Clearing a full phone in one evening

Photos only last if somebody looks after them. A phone can be lost, a cloud account forgotten and a hard drive dropped. Keeping pictures safe is mostly about simple, boring habits that run without you thinking about them.

Good to know: every Paperleaf book has room for thirty photos, so there is no prize for keeping more.

I thought I needed a better camera. I needed a better window.

Tom Okafor, Paperleaf

One more thing

The best system is the one you will still be using next year. Keep it simple enough that it survives a busy month.

Sharing is part of keeping. A photo that three people have is safer than one that only lives on your phone.

1. Delete the obvious misses: blurs, pockets and thumbs.
2. Star one photo per day, even on dull days.
3. Pick the cover last, once the month has a shape.

What we got wrong

Keep the phone charged and the lens clean on days you expect to matter. It sounds small, but a flat battery or a smudged lens has cost more good pictures than any missing piece of equipment.

Keep a note of what happened that month as you go. A few words beside a photo are worth far more than you expect a year later.

What to look for

Do not wait for a special occasion. The ordinary weeks are the ones people forget, and the ones they most want to see again.

If you miss a month, do not try to catch up all at once. Start again with this month and fill the gap later if you feel like it.

• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Pick a fixed day each month
• Back up before deleting anything

Make it a habit

Hand the phone to someone else at least once a month. It is the only way the photographer gets into the book.

Some readers keep a short list of rules on a sticky note beside the computer. Ours says: faces first, then places, then anything that made us laugh. It is not scientific, but it stops the session turning into an evening of second-guessing.

Why it works

Faces matter, but so do places. Include at least one picture of the room, the street or the view where the month happened.

It helps to know what the book is for before you start. A book for grandparents wants faces and clear captions. A book for yourself can hold the odd corner of the garden, the shadow on the wall and the plate of food that only makes sense to you.

Before you start: make sure your phone is backed up. Deleting is easier when nothing can be lost.

A few small rules

Make a cup of tea, sit somewhere comfortable and put the phone on do-not-disturb. The job goes faster when it does not compete with messages.

If a month feels thin, look again at the photos you took without thinking. The best ones are often hiding there.

1. Delete the obvious misses: blurs, pockets and thumbs.
2. Star one photo per day, even on dull days.
3. Pick the cover last, once the month has a shape.

When to stop

Think about how the photos sit next to each other. Two busy pictures side by side can fight; a busy one beside a quiet one usually works.

A good caption answers the question someone will ask in twenty years. Who is that? Where were we? Why is everyone wet? Write the answer while you still know it, even if it feels too obvious to bother with today.

Start with what you already have

Quiet months are worth printing too. A month with no trips and no birthdays often turns into the book people return to, because it shows what ordinary life looked like before it changed.

Be generous on the first pass. You are not deciding what goes in the book yet, only what is definitely out.

• Write a few words beside the best ones
• Star photos as you take them
• Leave the cover for last

Try it this month

Keep the rejected photos somewhere safe for a while. Tastes change, and a picture you passed over may be the one you want next year.

If two photos are nearly the same, keep the one where someone is doing something. A raised hand, a turned head or a half-finished sentence gives a picture life that a perfectly still pose rarely has, even when the still one is technically better.

Keep it simple

Back up before you delete anything. It takes a minute and removes the fear that stops people from clearing out at all.

Ask someone else to look at your shortlist. They will spot the photo you were about to drop and the one you only kept out of habit.

Reader tip: one family keeps a paper list on the fridge of moments they want in the next book.

One more thing

Print sizes matter less than you think. A small photo surrounded by white space can feel more special than one stretched to fill the page.

When a month has a big event in it, such as a wedding or a first day at school, let it take over. There is no rule that says every week needs equal space. The book should feel like the month felt.

1. Delete the obvious misses: blurs, pockets and thumbs.
2. Star one photo per day, even on dull days.
3. Pick the cover last, once the month has a shape.

What we got wrong

Set aside a fixed time for it. The last Sunday of the month works for a lot of readers because the week is quiet and the month is complete.

Delete duplicates as you go rather than saving them for later. Later rarely comes, and a cleaner camera roll makes picking much easier.

What to look for

Try to include everyone. It is easy to end up with a book full of the children and none of the person holding the camera.

Take one photo before the moment and one after. The before and after often say more than the moment itself.

• Leave the cover for last
• Hand the camera to someone else
• Keep one photo per day at most

Make it a habit

Watch the light at different times of day in your own home. Most houses have one window that is lovely for an hour every afternoon.

Do not forget the in-between moments: the car park before the party, the coats piled on a chair, the walk home in the dark. They are the parts of a day that nobody photographs on purpose and everybody recognises straight away.