. . .or that of your parents or grandparents
This plan allows for a person to thoughtfully write about one aspect of their life each week of the year. It helps to make the task more doable. It also gives some structure other than starting at birth and ending at a person's current age. These questions are answerable at any age, and thus can be used by anyone.
65 Interview Questions For Kids to Ask Their Parents (or Grandparents)
"found at the Rule This Roost website. At the bottom of the article is a printable list of the questions.
Write Your Family History - 50 Questions You Must Ask Parents Or Grandparents Before They Die" by Mike Brozda. Mike also gives pointers on how to best get the results you want.
Write Your Personal History in 5 Minutes a Day focuses on writing just "one memory a day." These "Thought provoking questions" are divided into three categories by age group.
The Church News article, How to Get Started Writing a Personal History discusses how to jot down and organize ideas for stories you may want to tell about your life. It is not the series of questions type of article, but gives a different set of insights to help the process.
The Write a Personal History Page on FamilySearch is an in-depth discussion on writing personal histories on Family Search's website discusses various types of histories, including Memoirs, Picture Scrapbooks, Autobiographies and more. It also discusses steps to get started writing a personal history. It is very detailed.
Note: If you are struggling to get older parents to start, have their grandchildren ask these questions to get their grandparents to start telling stories as answers to these questions.
These sessions can be audio and/or video recorded with a smartphone or digital camera. Many apps allow for recording and automatically converting the sound to text that can be edited later.
If recording is not a possibility, you can write down the stories you heard when you get home.