How Do You Document Your Memories?

How would you answer this question? Because whether you intentionally try to or not, it is likely that you at least document your memories somehow. Especially these days, we pretty well all have smartphones with the ability to jot down notes or snap a photo on a moments notice. So here’s another question: does memory-keeping actually matter to you?

Documenting memories is something that really matters to me. Even to this day, many years after my grandmother has passed, I genuinely enjoy flipping through her well-organized photo books, reading old cards and letters, and finding the simple notes scribbled in the margins of her recipe books. She was really good at taking photos and documenting memories because I think it truly mattered to her too. I will forever be grateful for these glimpses into her beautiful life and cherish the opportunity to see all the little intricacies of her experience that would otherwise be forgotten.

As I’m sure you are aware by this point, I truly find my joy in the little things in life. But since they are little, it’s easy to forget those things as the days, months, and years pass by. A hilarious one-liner by Mabel, a special delivery from a friend that brightened a tough day, the blood, sweat, and tears that went into a project - will I remember these as time marches on? Although the demands of the modern life ensure I could never live up to the beautiful (but extensive) documentation that my grandmother left, I have always felt a deep passion to make the effort to save the memories that make up my experience. My family’s experience. But how exactly do I do that?

I don’t think memory-keeping has to be difficult. Like I already mentioned, I think most of us are already naturally doing it anyways. Over the years, I have tried a handful of ways to keep my memories, and since I’m feeling overwhelmingly sentimental over the fact that my baby just turned two, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some of my favourites from over the years. Some of these methods I still use. Some of them I have tried and they served me well for a period. Some of them are more unconventional and some of them are pretty basic. Maybe one of these ideas will inspire you to start being more intentional about documenting your own memories. It really doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming. It just takes a little bit of intention and the right tools.

The 1 Second Everyday app

Have you heard of this app? Through the 1 Second Everyday app, you document and store a one-second video clip from your day (or you can import a video you have already taken on your phone). You continue adding one second long clips over a period of time, and when you are ready to compile them (or just want to see your progress at any time), you can render them into a compiled video. It’s a really simple concept and the app makes it so easy for you to do.

I decided to try this tool when Mabel was born to document her first year of life. I documented a clip of her every single day (give or take a few) during her first year and waited until her first birthday to render and watch it back. When Curt and I sat down and watched the completed video together, neither of us could keep it together. It was the most beautiful thing to see the hardest - but most beautiful - year of our lives laid out for us in such a simple and impactful way. The finished video documenting her first year was about 5 minutes long and truly something I will cherish forever.

Although I used this tool for Mabel’s first year and will definitely do it again if we have any more children, I don’t currently still use it. I liked using it for a specific purpose because it felt attainable and like I had an end point to cut off the final video at. I’ve seen others use it for endless everyday documentation, which is exactly what this tool was created for, but I found it works really well to document a specific period in your life. It would be a great tool to document a long trip abroad, a first year of marriage, a college experience, or a pregnancy.

Price: Free to download and use, but if you want to backup your stored files (just in case) and/or add royalty-free music to your compiled clips (plus I’m sure some other features), you need to purchase an additional subscription. I used the free version, risked the lack of back-up, and then paid for a subscription when I published my final video and cancelled when I was done.
Commitment: Involved - you have to do it every day for it to be effective. But put it this way: it literally only takes a second and is so worth the effort.

Prompted Journals

I used to be an avid journal-keeper, but the demands of motherhood do not make it possible any more. I gave it up completely for a while, but decided to try a prompted gratitude journal at the start of this year. I use this journal by Promptly Journals and love it, but there are endless options out there with different purposes and formats. It has been such a quick and easy way for me to be intentional about sharing specific things I am thinking about or that have been happening in my week without feeling burnt-out or overwhelmed by the practice of just free-writing in a blank notebook. It gives me focus and specific ideas to share more about, often getting me thinking outside of my normal thought patterns. The prompts remind me to reflect on the simple, everyday things in my life that I’m grateful for.

My gratitude journal is broken down into six different weekly prompts followed by two pages of blank lines to free-write. There are no specific dates or instructions, so you could really do it however you’d like, but what works for me is answering one of the prompts every night before bed (it literally takes me 2 minutes) and then using the free-write space to make a more extensive weekly journal entry on Sunday nights (which usually takes me 10-15 minutes).

Price: Varied - it depends on the company and the type of journal you use. The one I have is arguably a little pricey, but I was drawn to the simplicity of the design and trusted that the company it came from would deliver a lot of substance in the prompts. So far, I am not disappointed!
Commitment: Medium - it’s totally up to you! Even if you do decide to do it daily, it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes out of your day and the habit is easy to build into your routine.

Family Yearbook

I have shared about this more extensively in this post, but essentially, every new year, I like to create a photo book that highlights our previous year. I go through my photos and select 4-5 photos from each month and arrange them in chronological order. Once the printed book arrives, I take some time to write out of quick description of each photo and why it was significant in a document and then print the document to place in an envelope in the back of the book for future reference.

I like doing this project because it helps us remember our year as a whole. I always try to include a variety of photos, not just big highlights. Food photos, room photos, simple candid moments - some of the photos may seem insignificant at first glance, but each one meant something to me or my family. It is a really great way to document some of the smaller moments in a really succinct and easy way.

Price: $40-$50 depending on the book printing service you use (I like this one!). In the past, I also printed my own photos and arranged them in a small album and journaled on the back of each photo. This worked well too, but I like how quick and easy using a book printing service is.
Commitment: Low - it usually only takes about one afternoon to complete the whole thing. Read more about it in my full post devoted to photo yearbooks to learn more.

Google Photos

This one may seem obvious, but I think it’s really easy to overlook how useful Google Photos can be. You can put as much or as little effort into it, but at the very least, it stores all your precious photo memories in the cloud to access at any time from any device. Once they sync, your photos are arranged chronologically so you can easily jump back to a particular date. If you do put some effort in to use it to its full potential, you can organize photos by subject (great for looking back at photos of your kids to see how they have grown), location, and/or custom albums. It’s actually quite smart and responsive and does a lot of this organizational leg-work for you.

Even if you aren’t into documenting your memories at all, please at least download Google Photos to your phone. Just knowing that your photos are stored somewhere is the biggest peace of mind.

Price: Free! Free! Free!
Commitment: Low-Medium - it’s up to you how complex you make it. It’s one of those things that may take a bit of time upfront to organize, but once you have a system in place, it pretty well takes care of itself.

Birthday Book

This method is one I developed unknowingly, but it has been a really special way for me to document Mabel’s life. When I first found out I was pregnant with Mabel, I experienced some complications that caused a lot of anxiety and fear around the viability of the pregnancy. I started journaling short letters in a blank notebook to my (then-unknown) baby in order to process my feelings and share different milestones like ultrasound appointments. As you probably have realized, my pregnancy continued and eventually Mabel was born. I found the partially-used notebook when we moved and decided to write a new letter in it on her first birthday. I shared the things about her personality that we noticed and my wishes for her next year.

She obviously just turned two, but I wrote another birthday letter for her second birthday. I plan to keep up the practice with each birthday so that one day I can pass it along to her. It’s a great way to process the experience of being her mom and to celebrate who she grows to be each year. But it’s also really easy and takes very little time to do.

Whether you have a child or not, a birthday book could work for anyone! You could keep your own birthday book, sharing a letter to yourself each year on your birthday - maybe something significant from that year or your dreams and wishes for your next trip around the sun.

Price: Pretty well nothing. All you need is a blank notebook (something simple like this will suffice) and a pen.
Commitment: Low - it’s literally one block of 15-30 minutes each year.

I hope you feel empowered to see that documenting your memories doesn’t have to be complex and overwhelming. There are a lot of really simple methods and tools that you can use and you can always change or adapt as you go. I would love to know: Do you use any of these methods to keep your memories? What method or tool would you like to try?

Happy memory-keeping!