A shelf, not a hard drive

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.

Here are the photos that made it into the book. Tap any of them to see it larger.

Start with what you already have

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.

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

Make it a habit

If you have too many photos of one day, that day probably mattered. Give it a spread of its own rather than cutting it down to one.

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.

My mum reads the captions more than she looks at the pictures.

Leila, who writes every caption by hand

A few small rules

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

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.

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

What we got wrong

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.

Share the book when it arrives. Leaving it on the kitchen table for a day is often enough for everyone to have a look.

• Include at least one place, not just faces
• Hand the camera to someone else
• Leave the cover for last

Keep it simple

If you share a camera roll with someone, agree on who picks which month. Taking turns means each book has a slightly different point of view, and nobody ends up doing all of the work every time.

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.

Picking is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster.

Priya Nair, Paperleaf print room

When to stop

Try not to edit every photo. A little brightening is fine, but heavy filters date quickly and make a year of books look uneven when they sit together on a shelf. Let the light of the day show.