Your phone buzzes with another “Year Ago Today Notification” for an old assignment picture you could barely recall.
December rolls around, and all the online Year Recaps leave us trying to connect the world’s major events to our own personal experiences.
Documentation, to whatever extent it may be, is the foundation for individual storytelling. Whether it be a photo, text message, or physical item, tangible records activate powerful layers to our memory.
Beyond the basic emotional tie, this calls upon capturing change in relation to a goal or time frame. On the surface this can be seen in our own physical transformations, but is equally relevant to evolving relationships, career paths, and life situations.
In light of the recent new year, conversations around documenting 2021 are coming up more often than ever – so to better capture your year, I’m suggesting 4 different mediums to keep record, with or without photographic elements!
4 Ways to Document Your Year:
Timelines & Predetermined Dates
Given all of us aren’t always inclined to taking photos and videos, this medium to draws special attention to methods outside just that. Here’s how these work:
- Timelines: creating an active timeline means recording major dates/events that happen to you in one consistent place. This is for both positive and challenging moments – so you can appreciate everything in the longer term. The frequency can range from spontaneous to monthly to even a few points each day.
- Predetermined Dates: In contrast to timelines, with predetermined dates you decide ahead of time when to do periodic reflections. Whether that be for major dates (ie. new years, birthdays, holidays, start and ends to seasons, etc.) or merely randomly designated checkpoints, this approach takes off the pressure of constantly deciding when to document but instead following a more structured setup.
Video
While full on vlogging and editing video content isn’t accessible to everyone, here is my favorite low maintenance video diary platform:
- One Second A Day: This free app is available on both Apple and Android app stores, and has become relatively popular in recent years. As the name suggests, the app compiles one second videos over a year/period of time into a full video montage. Given the camera-roll-date-matching feature, filling in old months is especially easy. It’s surprising how many hidden memories just a second could bring!
Photo
Photographic documentation is the most typical medium that comes to mind, and with good reason. Whether or not you’re a pictures person, here are some fun approaches to try:
- Film Photography/Disposables: A trend that’s gained more traction recently, film photography captures moments more candidly and intentionally than what we sometimes take on cell phone cameras. The patience in developing photos and physical nature of the process offers a new approach to photographic documentation. Here are my favorite cameras and film options: Canon AE-1, Olympus OM-2n, Kodak Portra400 Film, Kodak Gold, FujiFilm Disposable Cameras
- Organized Digital Albums: Since most of our pictures are captured on cell phones, creating organized digital albums every so often elevates what you have recorded. This practice also encourages you take more pictures over the course of your year, regardless of what it is.
Bulletins & Journals
This last documentation idea is another one outside photos, and incorporates more physical practices again:
- Bulletins: Depending on the the permanence of your current living situation, this medium may vary; but as the name suggests on bulletins you pin any physical memoirs you collect over the course of time (ie. concert wristbands, tickets, flyers, etc.).
- Journals: Journaling goes without an explanation, but some of my favorite year-long journal initiatives include:
- Year in Pixels (pictured)
- One Sentence or Word a Day
- Bullet Journaling
There’s endless ways to document your year, so find what excites you most! This year is only anticipating more stories, so it’s time to record them. Happy documenting 🙂