How I visualize the months of the year
This is going to be a strange post.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve visualized the months of the year as being physical objects (like pages from a monthly calendar) arranged in a specific fashion.
This is how every year looks in my mind:
When I think of “now” in a month-to-month sense, I visualize myself as standing on the appropriate month on that layout. If I think about another month, I visualize myself looking at the other month’s placeholder. So when I look at September from April, I’m standing on April, facing South.
I don’t know how this started. It changed a bit, over time. It used to transition from down to left after September instead of after August, but it eventually blended into this form. Note that on midnight on January 1st, I don’t visualize myself jumping across the gap (nor do I jump between any other months). I just warp there.
I’m unusually conscious of this physical layout when I’m playing Tetris. When I say things like “I can’t believe it’s June already!” I’m actually thinking “I can’t believe we’re headed down already!”
The sections (January to April, May to August, September to December) roughly match Florida three seasons (which are Summer, Fall, Still Fall But I Guess We Can Call It Spring). I was home schooled for K-11, and I didn’t get summers off, so that doesn’t explain the direction change for summer. Sometimes when I count out months, I tap out this pattern.
Anyone else have anything that they visualize in a non-traditional manner?
Do you think you have synesthesia in general?
That’s weird, but cool. Always good to run into a fellow homeschooled-er (K-12 for me)! And better if that person is a WordPress core dev–two awesome things at once! That calendar thing though…that is weird. I am usually good at remembering strings of numbers (like phone numbers) if I try, and I do it by figuring out “random” ways they are related to each other (by their even/oddness or some other mathematical relationship). But it doesn’t usually involve visualization, and definitely not in the same way.
[...] out Mark’s blog while I’m 95% of the way there?” methinks. Latest post is titled How I visualize the months of the year and I click through to see the comment by Austin Matzko (aka filosofo) (these are all guys who [...]
Oh yeah, and filosofo, your interesting synesthesia link was the catalyst for a long blog-rant that kept me up much later than intended. Thanks for that
Wow, this is the first time I’ve heard of someone else visualizing the months as “oddly” as I do! I’ve polled friends and family for years and all of them nearly universally say they just see the months laid out flat, like a yearly calendar.
My calendar can best be described as a running track, like you’d find at any typical high school. The track is 3-D, looking down on it from maybe 45 deg. above. January is at the 3 o’clock position and then the months progress counter-clockwise (just like a running track) linearly in a complete oval, until the year starts over. The year is indeed “oval” for me, with summer and winter being the longer “sides” and spring/fall being the shorter.
I also have a weird visualization of numbers…
filosofo, no — but thanks for the link! I knew about synesthesia with regard to numbers, but I didn’t know that it also included calendar associations.
And holy crap, I found someone whose mental calendar almost exactly matches mine. I’m seriously freaked out by this. What is really strange is that my calendar used to be exactly like hers, with September in the lower-right slot. And she’s right about January and December seeming closer than they should be. And it does that without and warping or shortening of the summer months. It’s almost like a mirage… it looks one way when I stare at January and December, but changes when I look at it as a whole.
Howdy, month-imagining-twin!
I don’t think I imagine my calendar in that way, but I remember when I was a kid and freaked out when I realized my name was spelled out by the first letters of July-November. I use some spatial relationships for single digit numbers when I’m counting in my head sometimes.
That is so funny! I have also done this my whole life. But my vision looks more like … well, a monopoly board with the months in a circle around an empty center. And I view it kind of from a tilted angle.
Actually, I do much the same thing, and more to boot. Prepare to enter the Twilight Zone…
For me the year looks like an oval on its side, with December at the top, and the months going clockwise with March at the far right, June at the bottom, and September at the far left. The center is hollow. I don’t know why it looks like this.
Going further, the days of the week are weird too: blocks stacked five high, similar to your calendar only vertical, with Monday at the bottom and Friday at the top. At Friday make a sharp left turn and you have Saturday, and below that Sunday, then go right and back to Monday. And the *really* weird part is that Saturday and Sunday are each the same size as the other days of the week, but that can’t be possible since going left from Friday to Saturday then down to Sunday then right again should take you back to Thursday, not Monday… agh…
And even THAT is not the REALLY weird thing. I think of ALL NUMBERS in a bizarrely visual way, with similar block structures for different sections of numbers, i.e. 1..10 goes straight up, then right for 11 and 12, then up 13..100, then turn left for 101-200, then up again for 201..1000, then right to 10,000, etc etc etc. It’s like a really weird long maze that makes no sense. Frankly I think that’s why I struggled with math in school, because I have to map numbers to this visual matrix that makes no sense and does nothing to help me solve the problem but instead just gets in the way.
I’ve never known anybody else who thinks in this fashion, so its interesting to see that somebody else does the same kind of thing. I’m definitely a visual learner, and I’d be willing to bet you have a strong visual learning aspect as well.
This is fascinating! My attention was grabbed by the diagram of the calendar. Mine is not the same, but I do visualise the year’s months laid out always in the same way, and not exactly straight. Mine are linear, and each month occupies a square with its name written on it, but the ‘track’ begins with January about two thirds up on the left of my mental image and goes down to December near to the middle on the right. The track does a half twist in the middle to achieve this. The month’s names are written on the squares sideways, but I read them straight. Also, whichever month I am in, I’m standing by its left bottom corner looking towards the right, and that month is bigger than the others, the rest fading off right and left like a wide angle lens. When I’m in January I’m at the top of the track looking down its length, but in December, January is off to my right, heading off back the way I came. However, when I get into January, I’m back at the top of the track on the left again. I’ve always thought that was a tad weird.
Same here, Mark. I’m listening the audiobook of Musicophilia. The author discusses synesthesia, and like you, I thought it referred only to seeing musical notes or numbers as colors, or having smells and tastes. Had no idea there was “spatial” and “conceptual” synesthesia. I see the 12 months in a similar shape, but August, Sept, Oct, and Nov extend further down, and part of November and all of December occupy the bottom. Strange, eh?
I went to public school and hated summer: long and boring! The summer months on my “chart” are elongated in my mind, and the rest of the year accelerates.
That’s remarkable! I see the year in a similar way, only in a sort of C-shape, and with the months of the year circling around to the left instead of the right.
I also see personalities in letters (”A” is a jolly, cheerleader type, while “B” is withdrawn and shy, etc.), but that’s just probably my vivid imagination.
I have always seen the months as monthy calendars from the left to the right. January is directly below December of the previous year. The calendars are standard calendars with each week starting with Sunday.
The reason I came across this page is that I have always wondered how others visualize the number system. The whole scheme is rathe complex but it is primarily in ranks of numbers for each decade but the first two decades (1-19) are different. I have never tried to write it all down so I’m finding it hard to know how to do it succinctly. One thing about the numbers is that they are related to the history with the numbers below 1 are seen as years in the 19th century (again in decades). The earlier centuries are in parallel with each other with historic events popping up as I know about them.
Strangely, when I think about the 1500s and eariler I am suddenly transported across the Atlantic to Europe. The centuries below what I could call the Dark Ages then migrate down to the Italian area ending at 0. Then the numbers continue to migrate to the middle east as the details become more obscure but definitely related to my knowledge of history.
Much more could be said about the 1-99 number scheme and also about how the thousand, millions, trillions… work. Enough for now.
Wow. Way cool. My year is more of a doughnut, with June (my birthday month) the fattest and the middle of December to the middle of January as the skinniest. It’s hard to explain, actually. It’s kind of like a mobius strip, but without the twist. (Does that make any sense?)
exellent way of looking at the year ahead
Mine is a D shape but is not in a level plane. The months Jan through Mar are the bottom of the D as it goes counterclockwise around. However, this is down hill. When it gets to August, the D has a sharper curve to it (why?). Then Nov and December are the straight portions of the D.
I have been wondering for years about this! I see the months strung out in a big loop with a hole in the middle. The months take up different amounts of space and there are angles in the loop. It shifts depending on where I am in the year and what months I’m thinking about. July and August take up a much longer strip than the other months, and March April May are kinda jammed together.
I’ve thought more about how I see numbers. One to ten march in a regular row ahead of me, 11 to 20 go in the same direction but are compressed; there’s a ninety degree right turn at 20, then a 90 degree left turn at 30, 70 degree right turn at 40, and then at 50 I have to make a leap in perspective to see to 100. I don’t have a clear picture of 50, 60, 70. I’ve found that doing multiplication where the answer is in the 50 to 70 range hard to remember. I wonder if I have trouble with the math because I can’t “see” those numbers very well, or can I not see them because I didn’t spend time on it way back when? (skipped a grade).
You were homeschooled? What program did you use?
A hodgepodge of systems, Cassi.
This is how I think of the months of the year. It’s clearly the creation of my mind mind as a child after going to school. I also think of the months as approximately the colors shown:
http://www.godrex.com/img/garysmonths.jpg
This is such a fascinating thread that I keep coming back to it… I even wrote up my own post on synesthesia from this one a few months back.
@KMW — this is very similar to my issue with numbers. This does definitely make math a pain in the ass.
Wow! Great to finally stumble upon a discussion on the topic!
I also have very developed (and never-changing) visual yearly and weekly calendars, as well as spatial representations for numbers and specifically numbers relating to age.
Any info on what the proper name for this is? Does it really fall under the category of spatial synesthezia?
Best wishes,
s.
I see the calendar almost exactly the way Jim Michael does: like an oval track, except that for me, January is at 11 o’clock, and the months go counterclockwise from there, with December at 12 o’clock. It was only a few years ago that I learned this was a form of synesthesia, and that not everyone “sees” the calendar this way! My mother has synesthesia as well, she associates days of the week with colors.
In my family, we’ve talked about this for years, and my daughter decided to do a science fair project on it. She wanted to see if gender or left/right handedness affects the way people see the days and months. It never even occured to either of us that most people don’t “see” them at all! I see them in 3-d, with Dec close to me and Jan on moving in an oval away from me and counter-clockwise. Dec and May are big and the summer months are squished together. So interesting! I found some info on synesthesia and found that associating days, months, and numbers with places in space is called spacial-sequencing synesthesia. Weird, my dad and siblings have it, too, but not my mom. I think it must be genetic. My daughter sees them on a 3-dimensional sphere that turns to show the current day or month. Wow!
Wow, I was just discussing this with my Dad last weekend! I have visualized the calender as long as I can remember, mine is a circle. I see it with the months arranged similarly as numbers on a clock, with January in the 6 position and June around the 1 or 2 position. January-August are between the 6 and 11 positions and September-December are between the 11 and 6, all this going counter clockwise. Whatever month it is my viewpoint is from slightly above that month, with the previous month to my left and next month to my right.
Days of the week are plain old boring squares with Monday starting the week at left and Saturday and Sunday ending on the right. Also Saturday and Sunday are of course bigger. Not very inventive.
I am going to start poling people about this!
Okay — I am intrigued. I’ve described my “visual calendar” to my now ex-husband and he thought it was the weirdest thing ever. I am so glad I’m not alone!!!! (nice feeling).
My calendar is eliptical. I can see the entire year in one three dimensional view, and I view it from the side, like a donut on it’s side, so the current month is up close to me and the rest of the months recede in the background in the eliptical shape, with the exact opposite month at the distance (ie: today is April 27th. April is in the forefront, March to the left and back, May to the right and back. Then the furthest away is September). The elipse rotates as the months click by and the current month is a larger size than the others (the furthest month is smallest receding in the background). I wish there was a way to send you a jpeg of mine. It’s pretty specific. The background is dark and the months tend to be colorful, but nothing specific — I don’t think in greyscale…always color.
This subject is really interesting, i’m fascinated by this since a few years. It was since 10 years that I’m aware of how I visualize a year, or actually 2 years in 1 eliptical shape. I’m 28 now and was searching for a subject to make a painting about. This looked a nice abstractive subject to me so I start doing research and read this topic.
In my mind I see a 3d eliptical shape constructed by spheres, both halves represent 1 year so have 12 spheres. The current month is the biggest spere and the rest is ahead of me. December is situated slightly left in the back and time moves counter clockwise. This year I’m on the top half elips and from december it starts going down again. I’m not flipping with my head down but I continue to see it upwards. There is also some colouring involved, probably with the seasons but I’m not sure about it.
When the painting is ready I will try to post it here!
Nice to know that more people have this! Are there any studies available??
Thanks for the tips and byby
Twan
Jim Michael, mine is exactly like yours… a track shape or oval that’s somewhat three dimensional yet not perfectly proportionate. Also, it’s sort of standing on it’s end. The line between Dec. and Jan. is at the very top, July/August is at the bottom (not sure why it’s not balanced in that way). I usually see it from the perspective of whatever month it is.
I’ve been fascinated by this since I was a small child and have always asked others what shape their mental calendar was in. Oddly enough, this is the first time I’ve searched it out online. Seems like a lot of people share common shapes.
Dave W.
NJ/USA
wow! I’m not alone! I finally tried to figure out what I was doing – I visualize the days of the week in a spacial way, as well as numbers, the yearly calendar and centuries. In an odd way, but almost in a 3D way.
Does this have a name? Does it indicate anything about the way our brains work?