In case you’re new around here, I do this little thing called a “Project 365“. You can find all my photos from this year (2019) on write.as with the #project365 tag.
Note: I recently moved to using write.as for blogging because it’s such a simple interface and uses Markdown. I’ll likely keep it … but we’ll see.
Every year I have friends ask if I’m still going to do one next year. Turns out 2019 was the fourth year I’ve done a Project 365. Daaaang. So at this point, it’s such a habit for me, I’m not sure I can stop. So, I thought I’d share my past projects and my “process” in case anybody else wants to join me.
My process
- Create your why – Decide why you want to commit to this. Is it to share your life with friends and family? Is it to have a year of photos to look back at and review/remember? Is it just to see if you can do it? Figure out WHY you want to do this because then you’re more likely to do it.
- Take pictures – You already do it, but you have to force yourself to start looking at things. Notice interesting, funny, or even boring things. Things that represent your day.
- Decide your platform – I post all my photos to Instagram which posts to Facebook for my friends and family. I then post the same photo here on the blog which pushes to Twitter
- Schedule it – Decide when you’ll post your photo and put it on your calendar! I had a reminder pop up on my phone the first year … now it’s just part of my night-time routine.
- Have fun – Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a day or forget to take a photo. I’ve posted plenty of “old” photos from several days prior to fill in a day. I’ve also gone back to fill in a day I missed. Remember your why.
That’s pretty much it. The simplest Project 365 can literally be one photo a day thrown into a journal or on Instagram or something. You’ll see I mixed it up after I completed my first one …
Past Project 365s
2015 Project 365 – This was my first year doing the challenge.
4 in 44 – This was my second challenge, but didn’t follow the calendar year. I needed a break, but then sort of missed the photos. So I started a 4in44 challenge to post 4 photos every day of my 44th year on the planet.
2018 Project 365 – I took another break after my “4in44” and then aligned with the calendar year again. I didn’t want to just post one photo, but four was tough sometimes. I settled on three photos every day.
2019 Project 365 – The 2018 Project really solidified the habit of taking and posting photos … so I just kept it up. The only real change was moving from hosting on Tumblr to hosting on write.as. I do like the “archive” feature of Tumblr to be able to view all the photos on one page … so I might go back to that next year (tomorrow).
That’s it … now you can look back through my last four-ish years and get a better picture of who I am. If you decide to start a Project 365, let me know over on Twitter … I would love to follow along!