WHY YOU SHOULD USE A TIMELINE SHEET
A Timeline is a mind map, scratch pad and memory nudge all in one! It’s a declaration of your life, something to share (or not), to remind people you were here, or just to go down memory lane. Don’t expect to remember everything at once and don’t get discouraged if it takes longer than you expect. It’s a journey.
So, why should you use a Timeline to capture these memories?
You can write directly on the paper.
- Sometimes just writing things down, pen to paper, jogs the memory.
- You can jot down things to search for later, and highlight points you want to expand on when you have more time.
- Your thoughts don’t have to be neat–it’s a work-in-progress!
- I love the chaotic appearance because it captures when my thoughts were darting along and memories were popping out.
You can see at a glance if you’ve captured a memory for each year.
- You may only have a few minutes to work on the timeline at a time.
- When you head back to your sheet to continue, you’ll note which years may be empty.
It brings your life into focus in an organized way.
- You can use the timeline sheet by starting at birth and going forward year by year, or you can skip around, focusing on memorable events.
- You may notice that events flow from one year to another.
- It’s easy to keep your newly remembered information in one place.
You can use the timeline to plot out the story of your life.
- Once you’ve filled the timeline sheets out as much as you can, you’ll know what your life story looks like.
- Use these years to add more events. You don’t have to limit each year to just one event! High school graduation year for me combined, a ballet recital, graduation and my first ever job!
- You choose what events to include and what to leave out.
I use colored pencils to highlight particular events on my sheets. School and education of any kind are blue; romance, love, and marriage are red; births, family, and friends are green; vacations and entertainment are yellow. It allows me to see the flow of my life in color!
Use the back of the sheets if you need more space, or if you have memories running through your head while writing, hop on to your computer to write faster! Don’t lose those thoughts!
Don’t forget-it’s your choice what you include, but seeing your life in front of you in this way, where you can cross things out and new add things in, is a lot of fun.