How to Remember Your Life

Most of your life you just can't remember.
At that link you can buy his music for your own videos if you want.

This video explores how I organize pictures. You probably have more pictures than you know what to do with. Phones are amazing for taking lots of shots but often the result is too many photos. I have been thinking about how to organize photos for a really long time and this is my workflow to best remember your life by using photos. It uses cloud based storage between my phone and computer to help me see my photos often and it also uses some guiding concepts that help me delete more photos and better enjoy the ones I keep around. I hope this helps at least one person better remember their lives.

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Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.

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[raghavsomani]

I do something similar, but for me, it happened my accident. Every time I hear a new song, I keep on listening to the same song until I get bored or a better songs comes my way.

Essentially, what it has done is divided my life into various songs that I have loved at different points of my life. When I listen to the same song again in the future, I remember exactly what I was going through at that point of time in my life.

This is truly magical for me.

[drfusioncraft]

Cries as a student where my photo album is 90% pictures of professor's writing on the board and 10% of actual social engagements.

[alexsimpson]

A journal is a great thing to have while travelling. While the photos can capture the visual information, a journal can contain what you were feeling and thinking. The best part is that writing in your journal can be done at the end of the day when the memory is still fresh such that it doesn't interfere with the moment.

[stalman]

The first reason I started photography was a weird fear of forgetting life.

[DrPeppa-uxjn]

people hate it when i am always taking pictures but then they appreciate it when years later they have the memories because of my efforts!

[Maacholas]

One thing I started doing in 2016 was to actually record videos of what I wanted to remember (like the ocean waves and the breeze on a sunset when in Monaco) and talk about what I was feeling in that video. It's crazy how good it felt to relive those memories years later.

[nathanieldrew]

This is incredible, I'm so grateful that you made this.

[thisistotallyfine]

Basically keep things (photos) that spark joy

[zaradess]

I spent TWO MONTHS on deleting all the unnecessary photos. My family would say to me that it would be better if I did something more important. But deleting photos is greatly important to me! I always feel that when you sort out your photos, you sort out your memories as well! I had about 20K PHOTOS, but now I have only 2K and that’s enough for me. I feel SO GOOD while scrolling my photos now and sparking ONLY MEMORABLE photos in my head! Thank you so much for this video! Finally I found someone who mentions the importance of all this!

[steffijose]

I’ve always been shy and scared of cameras and years later when I looked into all the photos of our dance groups, parties, exchange programs ... I wasn’t there. It really makes you feel special looking back to your memories

[drewnotdrey]

"only keep the ones that spark joy for you"

*Marie Kondo joined the chat*

[KyalPOV]

We tend to forget something because our brains need to delete unimportant information. Johnny, one of the techniques I always do when I try something new is listening to a new song. For example, add a new song to your playlist when you travel next time. Listen to it in the car, before sleep, during the day. 5-15 times a day.
Then, when you're leaving the place, stop the song, remove it from your playlist.
Wait for some time, then listen to that song again. It will bring all emotions and feeling you were experiencing at that moment.

[lps-emily]

One of my absolute favourite things to do is a "one second of the day" where i document every day of the year in one second increments. As a photographer myself, I find this the best way for me. When I see a snippet of the day, I'm most likely to remember it, without losing all feeling through taking 200 photos. Watching it at the end of the year is SO rewarding and those 6 minute videos are something I'm going to have for the rest of my life. You also get so many mundane experiences as I'm not going on trips every day, and little things like doing homework or watching the rain are so much more meaningful and memorable :)

[michalferdyn]

Well I'll be honest - At the beginning of the video I was like:
a) Does this actually work?
b) Even if it does I don't take a lot of photos that "document" my life sooo ... it is probably not for me.


Well, here I am after about one and a half hours going through my photos and deleting something around 6300 of them (granted its from like 2012 to today). The best part is that when I was going through them I was happy, laughing and even shedding a few genuine tears from the happy memories that it mead "re-live".


It's not often that I comment on a Youtube video but I wanted to share my thoughts & experience.
Thank you for making this video and helping me "re-live" parts of my life

[fourtweven]

I’m super forgetful. It’s pretty bad.

My sister passed away a year ago. I loved photography and she loved modeling.

I shot a lot of photos and videos of her. I captured so many sweet moments that I had completely forgotten about and only remembered when I was looking through my old pics and videos of her.

I’m so glad I was able to capture those moments.

[twentypaphøniess]

concerning the last step (reliving memories and the emotions that come with them): i started doing something over four years ago (when i was 15) with no intention of it ever becoming this big of a part in my life. but it did. and it's really simple but also really effective. i just make a lil 1-4 minute video every month containing photos and videos of that month, played over a song that i listened to alot or that was important to me because i listened to it in an especially memorable moment. now, i have this library of videos for every month, and every time i watch one i feel the way i felt in that time. i also got better in memorizing random events because i can always be like oh, that one time we drove around at 1am? that was in february '16, because i rewatch the videos so often that i know it's in there.

(sorry for my english, isn't my first language)

[im]

i'm only 16 and i've been worrying about forgetting my life for years. i became a pic/video hoarder in a desperate attempt to have things documented as much as possible, even if they're really bad pic/vids. this video scares me, but i'm definitely going to try this right now and keep it in mind for the future. thank you :)

[TheSUPERHAPPY]

Record people's VOICE.
I'd love to hear my grandparents voices.
A video or audio recording of them talking or reading a book would be so precious to me

[sheilablub]

"When was the last time you saw a hamster?"
Me: *holding my pet hamster in my lap* Well then. Lmao

[theos]

As a photographer during this quarantine I started doing film photography. The message i want to share with others is that when you have only 36 or less shots you start thinking what do you actually want to memorize in the form of a photo. As you said Johnny less photos mean more time to put down the camera and just enjoy and live the moment. PS : I haven't developed the films i shot since June so memories are waiting//