When the clock strikes midnight on December 31st this year, I will have been taking a daily one second video for the past 730 days of my life. When they’re all mashed together, that equates to just over 12 minutes of video which documents these last two years. I LOVE IT.

The concept comes from an app called One Second Everyday. If you’ve seen the movie Chef, you may remember how the app was incorporated into the film. Or maybe you’ve seen the TED talk where they app’s creator talks about how this idea of his came to life. If you’re unfamiliar, though, here’s how it works in a nutshell: download the app on your smartphone. Take a one second video every day on your camera roll. Open the app whenever you have a spare minute and plug the videos into the calendar that pops up. Merge these together into one video, via the magic of the app, and watch the coolest journal you’ve ever seen flash before your eyes.

I document life in a multitude of ways – it’s kind of my thing. I have my 5 minute index card journal, my 5 Year Q & A a Day book, my Project Life albums that I’m perpetually behind in, and this One Second Everyday video journal. When I’m really honest with myself, I’m not sure how long I’ll continue on with all of these forms of documentation. They’re each wonderful in their own ways but it can be a little overboard at times. I can say with confidence, though, that the One Second Everyday is here to stay. Out of all the forms of journaling I do, this is easily the most manageable – it literally takes all of one second, plus a little spare time on the end when I want to input it into the app. I think I can spare that. Also, it’s pretty magical to watch over the video and be transported back to memories that I would have likely forgotten were it not for this system.

Does it take some discipline to take a video everyday? Sure. Are there many worthwhile ventures that don’t take at least a little discipline and habit formation? Not really.

There is the occasional day when I completely forget to take a video. Seeing as I plan on doing this for the rest of my days and having the video montage play throughout the course of my 90th birthday party, I think a few seconds missing here and there won’t be of much consequence. If I forget a day, I just try to do better the next day. If I don’t have anything particularly noteworthy to film that day, I usually take a video of Graham. (I’ve found that part of the beauty of this app lies in remembering even those days that were rather normal and not of particular note.) If there are multiple events I wish I could film, I choose one and tuck away the rest in my head. It doesn’t have to be perfect to still be awesome.

If you’re itching to see what all of this looks like in person, then you’ve come to the right place…because I uploaded my video to YouTube! This video isn’t completely up to date – it goes through October 11 of this year. The video was taking up a significant amount of room on my phone, so I had to upload it to YouTube and start over within the app. At some point, I will try to stitch the various movies together in iMovie or something fancy. If you’d like to see a little montage of my life, though, look no further!

(You’ll notice that the footage looks a little squished – they have since updated the app so it doesn’t distort the video like that…so my next round of video will be much better!)

Isn’t that THE COOLEST?! I think this would be astoundingly wonderful to do if you have children – watching them grow up throughout the years through the magic of video would be so fun.

We’re almost at the beginning of a new year. You can obviously start this project anytime, but it seems particularly apropos for January 1st. Download the app and give it a spin! I think you may just be delighted as the months go by.

(I’ll be away from the blog for the next couple weeks, enjoying Christmas with my family. See you back mid-Januay. Think about that – by that time, you could have accumulated your first 10 or 15 seconds of video footage!) ;)