Be A Human Calendar (With This Brain Exercise) with Scott Flansburg

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I'm your coach, Jim Kwik.

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Show me. Welcome back, Kwik Brains. I have a question for you. Do you know what day of the week your birthday falls on this year? How about your anniversary? Or maybe Christmas? It's so interesting how we're so reliant to our— on our smart devices and that it keeps our calendar and it does simple math for us and it keeps all our phone numbers. And so our brains aren't getting the exercise that it needs and it's getting mentally fatigued, it's getting a little weak. And so how do you keep your brain active? And this is one of the subjects that we're gonna talk about in this episode. And I'm really proud to introduce you to a client I'm here with a close friend of mine, Scott Flansburg here. He's the human calculator. Also, what we're going to talk about here, the human calendar. We've been friends for nearly a decade now.

9 years.

Wow. There's a power in 9, right? It's a good number. We're going to talk about that. Scott has keynoted at our events for years now. We happen to have both spoken in front of about 7,500 students or so.

9,400 combined with parents and teachers.

That's remarkable. We're here at this event and we wanted to take a quick break. to record this episode for you to talk about how anyone can be a human calendar.

So what's the secret here, Scott?

It's fascinating that we live with this calendar that nobody knows what day of the week any date falls on. And really, there's no way to go about it unless you just look it up on your phone. And so a long time ago, I discovered there's a pattern in the calendars where you can actually calculate what day of the week any date is on. So you can tell me your birthday, Jim, share your birthday with the audience, and I'll tell you what day of the week you were born on.

It's July 29th.

What year?

1973.

You were born on a Sunday?

Yes.

Okay, so you can tell me any date like that and I can just calculate what day of the week that it was on. I discovered I could do that back in 1988. And for many years when I do performances, after the show I'll do people's birthdays and it really connects with them on a personal level. So it's sort of, you know, it's a lot of fun. And, but it made me always ask that question, why are we using a calendar that you have to go through this huge algorithm to figure out what day of the week a date is on? So it inspired me to come up with a better calendar. But between then, I had to figure out how to deal with this. So what I did was I came up with a simple pattern that allows you to figure out what day of the week any date is on each year. So I'm gonna give you each value for each month of the year, and I need you to memorize them.

Okay.

So everybody listening, you guys are already memory experts probably, but each month has a numerical value that will help you figure out what day of the week any date of the year falls on. So here's the values. For the months, and just write them down or memorize them if you're good. Here we go. So January is going to be a 6. February is a 2. March is a 2. April is a 5. May is a 0. June is a 3. July is 5. August is 1. September is 4. October is 6. November is 2.

2.

And December is 4. That's all you need to know so that you can now figure out what day of the week any date is on in the year 2017. Here's what you need to do. Let's start with July 1st, all right? July 1st, the value I gave you for July, Jim, is?

July is 5.

5, okay, great. So all you do is add that plus the number of the day. So what's a 5 plus 1 is 6. So you get a total of 6. That means July 1st is on the 6th day of the week, which in my world is a Saturday. I start 0 is Sunday.

Okay.

1 is Monday, 2 is Tuesday, 3 is Wednesday, 4 is Thursday, 5 is Friday, 6 is Saturday. 0 is Sunday, okay? So let's do another date. Let's do July 4th, just so we can see what happens in a couple days, all right? July is a 5, and we're adding 4 for the 4th, so 5 plus 4 is 9. So here's what you gotta do. Divide your answer by 7.

And then the remainder is 2.

Right, because what you're doing by dividing by 7 is taking out the weeks. All right, so 9 divided by 7 is 1 with a remainder of 2. So that means it's the 2nd day of the week, or Tuesday. So if you want to know what July 25th is, you punch in 25 plus 5 in your brain, you get 30. You got to divide that by 7. So 7, 14, 21, 28. You get rid of all that, you got 2 left over, you're on Tuesday again. So let's try Christmas, like you asked in the intro. December has a value of 4, I think, right? So 25 plus 4 is?

29.

29 divided by 7 is?

4.

Remainder?

1.

1. So that means it's on a Monday. So Christmas is on a Monday. It's that easy to do. So let's do a couple random dates. Let's do September 25th. September is a 4, so— oh, that worked out the same again. Sorry, go ahead. So 4 and 25 is 29, and divided by 7 is 4, remainder 1. So let's try Halloween, October 31st. What day is Halloween this year? So October is 6. So what's 31 plus 6?

37.

So 37 divided by 7 is 5, remainder 2, which means Halloween is on a Tuesday this year.

Wow.

So all you do is plug it in. Isn't it crazy? It's so simple. And I challenge you, if you can actually look at those numbers in front of you for the months, right, instead of just trying to memorize them from your head, because it takes a second to retrieve for a lot of people. If you're looking at those values and you say, okay, December 25th, I bet you the average person listening to your podcast right now should be able to add those 2 numbers together and divide it by 7 because it only goes up to 7, 14, 21, 28.

Right.

Figure out your remainder and know what day of the week it is faster than you can open up your iPhone and pull up your calendar and get to that date on the calendar.

And it's also a great mental exercise, right?

That's the best part about it for me is that I feel like these phones in our pockets are crutches now, not only with calculators because I'm the human calculator, Right. But also the calendar. I can do all these things in my head, so I do it all the time naturally before I even think about reaching for my phone. So I take that for granted. But you're right, it seems like it's become socially accepted, not only in America but around the world, to sort of shut off this part of the brain and go into atrophy a little bit, when it's really the best exercise and opportunity that we have all day, every day, to exercise these muscles in our brains.

And that's one of the things I know our Kwik Brain community really loves, is to keep mentally fit? Just like you work out your physical muscles and you move and you walk and you jog and you lift weights, you know, when are people actually applying that in everyday life?

Well, here's the difference. Everything you just listed, most of that stuff is being an athlete. I'm talking about being a mathlete, mental athletes. Using your brain with your memory and mental math and calendars in everyday life is enough to stimulate your brain to keep those energies going, you know, instead of not doing it for a couple weeks or a couple months and you're like, Oh, what was that day? It's impossible.

And I think a lot of people feel like that as they grow older and they're more reliant on technology. And there's these terms coming out like digital dementia and things like, you know, people relying on their maps on their phone telling them when to take a left and a right and when to turn and everything. And they're not noticing when they would have lapses, mental lapses, and they're not going to the doctor and getting checked out.

And the calendar is the driving force of society. The calendar is basically a contract. That we've all signed to agree that this is the day and this is the time, so we all don't have these miscommunications. So the calendar is the foundation of society, and that we don't know what day of the week any date is on without looking at our smartphone or a calendar is scary. But that's where we're at, so we gotta go with it.

And the great thing about this, I mean, it takes a little bit of work, but that's just like exercise, right? It takes effort, but you get the results from it, and it can be fun too.

Well, it's fun and it really woke me up to the idea of why do we keep track of time the way that we do. And that's why I invented my new calendar, the Human Calculator Calendar, which is a 13-month calendar and every month has 28 days. 28 days is 4 weeks, 4 times 7. So every month, all the numbers would be the same day of the week every month. The first would always be a Monday, the second would always be a Tuesday because every month has 28 days. And so, That's what I'm introducing, and hopefully one day the world will consider this option called the Human Calculator Calendar. But until then, we've got to deal with this Roman calendar that was invented 2,000 years ago by a bunch of people who thought the Earth was flat, and they were just trying to figure out how many days are in a year, and we're still using it. October is oct, means 8, but October's the 10th month.

Perfect.

All the names don't mean what they say, and we're still— somehow we're still getting to the moon, and we're still using a calendar that doesn't add up.

Can we do a couple more examples for people?

Yeah, sure. Okay, so pick a date. Uh, yeah, you pick a date because it's too easy for me. I'm always looking at the numbers.

Sure, sure, sure. Let's, let's go with, uh, November 13th.

All right, so November is probably a 2 if I remember right.

It is.

So you add 2 and 13, that gives you 15. Now you divide that by 7. 15 divided by 7 is 2, remainder 1. Remainder 1.

Monday.

That was a Monday. So now I'm going to give you one.

Okay.

And you see how fast it takes you. Let's just see how it goes.

Okay. I want everyone to do this with me.

All right, so let's do, um, August 15th.

Okay, so August is a 1, right? And so 1 plus 15 is 16, divided by 7 is— goes into 2 with a remainder of 2.

So that is gonna be on a Tuesday. So now if you get paid on the 15th, you care what day August 15th is. And now you can, within a couple of seconds, Knock it out and know what that is. It's very empowering. And like you said, exercises your brain.

So, even here in the States, people, it might be good to know what day, April 15th.

Right, April 15th. So, let's try that. April, what is it, a 5?

April is a 5.

Add it up, 5 and 15 is 20.

20 divided by 7.

2 remainder 6. 6th day of the week is a Saturday. So, that means they'll extend it till the Monday or Tuesday afterwards because IRS doesn't allow the 15th to fall on those days. Let's try one more, okay? Let's do, uh, I want to see how close we get to Thanksgiving because nobody knows what day Thanksgiving is. It's always a Thursday, but you never know if it's the 21st, 25th. I mean, there's no way of knowing, right? So now let's try it. Let's just sort of throw a date out there and see how close we get. All right, so November 24th.

So November is a 2, so 2 plus 24 is 26, divided by 7 is 3.

Yep, remainder 5. That's gonna be a Friday. Right, so that will show you where Thanksgiving's gonna be. So even if you don't know what day it's gonna be, now with this number, you can actually work it backwards.

That's fantastic.

And exercise this part of your brain. You start asking your brain better questions. You know, why does Thanksgiving fall on those days? So it's really, the calendar's a mess, but it's always a fun thing. It's a great mental sport because you never, it'd be tough for you to memorize all the calendars of all the years. If I just said to you, Jim, 2023, January 15th, you know, that you'd retrieve all that would be incredible. You know, there's only a handful of people on the planet that really do that. So we either need a better calendar, like mine, or, or figure out a way to deal with this one better. So I hope we did that today.

Absolutely. Just because I know somebody's gonna ask this, they're gonna be like, speaking of the future years, well, what happens in 2018?

All you do is add 1 to the value of the numbers that I just gave you for 2017. That'll work for 2018, and then you can do it again for Let's see, 2022, 2023, yeah, 19. And then it goes crazy in 2020 because there's a leap year in there, so that won't work again. So, uh, but hey, you'll have to tune back into the podcast by then to see what happens.

That's great. Scott Flansburg, the human calculator and the human calendar, teaching you to be able to unlock the superpower of math and days. It's amazing. Thank you so much for being with us.

My honor. Thanks for your time, Jim.

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