Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning: the process of calculating one’s position, especially at sea, by estimating the direction and distance travelled since leaving the last known point.

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It’s a nautical term but I find that it helps me on my own personal journey. I think of dead reckoning this way: I can only know where I am by remembering how I got here.

I’ve been inspired by ancient Polynesian wayfinders. They were long ago traversing inconceivable expanses of open water by paying close attention to the abundant signs of nature around them.

“There were no logs, notebooks, or charts, no speedometers, watches, or compasses. Every bit of data - wind currents, speed, direction, distance, time - acquired over the course of a deep sea voyage, including the sequence of its acquisition, had to be stored within the memory of one person, the navigator.”

These navigators, or wayfinders, were using dead reckoning.

I realize that I have my own dead reckoning tools. One of my favorites is a Time Map. It’s a calendar, yes, but it’s a big YEAR-LONG calendar. Our family has been making these for years. It remains a remarkable organization tool for us but what I Iove about it is this:

Every day I see the entire year. I can see exactly where I start and, as I make my way through a year, precisely where I’ve been. I can see what popped up, unforeseen, and shifted my course. I can see clearly how I spend my time and who I spend it with, what I prioritize and what I cancel. My patterns emerge. I can see, right there on my wall, how all of those things add up to Right Here Right Now. In this way, it feels like a map to me - showing the route that I took. And looking back helps me look forward.

A Time Map is a crucial tool for navigating my life.

Try it. Create one. USE it. Make it just for you or make it a household collaboration.

I’m having a very small batch of screen printed 2027 Time Maps made here in Bali, delivered this summer. If you’d like to one, you can find them here.

All quotes are from The Wayfinders, by explorer and anthropologist, Wade Davis.