly fit 52 weeks x 36 years. No printer needed.
pegyong 5y ago
Reading that kind of opening statement makes me more become aware of what I do in my life.
textcortex 5y ago
Well done! Stoics will love it :)
mrthrtrk 5y ago
Memento mori is not about creating spectacular moments that you will remember in your death bed. It's about being in the present moment and always doing your best as if it's the last thing you might be doing (knowing that your best changes day to day... see The Four Agreements from Don Miguel Ruiz, the fourth agreement). Stoicism is not about creating a memory, it's about living in the present moment.
distalx 5y ago
A couple of alternatives that don't require you to log-in. - https://memento-mori-calendar.vercel.app/ https://memento-mori-calendar.vercel.app/ - https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/ https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/ - https://www.ekn.io/calendar/ https://www.ekn.io/calendar/
jd24 5y ago
Saving you a click: the site requires you to submit your email address.
bloqs 5y ago
Might be useful for some readers. I originally saw the life calendar concept in Tim Urbans excellent TED talk about procrastination a few years back. I couldnt find one on his site so I simply used the ASCII square character on Word and printed out a box for every week from birth until I am 85. I decided I wanted the weeks bigger so I deleted the already passed weeks, and changed the end date to proposed retirement at 65. It's not fun. I've lost the file but easy enough The talk https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU
andretti1977 5y ago
Nice idea, but to be honest i had many issues with that: 1) need to register to get the pdf...i did it but i consider it really too much for such service so i used a throwaway email account 2) i couldn't download it using chrome (is it me only? i can download files from everywhere) 3) on Safari i downloaded the pdf but it was blank except for the quote written on the footer of the page

116 points by chestercodes 5y ago

The thought of not having anything significant to remember a week by, and then thinking about how finite those are seems to depress me more than inspire.

edf13 5y ago
Same here... the whole idea of this depresses me! I couldn't bring myself to fill in the form to create the calendar1
OJFord 5y ago
I feel the same way, and also about those apps people use to record a short clip or take a photograph every day. But I gather they are relatively popular, so what do I know!
- busymom0 5y ago
  Those short clip apps seem like an Instagram profile which has been converted into a video.
- escapedmoose 5y ago
  I've been using one of those "short clip everyday" apps for the last 6 years. The only noticeable effect it's had on my life is that I have mundane/everyday/real-life footage of people/pets who have passed away unexpectedly. So when family members are looking for a way to remember them, they tend to ask me if I can dig up any of my "one seconds." It's a bittersweet job, but I'm glad I'm able to provide some comfort that way.

jfk13 5y ago

If you're going to use terms like Memento Mori, please at least spell them correctly and consistently.

chestercodes 5y ago
Oops, that's embarrassing, cheers for pointing it out :)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

rvieira 5y ago

This may work wonders for others, but it would be terrible for me. This would make me think (obsess) about running out of time and on toiling to make a "legacy". I like the exact opposite, _not_ thinking about mortality or legacy. This gives me the freedom to just enjoy every week and try to do things that make me happy.

quaffapint 5y ago
You're not wrong. I get more stressed when I can't just think and live in the moment. Not that we should ignore the big picture, but life is the moment to moment. Trying to live like all we do is what people post on social media would just lead to a downward spiral.

machinerychorus 5y ago

I made an Android live wallpaper with a similar premise: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.machinerychorus.lifeprogresswallpaper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.machineryc...

dhimes 5y ago

This is interesting. I once calculated the approximate number of weeks I had left to live and wrote it on my whiteboard, estimating my lifespan from family history and trends (+ 4 years/generation for my family's men). I subtracted 1 every Monday. My wife thought it was pretty morbid. I never thought to deliberately punctuate each week, though. It was motivating at first, but wore off.

ziggus 5y ago

I really like this idea, and have thought about doing something similar - glad somebody did it! However, why on earth do I have to sign in?

sebastianconcpt 5y ago

This is really good!

4gotunameagain 5y ago

Being asked to sign in after spending time to customise anything, should be illegal.

toyg 5y ago
Only if you lose such customizations; otherwise I actually think it's a Good Thing that I get to play without handing out an email address (or worse).

dddddaviddddd 5y ago

Great idea, but why the need to sign in!?

danielskogly 5y ago

The Kurzgezagt shop also has some nice "Calendar of your life" posters[0] based on the "What Are You Doing With Your Life? The Tail End" animation they did last year, which is again based on the Wait But Why article "Your Life in Weeks"[2]. [0] https://shop-eu.kurzgesagt.org/collections/existential-dread/products/lifespan-calendar-poster https://shop-eu.kurzgesagt.org/collections/existential-dread... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeJANDKwDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeJANDKwDc [2] https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html

gurkendoktor 5y ago
Thanks, I didn't know kurzgesagt had them on their shop as well. I've ordered mine from the waitbutwhy shop after reading the blog post, which was pretty silly for a piece of paper to be sent to Germany. Oh well. Then I got stuck filling it out: Is week #1 (the square in the top left corner) the first calendar week of my birth year? Or is it the first week of my life? The latter makes more sense, but then it gets really tedious to translate timestamps for university graduation etc. (OP takes the birthday into account and offers month markers. Good idea.) The life calendar is now posted next to my desk, still empty half a year later. Once/if I get to filling it out, I should mark this long period of time where I have it but don't use it. Time flies.

yessirwhatever 5y ago

I read a quote today that I think is relevant: > “Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.” - William Martin The idea that one needs to do something memorable every week sounds like a recipe for disaster, burnout at a young age or depression. So no thank you, I'll take my ordinary life which is full of ups and downs. Sidenote: The fact that a sign up is needed to download a PDF makes me think that you're using this as a way to farm for user data and makes me distrust your intention.

z5h 5y ago
Thank you for this comment! I'd like to add another detail, which is that people generally accept the idea that "deathbed perspective" is a highly privileged perspective, but with no real justification for this position. Here's a good article that questions this idea: https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-considered-so-valuable https://aeon.co/essays/why-is-the-deathbed-perspective-consi...
- wnolens 5y ago
  I always thought it was kind of silly to live your life so that for 1 day at the end of 80 years, you have some pleasant thoughts (assuming you are know you will die and aren't absolutely in miserable pain anyway). I get that it's more a heuristic for living a good life. But life is so uncertain and your goals subject to change significantly every 5-10 years.
  - BeetleB 5y ago
    You don't need to wait till you're at your deathbed. You can do this assessment every 5-10 years. When you're past 40, you've lived quite a bit. You can look back and see what was worth it and what wasn't. For me, stuff I regretted wasting time on while younger (e.g. too many video games) bring back much better memories than doing things I (mistakenly) thought had more value. Quitting gaming in my early 20's was, in retrospect, not a great idea. But yeah, I agree with you somewhat. A lot of people who live to a fairly old age actually have said that if you live long enough, you'll realize that "nothing matters". So probably not best to put too much weight on their perspective.

probably_wrong 5y ago

> What have you done in the last week that you will remember on your death bed? I will probably be murdered in my sleep by the person in charge of maintaining the code I'm writing right now. So, that. But more to the point: I write code, I like writing code, and I have embraced the fact that writing code makes me happy. At the risk of sounding like the comic book guy in the Simpsons movie, I will probably look back and say "I regret nothing". I never regretted the weekend nights I spent exploring the Web with my 56k modem, and I don't think I'll start now.

tmarice 5y ago

Love the concept, not so much the execution. The "Login after customizing everything" and "Pay to remove the watermark which renders the calendar useless" are borderline dark patterns. But on the positive, it gave me an idea to make my own version of this calendar, sans the money grab.

jehb 5y ago
The watermark literally just fell off of the document when I opened it in Inkscape. Everything else (except the watermark) rendered there, so it was completely clean just by opening. (Sorry, OP.)
- mrleinad 5y ago
  It can be removed using Acrobat too, so...
trevormcneal 5y ago
- What you did that week ? - I tried to scam some people on the internet with some cheap pdf
iakov 5y ago
If you get to do it - let HN know. I like the idea but despise the dark patterns that author employed in his work.
m_a_g 5y ago
Totally agree. Dark patterns making it to the front page always baffles me.
foobiekr 5y ago
I’ve been meaning to work on one that I can incrementally add to over time both historically and present day. I would really like to have one That has labels external to the life calendar itself poking into it like a giant cactus. I don’t want to create want to go, I figure it’ll take me a full year to actually populate the thing with the events that I either recapture by residing old photos, journal entries or otherwise talking to my wife. What can I say, I’m old and remembering important events isn’t going to happen all at once.

trevormcneal 5y ago

Just to download a pdf... The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes: To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service. To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user. For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service. To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application's push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation. To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information. To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us. For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred. For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

chestercodes 5y ago
Cheers for the feedback :) I used a free privacy policy generator, which in retrospect was a mistake as it is much broader than my intentions. If anyone is worried, no data will leave the identity provider service.
- leetrout 5y ago
  Yea, but why do you even need an email if everything is running locally?

alpineidyll3 5y ago

Screw deathbeds. I'm just a guy looking for his ice floe..

Brajeshwar 5y ago

If you are into this, have a look at Timestripe[1]. It is done pretty nicely and well executed. I almost went into it but I didn't want to get stuck, and gave up on the tool but I do like the idea. 1. https://timestripe.com https://timestripe.com

hnthrowaway0315 5y ago

Approaching the age of 40, I have to admit that I'll probably live a very boring and forgettable life. I guess I'll guide my son to find some passion early in his life, so that even though his life might as well be a boring one, he himself may have the luxury of regarding it as a slightly more interesting one.

dukeofdoom 5y ago

I know some youtube channels are basically "a week in my life" concepts. Seems to me trying to make a good video about your week, would motivate you to have an interesting week. Making the video would the reflective part. Seems to me it would work better than a calendar.

bertr4nd 5y ago

This isn’t exactly the same as a deathbed experience, but about two years ago I had a devastating lumbar disc hernia that landed me in the ER with such pain that I couldn’t stand, or even roll over. I remember thinking that my biggest regret was that I had prioritized my job over my health. I’d stopped exercising and was overeating because my work was in a bad place and I was trying to scrape together every moment to make progress, and I’m sure that had a deleterious effect on my spine health. I resolved that going forward I would prioritize my health (and my family) over my job. I succeeded at maintaining those priorities for a while, and luckily my back healed relatively well. But I’ll admit that job stress ramped back up, and as I felt physically better it was all to easy to shift back into the same old patterns.

druadh 5y ago

I love the idea and the simplicity, but that's all out the window as soon as I'm asked to log in. Remove the login requirement and you'll likely see more use! Good luck

sAbakumoff 5y ago

>> What have you done in the last week that you will remember on your death bed? Why would I need to remember ANYTHING on my death bed? It's not even clear that it will be a "bed". Climate change, nuclear war, next pandemic, political violence could kill me. Even if I am happy enough to have a "bed", I will spend my last minutes watching the transition and not giving a sht to my memories.

phtrivier 5y ago

That's nice. May I suggest you make it clear from the front page that the design costs 10$ ?

vanka 5y ago

I did once a similar project, but for Mac only. The project was not successful at all, maybe I didn't market it properly, but it seems people don't know how to use it (it needs a lot of determination from a user). Now I'm thinking of pivoting this thing, maybe someone want to collaborate? The siteL https://motley.place https://motley.place, sorry but the intro video is in Russian.

davchana 5y ago

Around 2014 I came across this article of Wait But Why, https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html Which lists the same things, same concept, but instead of a pdf, it gives you a jog of same grid. I personally used an excel sheet with first column listing my age in years, like 0,1,2, all the way till 90. First row has months spanning across four columns, so B1:B5 will be Jan, & so on till Dec. Last column has year in YY format, so it starts from 84,85,86 etc for total 90 years. First row & first column, i.e. headers are fixed view. Each of the actual cells are all light grey border, with month bounry (every 4th column) a bit darker grey. The overall boundary, 12x4= 48 columns and 90 rows have thick black border. All columns have vertical center text, and left aligned. All cells, columns, rows have exact same width height, not headers. Each of the month is roughly divided between 4 parts, 1 to 7, 8 to 14, 15 to 21, & 21+. First entry simply says Born. On my birthday. Then school classes, they all start in April first week. First, Second etc. Then college. Some personal events, like birth of my siblings. Every time something major happens (like relocation), I change the background of those cells to another pastel color. Text left aligned, so overflow flows over to next columns. Someday I will make a blog post at davinder.net & will attach a blank all setup excel sheet, for no money :)

groby_b 5y ago

Slowly approaching the point of being... well, let's call it "mature" ;) ... I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective. When you're young, constantly focusing on your deathbed is frankly a waste of time. Focus on your friends. Focus on having experiences that make great stories to share with your friends. Enjoy life. Don't worry, as you age, you'll certainly focus on mortality. But I'm firmly convinced that having a full, joyous life always trumps striving for doing things you'll recall on your deathbed. Once I get there, if I feel loved, that will be enough.

gurjeet 5y ago

The OP is paid (else watermarked). I had made a crude version of this for myself some time ago [1]. It's available for free and is somewhat customizable The preview on the right seems to be blank, but if you click on the 'Download' link, it generates the PDF correctly/as intended. To get a sheet where you get to cross off everything on your own, just use 0 as the age in the input box. [1]: http://q.ht/life-in-weeks-on-one-sheet/ http://q.ht/life-in-weeks-on-one-sheet/

phgn 5y ago

I created my own calendar like this 2 days ago. You can mark all kinds of significant events you remember and see how they fit into your life so far. It's incredible how much things change over a few years time. Tip: If you're from the EU, A4 paper pages with 0.5cm lines perfectly fit 52 weeks x 36 years. No printer needed.

pegyong 5y ago

Reading that kind of opening statement makes me more become aware of what I do in my life.

textcortex 5y ago

Well done! Stoics will love it :)

mrthrtrk 5y ago

Memento mori is not about creating spectacular moments that you will remember in your death bed. It's about being in the present moment and always doing your best as if it's the last thing you might be doing (knowing that your best changes day to day... see The Four Agreements from Don Miguel Ruiz, the fourth agreement). Stoicism is not about creating a memory, it's about living in the present moment.

distalx 5y ago

A couple of alternatives that don't require you to log-in. - https://memento-mori-calendar.vercel.app/ https://memento-mori-calendar.vercel.app/ - https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/ https://www.bryanbraun.com/your-life/ - https://www.ekn.io/calendar/ https://www.ekn.io/calendar/

jd24 5y ago

Saving you a click: the site requires you to submit your email address.

bloqs 5y ago

Might be useful for some readers. I originally saw the life calendar concept in Tim Urbans excellent TED talk about procrastination a few years back. I couldnt find one on his site so I simply used the ASCII square character on Word and printed out a box for every week from birth until I am 85. I decided I wanted the weeks bigger so I deleted the already passed weeks, and changed the end date to proposed retirement at 65. It's not fun. I've lost the file but easy enough The talk https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU https://youtu.be/arj7oStGLkU

andretti1977 5y ago

Nice idea, but to be honest i had many issues with that: 1) need to register to get the pdf...i did it but i consider it really too much for such service so i used a throwaway email account 2) i couldn't download it using chrome (is it me only? i can download files from everywhere) 3) on Safari i downloaded the pdf but it was blank except for the quote written on the footer of the page