Be more of a documentarian
It's important to record & store your memories so you don't forget them.
The official definition of "documentarian" from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is:
documentarian (noun): one who makes a documentary
But that definition is kinda lame. Here's my definition:
documentarian (noun): one who makes efforts to create and preserve media (writing, photos, videos, songs) for their future self
Let's talk about why being more of a documentarian is really important.
we all want to remember some things
Our memories tend to be pretty terrible. I could ask you the cliche "Hey, what did you have for breakfast two days ago?" and you probably wouldn't remember. But you probably don't care what you had for breakfast two days ago.
But I bet that there are things you really do want to remember.
You want to remember that ski vacation with your friends—the one where you made snow angels with your friends until you were freezing and then hurried back to the warmth of the hot tub. You want to remember that great moment at school (or work) where you helped a peer with something and you felt really good about it. You want to remember that delicious Italian cuisine you devoured with a family member.
Unfortunately, it's very easy to have memories fade without documenting them. The key is to record those memories through some kind of media and then store those memories in a safe space.
encoding memories through... media?
Yes. I consider there to be four types of media that you can 'record' memories in:
- Music: yes, you can encode memories in music! If you listen to a song or album enough while experiencing thing A, listening to that song or album again will trigger you to remember thing A.
- Photos: pretty self-explanatory. Take photos of experiences or moments you want to remember.
- Videos: are arguably the best way to 'capture' a moment. But they do take up a large amount of storage.
- Writing: while it's considerably more effort to write something than it is to take a photo or video, I really like writing as a method to record my memories. My writing provides me an unchangeable[1], candid view of my thoughts, beliefs, and emotions at the time, unlike the other 3 media types.
what else?
It's very important to store memories you want to keep in a safe place. I keep one copy of my memories on my computer and one on a physical SSD. It is surprisingly easy to lose memories if you only store them in one place.
mostly ↩︎