It’s already starting. Really, as soon as school starts, the Halloween decorations roll out. Mid-October, the holiday season kicks into full gear and the pace does not let up until January. That is, of course, only if you let it.
This time of year photo opportunities are seemingly endless and the digital scrapbooking products can’t get any cuter! How does the busy memory keeper handle it all? Start with these 5 steps to keep you sane from now until the new year.
1. The 15 minute rule. Spend short but intensive bursts of time wrapping up projects that are almost complete. Here’s one example. I have 75 layouts printed and ready to be sleeved. I could do a super-fast sort into categories in one block of time and then get them into pages in another. With this off my to-do list, I could focus on editing the new batch of photos from the weekend. Use the 15 minute rule to break any dreaded task into manageable parts. You’ll feel motivated by the momentum and may even keep working!
2. Be nit picky. With so many more photo-worthy situations, its good to be cautious about your snapping. If you will spend time with post-processing, treat your digital memory cards like real film. While you can’t truly waste a digital image, you can waste your own time deleting 8 out of 10 versions of the same beautiful scene. Last week I saw a beautiful ray of sunlight peeking through a cloud. I took an extra moment to select the right camera settings and good composition. I took two photos instead of twelve.
3. Plan to share. It’s likely you’re seeing family members a lot more often this time of year, especially if you live within a few hours. Make that phone call or send an email to set up a photo sharing strategy. Make a schedule for who is lead photographer for a given family event. Then, commit to sharing photos with the rest of your family in a timely fashion. If you’re like me, you are the lead photographer for every event. Make this easier on you by figuring out now how you will get those images to everyone else. Via DVD? Buy those blank disks now! Online? Make sure that Flickr account is paid up.
4. Play tag. While that big project of tagging your scrap supplies may only be 1/4 complete, you can make some big headway by focusing on one category. Go ahead and find all of your fall and winter holiday-themed items and get those organized. Take this time to purge kits, especially freebies, you downloaded last year and no longer totally love. You’ll feel great knowing this portion of your stash is already under control. I did this last year, just for Christmas and New Years-themed items. Make sure you stay caught up by adding these tags to any new acquisitions this season.
5. Stock up. Lots of photos make great opportunities to use great templates. Dig out those Project 365 templates hiding in your January downloads or spend some time shopping for new goodies. Catch up by scrapping the re-cap and get ahead on planning your year-end review. Think of templates as a time-tested recipe for great scrapping. Use them to get the basic design all set and then add your own spice to it! I love browsing my templates frequently so I know what I have. Then, when I’m flipping through a new collection of photos, I can think “ooh, I’ve got the perfect template for that.” This gives me tons of motivation to get scrapping.
These are just a few things you can do right now to get a jump on the holiday buzz. Simple Scrapper has some great things coming up to help you capture the holidays season in a stress-free way. In the meantime, what tip do you rely on to keep your memory keeping manageable and on-track this time of year?
Awesome suggestions. I never would of thought of the 15 min rule. If I cant get it all done, I usually dont even start it!!!
I dont have any new suggestions to share really. If I need to remember lots of things, I send myself an email To-Do list with all the info relevant to the tasks. Then I reply/forward the list to myself each day with updates. I do this because I practically live on my email. lol