Your first hour

Here is the whole secret of a good first hour: do three small things, then stop while it still feels good. People who try to "do the whole life" on day one burn out by day three. People who save one true story on day one are usually still adding stories a year later.

1. Create the archive

From your dashboard, start a new archive. The first thing we ask is the only thing that matters: who is this about? A name — even a nickname, even "Grandma Ruth" — is enough to begin. Dates, relationships, and photos can all come later, and nothing will nag you for them.

You'll be asked who this person is to you and where they are in life — living, ill, living with memory loss, or no longer living. Answer honestly; the archive gently adapts. A remembrance archive won't ask for "upcoming milestones." An archive for a living parent will lean toward questions you can still ask.

2. Write one memory

Not the most important memory. Not the best-written. Just one true one — the story they always told, the thing they said constantly, the smell of their kitchen. Open "add a memory," pick whatever kind feels closest (a story, a funny story, a quote, a thing they loved), and write it like you'd tell it across a table.

3. Add one photo

One photo from your phone, with one line about it: who, roughly when, and — if there is one — the story. A photo with a caption is worth ten without.

Then stop

Really. The archive is private — nobody can see it but you until you decide otherwise — and there is no deadline, no streak, no progress bar shaming you. Come back tomorrow, or Sunday, or next month. It will be exactly as you left it.