How To Document Your Life

Today’s guest post is from MummyK. MummyK is mum to one, wife to one, a journalist, a photographer, a mad knitter, wannabe seamstress, zombie movie lover, and hard liquor lover. She blogs at http://mummyk.com and tweets as @themummyk

On her blog at the moment MummyK is running an amazing series on her life as a journalist. You can find the first part here – My life as a journalist Part 1

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As a journalist, I’ve written for several publications both locally and internationally, in various topics ranging from women’s health to ultra capacitors, to earthmoving equipment. Working in an industry that wants to document everything has led me to find new ways to document my own life. We’ve all grown up with journals and diaries hidden at the bottom of dressers or beds to hide from our parents and siblings. Blogging, I guess, was just a natural transition from our little locked journals.

After having MiniMe, I have created even newer ways to document everything, trying to make sure it can get preserved no matter how much technology changes in the future.

how to document your life

So here are my little ideas on how to have a well documented life:

  1. Write on a Word document when you blog. How many times have you written on Blogger or WordPress only to have it deleted by some glitch or another? Eight years ago, after having been victimised by untrustworthy platforms, I decided to write on a Word document first before copying and pasting it on my blog. Ctrl S/Apple S while writing is your best friend too.
  2. Keep a journal. Although I blog constantly, there are things that I don’t feel that comfortable putting out there in the world wide web, as I’m sure a lot of you feel too. Those intimate things I want my daughter to know about I write in this really beautiful journal my husband gave me as a present (because he knows I’m addicted to all forms of paper).
  3. Bind your blog entries into a book (see picture). I searched for several self-publishing companies and found Blurb. They print books for a very affordable price and so I printed my first lot of blog entries. I’m currently in the process of finishing the second one. I am hoping to give it to her when she’s old enough.
  4. Write your kids a letter each year. When she turned one, I decided to write her a letter. I’m going to do this every year on her birthday for as long as I can. One day, I’m going to compile them into a little book as well and give it to her as a present.
  5. Use several external hard drives. I’m a paranoid little writer, which always works to my advantage. I save my files in three different external hard drives. Back up, back up, and back up. They are so much cheaper nowadays and come in such tiny sizes, there is no excuse not to have one. Computers are just hardware, they can crash anytime. I especially love Mac’s Time Machine, it makes backing up so much easier.
  6. Print photo books. Gone are the days of the photo album. Because I’m a photographer, I tend to go shutter crazy (especially after buying my new lens). I have a gazillion of photos that I used to print until I realised it is much better to make photo books instead. They are easier to send to relatives too, and make fantastic presents. These days you can print photo books for a very cheap price online (BigW, Snapfish to name a few). I usually wait until they have a sale before buying in bulk. I’ve sent several photo books to my in-laws and family overseas (birthdays, Christmas and New Year, random photo selections etc)
  7. Mash your videos together. I’m sure your collection of videos is as plenty as your collection of photos. That’s just how we humans are. It will take ages to mash them together (and what if you don’t have the skills?), so I found a cheap small business who does video editing and sent all my files to them to edit and burn into a DVD (or whatever format you prefer).
  8. Turn your favourite story into a book. I have a favourite bedtime story that Mama used to tell us when we were young. It was a story she’d tell us over and over again – the type that kids remember and argue about when parents miss some details. So I decided to turn it into a book. I wrote what I remember, I got an illustrator (for free because he’s a good friend) and I plan to hard bind it for my daughter. Hopefully, one day she’ll pass it onto her own kids. That way, Mama’s story will always stay alive.

It’s a dream of mine to know that even after I’m gone I’ve left a piece of myself through my daughter. I may not be the smartest of them all but I have some nuggets of wisdom I want to impart, like I’m sure others do as well. Hopefully, I’ve documented our life enough for her to know about what her parents were really like, and learn from our experiences.

Do you document your family life?