A few weeks ago during the heat of the summer I realised I’d been sharing pictures on Instagram for five years. At one point during those five years I was uploading a photograph every single day for months. That is a lot of photographs. In fact I have over 1500 photos on this little app. Photos that have documented my life in the countryside as I got to grips with chicken and duck-keeping, wandered the fields, welcomed each season, baked many a cake and wrote hundreds of words in my notebooks.
If Instagram were to close, or if my account was lost that is a lot of work gone.
So I’ve decided to do something non-digital to document my Instagram life. I bought myself a Traveler’s Notebook and a Fujifilm printer and set about printing off select photographs as well as writing notes on what was happening - in both my real life and my online life.
I started with 2014 - and wrote the post and filmed the video called Journaling my Instagram Photos (blog post) or Journal my Instagram with Me (video).
Then I thought I‘d tackle 2015 - and quickly realised that there were far too many photographs. So I just concentrated on the first third of the year instead and picked out my favourites or those that represented a turning point.
The video shows my process. Let me know if you’re doing something similar, I’d love to see.
I created my Instagram account on 20th July 2014 and now, six years later, after spending hours and hours of my life creating for the app, commenting on the app and scrolling on the app, I no longer spend my time there. I’m no longer anxious, I’m more productive and I have more ideas for my writing and business than I could hope for. It’s been transformative.