The Timeline of Forgetting Article by Max Balzer.

Written by Max Balzer 30/09/2025.

Somewhere between eight and 12 months ago (I think), I saw an infographic that made a tremendous impact on me — but I can’t remember where I saw it and can’t, for the life of me, find it anywhere online.

It was called something like ‘The Cycle of Forgetting’ or ‘The Timeline of Forgetting,’ and it comprised largely of a graph with times since an incident occurred on the x-axis and points along a line with a consistent negative trajectory that corresponded to the extent of the incident that one remembers in the time since it occurred.

It displayed the psychological trajectory of embarrassment, regret, and the inability to forget about a mistake, slip-up, or conflict that occurs after it happens. After you say something you shouldn’t have, find out something that upsets you, or accidentally post something on your main story instead of your private story. 

It said something like this: for the first five minutes after the incident occurred, you won’t be able to think about anything else. After that time, you’ll begin to forget about the complicated minor circumstances of the incident, and you’ll remember just the big stuff. 15 minutes after the incident, you’ll be able to forget about it, even for just a split second at a time. 30 minutes after the incident, you will have gotten distracted from it, but you’ll come back to it, and leave it again. An hour later, you’ll remember it again, but be able to forget how it felt in the moment, and so on.

The actual numbers themselves, which I quite poorly explained, were not nearly as impactful as the concept of a consistent, reliable trajectory that feelings in the aftermath of a mistake, slip-up, or conflict take. These incidents happen all day, every day, and they aren’t usually major or transformational. But when they are, I’ve been able to find peace in knowing that it will only take five minutes for me to stop replaying it in my head. 15 minutes to be able to forget about it, even just briefly. 30 minutes to forget how it felt in the moment. An hour to start to see it as a minimal thing. And the most surprising thing for me is that it has been the same thing, every time.