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One Second Everyday (Going Back in Time)

I remember wanting to capture memories everyday. I didn’t want to miss even a single day of my life.

I used to watch old photos of my childhood and get very nostalgic. I could go back in time and enjoy that moment, even if it was just for a split second of time. I loved to do that.

And it occurred to me that I didn’t want to miss any day or moment of my life.

That might be the reason I have lots of photos on my hard drive. I would take photos of almost anything, everyday. It was because I knew I’d love to watch them when I grew old.

I started to think of alternative ways to capture all those moments. Maybe I could take photos of everything that happened during the day. Maybe I could record videos every time, whole day.

But those ideas were all impractical. So, I started taking lots of photos, just because I didn’t want to miss anything in the future.

I was paranoid about it.

I just wanted something to capture everything so I could go back in time and enjoy those beautiful moments whenever I wanted.

I had given up the idea of saving every moment everyday because it was highly impractical. I need to have lots of hard drive space. Even 1 TB wouldn’t be enough for a years video. And even if I could store in hard drive, I wouldn’t be able to filter and watch all those videos.

Same for pictures. I started to take lots of pictures and I didn’t have any time to watch them. Most of them were crap pictures, which didn’t make any sense.

I thought that there should be a common ground I could settle for. Nothing worked. I even tried writing journals everyday, and even recording audio. And still, it didn’t work. I wasn’t happy with that either.

To this point I had tried almost everything I could to save and preserve worthy moments of my life.

However, I did find a solution for that.

Some months ago, I stumbled across a TED talk about capturing one second everyday. That was one of the coolest idea I’ve ever come across in my entire life. I instantly fell in love with it. I loved the idea of capturing one second everyday for the rest of my life.

That was it! That’s what I’ve been searching for my entire life.

The idea was simple, yet effective. It just takes one second to record your whole day. After I see that one second, I can remember the whole day. So that one second preserves my memory.

You take one second of any event you do during the day. And that one second will help you revert back in time and enjoy that moment.

Here’s the one second video I took from September 13, 2013 to September 12, 2014:

But it requires devotion and persistence. I had questions filtering my mind like, What if I forget to capture one second everyday? What if I lose interest on it?

It just takes one day for you to lose momentum and interest on it. So, it’s very very important that you don’t forget to take one second video everyday.

I took a pledge to do it as long as I could, and started it at September 13. As you can notice, September 13 is a random date. I started it at random date because I figured that date doesn’t really matter. It’s persistence and determination that matters. What’s the difference between starting at October 1 as opposed to September 13, if you’re not persistent at it?

There’s no difference, you just need to start someday and do it exactly when you feel like.

I find it really easy to figure out if someone is really serious about his or her goals. If a person waits for a specific date to start working on his goal then he’s less likely to achieve it. Whereas, if a person starts to research and create steps to reach that goal and work on it right away, he’s more likely to achieve his goals.

A person who waits for New Year or Birthday to start working on his or her dream are less likely to succeed.

So, keeping this thing in mind, I started taking one second video from September 13. It was that day when I had resource available to start taking video and so I started it from that day.

I researched how I can make it seamless and less difficult in the long run. And I figured about an app developed by the guy who gave that TED talk. The app is called ‘1 Second Everyday’ and you can choose one second from your video and manage it.

You don’t have to do editing(which is a huge turn off for some people). The app will take care of everything. You just need to take videos.

The benefits:

  1. I’m really bad at commitment. And this project has allowed me to learn to make commitments. It’s easy when you first start because you are inspired and excited to do it. But as time moves on, all those inspiration and motivation wears out and you feel like quitting. This project has taught me to resist that temptation.
  2. This project reminds me to enjoy life. We’re so busy everyday that we forget to spend sometime for ourselves. It’s not so fun to watch one second of desk and work everyday. So, I need to go out and take one second video of nature or something interesting, which indirectly reminds me to go out and enjoy life.
  3. It’s always good idea to look back in time and see how you’ve improved overtime. How you spent your time some years ago. What you did and all.
    Since, I take one second video everyday, this project taught me to look back and see how you are progressing overtime. Progressing in terms of enjoyment, life, and relationships.

Do you find the idea of capturing everyday appealing? If yes, what are you doing to capture everyday moments? It can be anything: writing, video recording, photographs, blogging, etc.

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12 Comments

    • Thanks Jamie!

      I wanted to start it after I saw your one second project, but it was too difficult because I had to edit myself.

      I gave serious thought on it only after I figured about the ‘1 Second Everday’ app.

    • I want to do it for the rest of my life but I cannot say it for sure. It’s because I need to have tools to take video everyday and if I miss even a single day, then it’s gone. It’s also not always possible to have all the resources to take video.
      I hope to continue this as far as I can.

      I’m thinking of publishing a yearly video. I just posted this from September 13, 2013 to January 10, 2014 for demonstration.

  1. Wow, this is brilliant! I really loved this. It gave me a feel for “your life”, the sights and sounds that you see on a regular basis, the places you go, etc. It’s certainly not a “complete picture”, but that’s OK. What makes it unique is that it’s one second of every day.

    I might start doing something like this. I love the idea, and the simplicity of it.

    Thank you for sharing!

    • Thank you, Raam! Means a lot.

      It would be great to see your one second everyday. If you want to give it a try then I recommend the ‘1 Second Everyday‘ app for your iPhone.

      I put this project off for long time because I didn’t like the idea of capturing and editing video everyday for just one second. It requires lots of work.

      I only started this after I found about the 1 Second Everyday app. It requires absolutely no work. Just take a normal video and choose 1 second from it. It even has reminders so that we don’t forget to take that valuable one second everyday.

    • I just checked ‘Each and Everyday Photo Diary’ and your 365 project looks awesome. Hats off for your dedication and photography skills. Really enjoyed watching all those pictures.

      However, I didn’t see your one second video. Fancy sending me a link?

      Before I did this one second video project, I also thought about doing a photo project. But I failed at it. Maybe I don’t have good eye for photographs. So, I’m here doing one second video project.

      Keep going!

Webmentions

  • Manish Suwal 'Enwil' February 25, 2014

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CAzohYMvyA?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent%5D
    The first lesson I learned from recording one year of one second everyday: Commitment is more important than success because commitment takes you closer to success. Without commitment, it’s very difficult to move ahead in life and anything you do.
    I have failed at many projects because I sucked at commitment.
    I always have difficulty making commitments. And it’s not a co-incidence that only projects which I commit better gets closer to success.
    Here’s what I learned by recording one second everyday for one year:
    Idea is the First Step
    Even if execution matters in the end, you cannot start without an idea. I wanted to document my life and never forget a single day until my death. I used to take lots of pictures and videos. It wasn’t practical as I’ve mentioned in the post – One Second Everyday (Going Back in Time). One day while watching Jamie’s 1 second video of Istanbul, I thought of doing the same. But his Istanbul video wasn’t one second everyday, it was random 1 second video clip of Istanbul that he recorded. However, it was enough to spark lots of idea inside my head.
    Consumption is the First Step for Production
    I just wrote a blog post along those lines about a week ago. While I was consuming TED talks, I came across Cesar Kuriyama’s TED talk about taking one second video everyday. It was too good to be true. As soon as I saw that, I wanted to do it. I thought of doing it right away. However, I didn’t have any idea on how to make it happen. I also didn’t have necessary tools to make it happen. Which takes us to the next step.
    Search for Tools to Make it Happen
    It’s about making actionable next steps. As soon as you have a goal or an idea, create an actionable next step to make it happen. For me, it was to purchase a mobile phone with video camera in it. And then install ‘1 second everyday‘ app.
    Don’t Think of Starting, Just Start!
    After everything was in place, I wasn’t sure when to start. Should I wait until January 1st? Should I wait until my birthday to make one second videos of my age?
    Instead of doing that, without giving any second thought, I just started. I started taking videos that exact day, and that day was September 13, 2013. It’s a random date. I didn’t know if I would succeed at this project during that time. I didn’t know anything. But today, I’m very happy that I started that day. If I had waited, I’d still be waiting.
    It’s always difficult to start, so just start. Don’t wait for the right moment. It doesn’t exist.
    Watching Flashback of your Life is Simply Amazing
    There are no words for this. I can remember everyday since last year. What I did during that day and all the moments associated with it. What else could make me sooo happy?

    This lifelong project continues to have a massively positive impact on my life and how I use my time. It encourages me to make every day notable in some way. I like to call my seconds “secret codes”, because no matter what you see, only I know the context of the moments I have chosen. Some of the most beautifully recorded seconds, often hold little emotional value for me personally… and some of the least interesting looking seconds often represent some of the best & worst moments in of my life. Only I know the true context behind my snippets.
    – Cesar Kuriyama

    I’m not a magician, but I know that you have some project ideas in your mind which you haven’t started.
    I just have two words for you after all this: JUST START!
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