I was hesitant to make big resolutions for 2024. The many challenging events of this last year were fresh on my mind and I had less than two months to go in my pregnancy. It seemed impossible to commit to a new exercise regime or reading plan, and so I decided to aim small. Really small. I’m talking about a new routine that will take me just one second each day.
For 2024, I’m trying to capture one second of each day through the appropriately named app, 1 Second Everyday.
Capture your year, one second at at time.
A free app available on iOS and Adroid, 1 Second Everyday is a video diary program. You choose one, one-second video clip each day to represent that day on the calendar. The app then edits all the clips you have chosen together into a film of your year. Or if you are impatient like me, you can share the videos in shorter increments, such as month by month.
You can take the one-second videos through the app, or you can trim longer videos. If you use an iPhone, you can even use live photos as a video substitute. The app has a notification setting so you can get reminders each day to take your video. Reminders come through at different times of the day, which helps you capture a variety of moments.
What second should I use?
This is the best thing about this plan, and this product. Anything can be captivating for one second!
A few of my friends used this app in 2019, and I loved seeing the diverse snapshots and memories they captured. Babies cooing, snow falling, a great-looking meal coming out of the oven, or returning a cart at Meijer—these are all moments that help make up a year in your life. Because each video is so short, you can’t share full scenes of your days, or even full words in most instances. But the glimpses are enough to give you, and others, a sense of your year.
Other Tips to Consider
In my first few weeks of using the app myself, I’ve already made a few mistakes, such as forgetting to record any videos for a day or two. Thankfully, the app blends all the days together in order in the final video, and you can remove the dates. Still, I want the final product to be as complete as possible, so here are just a few steps I’m trying to follow:
- Set a reminder in addition to the 1 Second Everyday notification. I don’t know about you all, but I tend to ignore push notifications on my home screen. I’m setting up an alarm to remind me to take my one-second video by 6:30pm if I haven’t already.
- Watch your summary video occasionally. Not only is this fun to do, but it will give you an idea of what might kind of content be taking up too much of your video diary, and what may be missing.
- Be bold and transparent about the seconds you share. One of my friends who did this last year shared a number of video clips of her face in tears—it was a hard year! I so admire her honesty and openness, and I want to live that out in my own video project, as well.
In the short time I’ve been doing this challenge, I have already found myself looking back fondly on the silly and sweet moments I’ve experienced. I hope this inspires you to capture your year one second at a time, too!
