When Emily first reached out to me about writing this post I have to admit I was a little skeptical. I mean, can an app really make you happier? But after reading her piece I totally get it! I journal every morning before I start my day and then look back at what I’ve written about every month. I look forward to journaling with my cup of coffee every morning (and find that I feel a bit more scattered on days I skip this practice), and looking back each month helps me remember moments about my life I feel I’d otherwise forget.
By Emily Ganey
This post is not sponsored! I’m sharing my experience using the 1 Second Everyday App with you because it’s made me happier every day than I have been in years. I hope you’ll decide to use it and start creating your own intentional joy in 2019. ~ Emily
There’s something so refreshing about a new year! Resolutions. Goals. Improvements. I’m usually excited about a fresh beginning and ready to put disappointments from the previous year behind me. I try to be intentional about creating goals for myself. Not necessarily resolutions, but little things I can improve upon to make me a better person or improve my quality of life.
However, as 2019 approaches, I’m feeling wistful about saying goodbye to 2018. This year was one of the happiest years of my life because I was intentional about creating joy in my life every day. What happened to my mindset? I honestly feel I can attribute this new happiness to using an app called 1 Second Everyday.
1 Second Every Day is a video diary app that allows you to document one second of your day, every day of the year. As you upload the different video segments, the platform combines them to create a recap video of your life! At the end of the year, you end up with a six-minute recap video!
I first discovered the app (free for Android users, $6.99 for iPhone users) at the end of last year when a friend of mine posted her own six-minute recap video on her Facebook profile. Seeing my face in her memories reminded me how much I enjoyed the times we’d hung out that past year – getting ready for her gender reveal party, the moment I met her son for the first time, the day she helped me pack up my apartment before my cross-country move. It had only been a few months since those get-togethers and yet already they felt like distant memories. Watching her video made me realize I wanted to be more intentional about the moments I remembered in 2018. I didn’t want to look back in twelve months and feel like life had just happened. I wanted to consciously choose which moments to remember.
“I wanted to be more intentional about the moments I remembered in 2018.”
I immediately downloaded the app and got ready to document my next 365 days, one second at a time.
The more I used the app, the more I found myself excited about finding a moment of joy every single day. I would get out of bed already thinking, “What is going to make me happy today?” or “What is special about this day that I want to remember?” The app was forcing me to be more intentional about recognizing what I appreciated about my life, and I found myself becoming an overall happier person.
“I discovered ordinary, everyday activities in my life bring me just as much, and sometimes even more, joy as the big moments and events.”
Every month I watched my video diary (I was curious to see how it was coming along!) and afterward, I always had a smile on my face. It was fun to relive and remember specific moments from my life like getting a letter in the mail and exploring Iceland. I enjoyed seeing memories reflected back to me and I discovered ordinary, everyday activities in my life brought me just as much, and sometimes even more, joy as the big moments and events. Walking the dogs, lighting a candle, these daily routines were wonderful, defining moments of my past year. They had borught me just as much joy as our trip to Iceland or our cross-country move to San Francisco.
As the end of 2018 approaches, I can confidently say it was a great year for me! Was it better than previous years? Honestly, probably not. So many of my recent years have been filled with incredible events like celebrations with friends and international trips. But because I didn’t intentionally think about which moments I wanted to remember, a lot of memories from previous years have blurred together. I can’t remember them as much as I’d like to, and I definitely wasn’t as excited about waking up every day and finding something about that day to love like I was these past twelve months. I even have a new appreciation for some of the sadder and more frustrating memories. They shaped my year – and me – and they deserve to be recognized and remembered too.
I never thought using an app could bring me so much joy! After all, like so many millennials, I’m constantly trying to find ways to spend more time off my phone, not on it. But it really has! As 2019 approaches, I’m looking forward to finding new moments of happiness and intentionally remembering big and small events in this next year. I hope you’ll join me in documenting your days too! (& if you do, please message me on IG and tell me about your experience.)
Ready to download and start using the app? Here are a few tips I’ve learned!
Here’s My One Second Everyday Video If You’d Like To See!
Tips To Help You Use the 1 Second Everyday App
- Record horizontally instead of vertically! The app compiles the video in a horizontal screen, so if you use vertical ones you’ll have black borders on the side.
- Keep your camera still and let your subject move (rather than moving your camera for 1 second – a panning video can be too fast to comprehend when it gets smashed with all of the other videos).
- Use the green rectange at the bottom of the reel to preview how the app will trim your video to 1-second. For example, if I have a 6-second snippet of my dogs playing, I can trim that down to one second by sliding the green rectangle at the bottom of the app. By pressing on the section of the video that’s highlighted in the green rectangle I can see exactly which 1-second clip will be included in my final video (as opposed to just hoping that I got the right snippet!).
- Adjust the app settings to send you a push notification reminder if you haven’t added a second by a certain time each day. I love this feature because it is virtually impossible to forget to record my second when I see the notification in the top bar of my phone.
Enjoy! Here’s to being even more intentional with what brings you joy in 2019!