6 Simple Ways To Document Your Life, Even If You Don't Have The Time | The Odyssey Online
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Health and Wellness

6 Simple Ways To Document Your Life, Even If You Don't Have The Time

A guide to actually remembering your favorite memories.

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6 Simple Ways To Document Your Life, Even If You Don't Have The Time
Photo by ian dooley on Unsplash

I've always been a person who's really into memories – I want to make them, and I want to be able to keep them forever so I can look back and enjoy them later on. The problem with this is that it usually requires extra time and effort, and I'm a college student, so I have a very limited amount of each of those.

To combat this issue, I've thought of some ways that aren't super time consuming to document moments in life I want to hold on to:

1. Journal

I know. I'm aware that this is a hard one for many people, including myself. It's so easy at the end of the day to just forget to do it or to not want to put in the effort – especially when you have multiple assignments due before midnight and your bed looks too cozy not to climb into right away. But it is the best way to commemorate where you are in life, whether it's describing your day or how you feel about everything in general, because you can put so much detail and personality into it. I recommend keeping your journal on your desk with a pen right next to it so that it's easily accessible. It's also been proven that journaling is a great stress reliever and creativity booster, and who doesn't want to be more relaxed and more innovative?

2. Take daily pictures

There can be no excuses for taking at least one picture a day – it requires zero time and effort. For Christmas I got a "one Polaroid a day" photo album (which is where I got the inspiration for this article), and I'm making it my goal to fill as many slots in it as I possibly can. I think of it as my personal project of the year, and it's actually very rewarding to put a picture in at the end of the day. January isn't even over yet, and I can already tell how fun it'll be to go back and look through the whole thing. It also makes me feel hella artsy bringing my Polaroid camera with me everywhere. Obviously a phone camera works just as well, so feel free to use that if you're not as much of a hipster as I am.

3. Fill out your agenda every day

This isn't as aesthetically-pleasing or rewarding as the previous two ideas, but it is beneficial in multiple ways. First, you're staying organized. Second, you can look back at it once the year is over and know exactly what you were doing on a specific day. This works best if you fill it out with lots of detail, and include things other than due dates – events, brunches, dates (that other kind), job interviews – whatever it is you're planning on accomplishing for the day.

4. Create a Spotify playlist for each season

Or month, or year. It all depends on how often you find new music. I usually make one for the school year and one for the summer. I love going back and listening to them because I can usually remember when it was I first heard it, what I was doing, and how I was feeling. The power of music is crazy – it has the ability to take you back to a certain time in your life, so use it. Be careful of the possibly excessive feelings of nostalgia, though.

5. Come up with a quote-of-the-week and write it down

Not only will you be continually building up a list of powerful and inspirational things said by other powerful and inspirational people, but it's so easy to go back and take a deeper look at what was influencing you that week and what your goals were.

5. Save your Snapchat stories

Self-explanatory. There's nothing better than re-watching that time your friend got super drunk and did an incredible amount of stupid things, over and over again. Enjoy.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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