This doesn't sound right at all. For me, and I suspect for most people, it has the opposite effect. It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane. Looking back to 2014, I can't believe how quickly the past 10 years has gone. Heck just looking back 4 years, the pandemic years seems to have flown by. It's like a distant memory now.

> but for me the perception of the shortness of life is best fought by reminding yourself that it is not short

So it isn't journaling at all. You are just rationalizing.

Life is precious because it is short and fleeting. And it's why people keep a journal. To keep track of precious time. It's also why parents keep a scrapbook of their kids. Because in a blink of an eye, the kids grow up and leave the nest.

If you truly thought life wasn't short, you wouldn't keep a journal. You'd just live and not keep track of time.

I read somewhere else that time speeds up when we repeat a few boring/not-so-stressful things each day.

> reviewing old entries provides a feeling of history that makes life feel soooo long and so rich

I want to agree with it. The more I take on and do, however imperfectly and which involves a bit more stress, it starts to slow down time. At least in the sense that you look back at the previous year and think "wow that was a lot and it seems like so long ago" when it actually wasn't that long ago.

> It makes life feel short, fleeting and mundane

In fact, the key might be to journal more of the mundane things. Like how many times I had to get on a call with the background verification company to speed up my move to the new company.

and from OP article,

> Surprising information comes in droves every single day, so the brain simply paid a lot of attention

how come all the new/surprising info from shorts/reels/tiktok not have a effect of slowing down time haha?

So does it feel distant or just like yesterday (i.e. time flew by)? The two seem contradictory.

I'm confused, does it feel recent or very long ago? This seems to contradict your previous sentence. If 10 years has gone past quickly, how could the pandemic feel like a distant memory? In that case it should feel like yesterday

Life is short whether you waste it on nonsense or not. It's the nature of human life.

> Even eternity wouldn't be long enough for the compulsive procrasturbator.

Sure. But eternity isn't enough for the most accomplished either. There is a reason why the emperor of china

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-year-old-text...

and steve jobs

https://archive.nytimes.com/well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/2...

both wanted to prolong their lives. I don't think anyone would characterize the emperor of china nor steve jobs as 'procrasturbators'.

You make it sound like active people ( who don't waste their time ) feel that life is long when it's precisely the opposite. It's those who don't waste their time who want to live longer because they have so much more to do.

Then again, 'wasting time' is a concern for many precisely because life is short.

If I died today, I'd do so happy that I checked off the most important things on my list. I gain nothing by adding another 100 things to the list just so I can say that life is too short. It's long enough for what I want to do; anything more is a bonus.

Is it possible you are projecting your own insecurities, given that you are commenting on HN during work hours on a weekday, of all things?

Here's another viewpoint. Life is not precious at all because it is short and fleeting. Muslim here. We believe only the parts of this life which pertain to afterlife are precious, as afterlife is eternal instead of temporary. This life is merely an end to a means. It doesn't need to be a goal in and of itself because there's another life after it.

My point is that if I believed in a religion [and a specific interpretation of God's written word] that said I could get to heaven with 72 Houri by committing murder then [actual] life would not be precious at all.

Please note, I'm not suggesting YOUR beliefs or interpretation of the text, but it cannot be debated that a sizable amount [in nominal terms] believe this.

These days are enjoyable because I like my work and love my family, but I don't get further than "went to work, afterwards cooked <some meal> and played <some game> with <one of my kids>, in the evening <watched some movie / read some book>"...

What are you journaling on a daily basis?

It took time to realize that was worth writing down.

Honestly I look back 10 years and see things like you describe. "I went to the gym for an hour, worked on this or that, blah blah", and I really love seeing that too. That's life man. Those memories fill your brain up with experiences and a sense of time if you let it. Just remembering how fit I used to be makes me happy and makes me want to do that again.

“Had a headache. Went to bed early” seeing how often my grandpa was sick was very eye opening to me.

“Got the X repaired/replaced. Cost me $Y and it took Z days to finish”

“I sat and just visited with $Child. What a good kid. He’s just a teen. He told me about his friends and school”

Etc. I don’t know. I guess reading a normal life makes me feel better. Growing up I thought they were perfect. Seeing they were people just like me with very similar struggles is actually fun.

I haven’t taken the time to go though these diaries after he passed, but I did take a peek since I never really knew what he wrote.

The little I saw was so surprisingly mundane, like you describe.

I can’t quote it now, being thousands of miles away, but I remember something about my mom making a tasty soup.

I found it endearing but also forgiving, since I’ve struggled with journaling myself. Your post reminded me now that it’s okay to note the mundane.

I usually suffer from the same. Some periods I do bother bulleting, as reminders for thoughts to expand on later in the day. But I never do, and then only the bullets remain - as a kind of headstone for unwritten thoughts. Still, they are better than nothing.

- “I could have handled X better by doing Y.”

- “Seeing A made me curious about B; maybe look into that.”

- “I really tried at K, but oof didn’t work out; let’s try L tomorrow!”

- “I did really good at P, Q, and R today — I’ll get a treat tomorrow and start on S.”

Mostly just internal monologue kinds of things, but there’s three benefits I’ve noticed:

- I don’t think about frustrations as much if I write them down.

- I am better at self-compassion when I externalize the monologue.

- I slowly adjust my monologue to reflect how I word it in writing, eg how I choose to frame things or what kinds of things I notice.

This makes sense to me because a) content-wise I consider learning / making sense of what I experience in my life to be both intellectually and emotionally interesting and b) text-length-wise 6 bullets force you to really boil things down to the core

It’s different from my JIRA work log or Todoist list of completed tasks in that these are not everything I did, but just the important items. The things where I ran the risk of getting stuck

Come appraisal process, I’ll have forgotten most things I worked on in the year. My imposter syndrome creeps in, but this Notion page keeps me sane!

With this proof in hand, I’ve started journaling. I use the Apple Journal app. And it’s doing a good job of prompting me!

For me, I never get around to revisiting old entries regularly. How do you motivate yourself to do so?

Right now, I'm really curious to see why I took a trip 10 years ago to my hometown - all I see in my journal is my packing list, so someday the journal entry for that trip will pop up.

That helps too.

[1] https://daylio.net/

I don't disagree. But I think the flavor of the richness depends on the quality of the days. It is my experience that decades can also be built from days that ought not be preserved.

Or at least not without strong curation and editorial treatments.

I suppose I had too much time to dwell, not enough external pressure to keep my shit together. I have kids now too, but the end result is that I rarely journal anymore - there's always something else I need or want to do, and then suddenly I'm dead tired; rinse, repeat.

The changes still took years but having effort pay off was a new thing.

As for the topic itself. The obvious reason time passes faster when we're older to me is that each day is less of my life. At 1 week old a day is 1/7th of my entire existence. At 60 one day would be 1/22000th of my life.

I also feel it in terms of time left. When you have $1000 in your wallet, splurging on a $50 meal might seem fine. When you've got $75 in your wallet you're unlikely to blow $50 of it on a meal (unless you've got a supply elsewhere). In the same way, when I've have got 20yrs left in my life, some of them probably not in the best of health, then committing 10 of them to move to a foreign country to immerse myself in a new language feels very different than when I've got 60 years left (20yrs old). Seeing your life left clock go down 1/60th (1yr at 20yrs old) feels slower than seeing it go down 1/20th (1yr at 60yrs old). that's 3x faster.

I'm not quite as old you but close, and I already feel what you're feeling about the time left. That there isn't a lot of it, or that it will be gone quickly. Everyone has things they will not get a chance to try or experience. No lifetime offers everything, and every path taken means many, many others will be never explored.

Like money, you can't take memories with you. So try not to dwell on things you didn't do or that didn't work out the way you imagined. Half or more of people who get married end up divorced. Probably many more are less than happy. Kids can be a joy but they can also be a heartache. Every criminal is somebody's kid. Nothing comes with any guarantees.

Make life interesting today, as today is the only thing you really experience.

If I may provide a suggestion... search for a serious website that is about dating (not tinder or something the like) in your area and connect to people and try to date (meet in person for at least an hour or so) at least one person once a week. Don't spend too much effort in people who just want to stick to online conversations or fooling around, just move on. If at the meetup there's no click, you have a good evening or at least you built up experience in dating.

You will need to get probably seriously out of your comfort zone but it becomes easier each time! Practice makes perfect!

But that said, there’s alot of philosophy and other things to help. Aeschylus said “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” Another relevant quote is that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best is today.

You won’t get what you wanted, but live in the present and enjoy what you can have. I’d give anything to get my wife back, but that’s not reality. The next best thing to live today and find joy.

Could you elaborate on that? As someone who is younger I have noticed that many (but by no means all) people over 60 often do not want to commit to these kind of 'life-changing' escapades, despite now having the time (kids out of the house and/or retired). I assumed it was more around lack of (youthful) energy/health and the fact that you're so used to how you've lived for decades that change is far more difficult or feels more daunting.

You're saying that having a relatively shorter amount of 'time left' makes such a move different, wouldn't that fact make it easier? (YOLO and so on...)

Moving to a foreign country with an unfamiliar culture and language, and establishing a new life there, is a chore. Probably even more so if you don't have a spouse or something who's familiar there:

Learn the language, the culture, establish or reestablish your daily habits, find new friends and ways to socialise, perhaps new hobbies if the old ones aren't available. Find out where and what to shop and how to cook, when the stuff you know is gone. Turn your house into a comfortable home, etc.

If you're older you might not feel that you'll get to see much of the payoff.

I also imagine it gets harder to find people who are open to new friendships, as you get older.

If it helps: https://www.7cups.com/

I'm truly sorry about all the bad memories. I do know what that is like, many what-ifs. If you're receptive to any thoughts: Mourn them, but try not to waste the present being angry about the past, or you'll regret missing out on this time too. Give yourself another shot, try again. There will be a time where you don't get any more chances, but it's not yet. I know post-70 year olds that have cycled up mountains in France. One that just stopped being a climber after two replaced hips. I'm sorry about the kids. Maybe travel and meeting someone is still an option. Take care.

I started journaling back in 2012 (or 1999 depending on whether you count a Pokemon notebook that I barely wrote in!). I used to handwrite my journal entries. I refused to type them because they didn't feel personal enough.

How foolish of me that was.

I discovered Daylio while looking for a mood journal back in 2021. It's easily one of the best apps I've ever purchased. I've journaled daily since getting it, and it (with therapy) helped me understand and better control my introversion and mood swings.

I eventually moved all of those entries over to Day One two months ago. Day One is even better. You can add recordings! From your Apple Watch! And everything syncs nicely via iCloud! No more talking into the ether!

What are example initial values of $days and $years in "args".

Memento mori

I'm sorry you've received negative comments in reply, it is weird that people feel the need to be so negative to someone trying to help. I just sometimes have a hard time understanding their mindset.

I'm at the point where everything is a dumb terminal again.