SYW284 – How to Plan for 2025

[00:00:14] Well, here we are friends. It is time for the 2025 Planning Party. I just looked up in my email archives that the first Planning Party event was held in November of 2017. So that makes this year, the eighth time for hosting the event. Sometimes when I add up these numbers my brain goes a little crazy because it seems like just yesterday as well as forever ago. And isn't that the case with so many of our memories that we are wanting to document in our scrapbooks?

[00:00:58] So let's dive in to this conversation today. I have two goals for you. One is to just share a few additional thoughts to get you started on this journey for the Planning Party. And then of course, I'm going to be walking you through the workbook. Now as the time to open it up and I'll be walking you through page by page. And if you are not yet registered for the 2025 Planning Party, there is still time to do so through December 12th. So, all you need to do is go to Simple Scrapper.com/plan 25 and get all registered so that you can get access to the workbook and our live events as well.

[00:01:55] And will that, let me share a couple of things.

[00:02:02] So one is kind of a. I don't know, underlying theme, if you will. That I want to focus on. During this event, and as we enter into 2025. And that is this question of what makes your hobby, your creative time, your scrapbooking deeply satisfying? What makes you feel good? Do you feel proud of? What do you always look forward to and never hesitate about?

[00:02:42] So throughout the workbook and our conversations over this month I will be bringing you back to this question and this idea of satisfaction.

[00:02:54] Because at the end of the day we're not trying to achieve here are two different things. So one thing I hear often is that you want more time. You need more time. You can't find the time. For scrapbooking. But we all know the time was kind of this. Uh, surrogate feeling. for lot of decisions that we make in our life.

[00:03:19] And on the other side we talk about productivity, about getting things done, about finishing. And it is normal and healthy. Uh, to have those. Desires. But to what end? Yes, we want these memories documented. But if we're not finding the process satisfying, if it doesn't bring us joy,

[00:03:52] then why are we doing it?

[00:03:55] So I want to keep coming back to this idea, to this kind of underlying premise.

[00:04:03] Because I think it is that course corrector, the thing that will help you realize. Okay. I, in theory on paper, want to do this. But maybe I really don't. Maybe this doesn't fit my life anymore. Maybe that's not important to me anymore. Maybe it just isn't fun. And that's okay. It's okay to create a plan that fills you up, uniquely you, and fits your life the way it is right now. Your plan doesn't need to look like anyone else's, just like my plan won't look like anyone else's.

[00:04:45] And so I want to start there. But then there's kind of this bookend to it, that connects to these ideas. And that's this idea of accountability. So.

[00:04:59] I've talked many times on the show about how that is kind of the heart and the core of what we do inside of the Simple Scrapper membership. We help you move towards your goals, we help you reach your goals. And yes, a certain element of that is about getting things done and finishing. But really it's this accountability to keep circling back, to keep asking the fun questions, the interesting questions, and sometimes the hard questions. That return us to this idea of making sure that our hobby, that our experience is deeply satisfying. So our brand of accountability is helping you show up again and again, whether or not you have a plan, you're on plan, you're off plan.

[00:05:49] It's about showing up and taking those steps forward so that you can stay connected to your hobby. Stay excited about creating. And. As we've said here, just have a, a magical. Mostly joyful experience. Sometimes you're going to beat your head against the wall because your printer's not working again or something just didn't quite work right.

[00:06:14] Some weird things stuck to another thing and you had to start over. Uh, those kinds of things happen. Just like they do in life. And so our, our version of accountability, what we can offer is to help you weather those ups and downs. And on the whole feel like your hobby and your leisure time, your self care time, your creative outlet is in a better place than it was the week, the month, the year before.

[00:06:46] All right.

[00:06:46] So those are two thoughts to carry into the beginning of the planning process. And as we jump into the workbook here, I want to just

[00:06:57] remind you of the structure that we're working within here. You can use the workbook and listen to me chat with you here. And run with it. And move on to whatever is next for you.

[00:07:13] But I'd like to encourage you to do a few additional things. One is to take the amount of time that you need. I know some of you love to dive in and just immerse yourself deeply in this, these thoughts over a shorter period of time. And I wholeheartedly welcome you to do that. And I know others like to sit on their ideas and work through them and talk about them with others. Put them aside and come back to them. And that is part of why we have extended the Planning Party from three days to 30 days for this year's session. I will be joining you live on Instagram five different times, just 30 minute, quick food for thought type of conversations, also be there to answer your questions.

[00:08:01] And then I'm not just doing one big session of our planning together event. I'm doing two, so one in November, and then a month later in December an Encore session. Same content, same concept. Uh, but it's the opportunity for you to close the books on your Planning Party experience. To refine and update your plan to find deeper clarity and obviously to connect with others. Um, as we go forward with it as well. Uh, your contributions to these live events are really what make them special and why we do them live. Uh, and not just recorded for you.

[00:08:44] So I'm really excited to, to chat with you, hopefully at one of those events, as well as on the Instagram lives.

[00:08:54] And then one other reminder. For those of you who have been here. At one of the previous seven sessions. You know that this is the time of the year we also share updates to Simple Scrapper. So we'll be sharing our own plan for 2025, what you can expect in the new year. The things that we're changing and the things that we're keeping the same because they are working well, just like we're encouraging you to do in your own planning process. So I can't wait to spend this time with you. Whether you're joining from day one or later on in the month, or sometime in the future.

[00:09:33] I want you to know that my passion is helping you enjoy your hobby.

[00:09:40] To feel connected to your creativity and your memory keeping. And to just keep going. We're here to be part of your creative family so that your scrapbooking continues well into the future. Okay, I'm going to stop talking now. And talk more, but in a more specific way about the workbook here. Okay. So.

[00:10:09] I'm just going to scroll through here. You can use this workbook either digitally on your computer or your tablet. And fill in the fields that way. There's fillable fields available for you. I want to caution you not to complete this in the browser. You want to be doing it in a PDF reader, whether that's, um, Adobe Acrobat or something native to your device, you don't want to be doing it in the web browser in a tab because that's, you're not going to be able to save it. So you want to download the file and then open it up and edit it that way. Or of course you can print it out. And, uh, write in it by hand. So always lots of options for you.

[00:10:53] And because you have the file, you can use it multiple times. You can do a draft and then polish it up. Um, again for safekeeping into the future.

[00:11:08] So we jump in with an introduction and a checklist of all the steps. There are six different steps. Plus some additional sub steps here. So I really want to help you. Um, keep track of your progress, particularly if you're working on this over time. My encouragement to you is to complete all the steps, at least in draft form. Before you attend one of our "Let's Plan Together" training events.

[00:11:36] This is my big capstone event for the Planning Party. And again, this is offered once in November and once in December. So.

[00:11:44] Get your workbook mostly done by the time you attend that live stream session. And you will be good to go.

[00:11:52] Okay, jumping into step one on page three. We are starting with the good things. What is working well for you? What in your hobby has helped you feel creative? Find flow, bring enjoyment? Um, has changed the game for you? And also what's working well in your life to support you in being a scrapbooker? Sometimes we don't think enough about that, the context we're operating within. Within our everyday lives and how that does and does not support us doing the things that we want to do. And so.

[00:12:37] As we get started with this, it's all about context and understanding where you are right now. And step two. Take the bird's eye view. Does the same. Here, we're thinking about what is known for the future. What do you know about 2025? And what does that inside of your scrapbooking as well as inside of your life? Sometimes we have projects we like to do annually, weekly. Maybe we have ongoing projects. Maybe we have events that we've already signed up for. What is already known for 2025?

[00:13:18] We have to make sure we're capturing that first because that's going to take up time and space. And then also what's going on in your life? What obligations, whether they're ongoing or have short-term over a period of time, major travel, major milestones within your family. What is happening that could impact the time, energy and motivation that you have for your scrapbooking?

[00:13:43] All right.

[00:13:44] Step three. This is where it starts to get really fun. This is where we're going to take all that context. And start honoring your curiosity. And thinking about all the different things that you're interested in right now and making sure we're not just thinking about making pages or creating projects. We're talking about. Yes, the things you want to create, but also what items you want to corral as in organize, or get a better handle of, index. How you want to connect with yourself and others?

[00:14:19] Um, some of these things like joining an online event like this one that help deepen your experience. And then what information do you want to consume? Uh, what online content do you want to make sure that you're always working through or what classes online do you want to take? Are there books that you want to read that support your creativity?

[00:14:42] Do you want to participate in a book club? Like the one that we have at Simple Scrapper? So this 4C method helps you brainstorm. But outside of our traditional box of "what is it that I want to do in my scrapbooking in terms of stories and projects?" Because all this other stuff, it takes time. And if we're not considering that bigger picture, we're not going to be able to plan appropriately to make sure that we have enough time for all the priorities. And I think this is the place where a lot of us get tripped up. Because, yes, we're spending time in our hobby, but it's not always in a way that shows a completed page or project.

[00:15:30] And so we have to start opening our brain up to, to all of that.

[00:15:38] Step four is. A three-part process here. We have steps for A, B and C. And this is really helping you look at different aspects of your hobby. We organize our year around six creative journeys. Each of them has a theme. And what you'll see here are three questions, three statements, if you will. For each of these themes: habits, organization, storytelling, photos, projects, and planning. We do these themes each year and we move through them two months at a time. And these, these statements that you're responding to are what you could consider. Uh, Best practices or opportunities to grow and improve and ways to evaluate how you're doing. Yes, we all have different priorities of what's important. But this is a way to get started and think about where you might need to spend your time. Outside of that realm of telling stories, using products, making pages. And so I'm asking you to rate each of these statements.

[00:16:58] So for example, I consistently make time for my creative hobbies, including scrapbooking. Rate that on a scale of zero, as in you don't identify with that at all, to four, as a new completely, fully, a hundred percent identify with that statement.

[00:17:15] And then in section 4B we give you an opportunity to use colored pencils or whatever creative device that you want, to fill in our Your Way Wheel. So each question, there's 18 questions or 18 statements. Represents a slice of pie on the wheel and you just fill it in based on your responsive zero to four. For those looking at the workbook, that makes a little bit more sense.

[00:17:43] And so I want to encourage you to follow along that way as well. There are instructions in there. But I know some of us are, are auditory learners. And having me talk you through it gives you a better sense of what my intentions are.

[00:17:58] All right. And then step 4C, the last part of this, Your Way Wheel activity. Take your observations from this step and go back and update step three, which was your 4C chart. Create, corral, connect, and consume. Because each of these six categories, there's going to be something in there that you didn't quite realize that you might want to work on now, you don't have to. But based on what you observe from this. You might want to go add something back to your list that could be a priority for you, or is an opportunity for skill development or growth. So for example, one of the things that I added was that I need a better system of what happens after a layout is completed. Sometimes I date it sometimes I don't. Sometimes it goes in this one particular box.

[00:18:55] Sometimes it goes on this one particular shelf. I don't have a consistent routine system of what happens after I make a layout so that all the boxes are checked. And that came from rating. Item a under storytelling as a two. Which says I had journaling and a date to all of my scrapbook pages and projects.

[00:19:18] And while I typically do add journaling, the date part is something that's really hard for me. And has that kind of snowball effect that effect, then don't have a date on it. It becomes even more difficult to file things later to actually put my layouts away in an album. And so I really do appreciate having that.

[00:19:40] And so that's something that I want to work on in 2025.

[00:19:46] All right. Step five. This is an opportunity to think a little bit differently, to think about what makes scrapbooking feels satisfying, as we've been discussing? What makes you show up consistently? But to do it from the perspective of giving advice to others. Because we all know we can provide some of the the best, most helpful advice to others a bit easier than we can to ourselves. So I want to encourage you to take that perspective of answering someone else's question. And see what you would say. And then of course, what actions could you take to honor that in your own hobby?

[00:20:34] And that will come into play in step six, which is making your plan. So, what you'll find is that I have six boxes for you, corresponding to our six creative journeys. These relate to every two month period of the year. So January and February is one box, March and April is one box. And so on. And I'm giving you this checklist of steps of how to update the plan. And if you go in order, you'll be making tweaks and adjustments, making additions, maybe even taking things off. As you go through this step-by-step checklist. And the idea here is to have a plan of possibility, to have an idea of what your potential priorities are. Because for each two month period We're going to have to look at this again and know, okay.

[00:21:29] "What has changed? Does this still seem exciting to me? Is this going to work?" And so on. So this is the starting point. This isn't the end all be all. That you have to check off to a T in order to be done, good ,and satisfied for 2025. This is the work in progress. You're going to use as the baseline, when January rolls around. Now I'm actually going to be hosting another event live in January called Start Fresh, where we'll talk about how we take this big picture concept and start narrowing that down to two month periods, to being in the throes of the new year energy. Which we know can be a little bit tricky. With so much momentum going into January and the difficulty in finding that momentum and continuing it and maintaining it throughout the year. So we'll talk even more about the next stages when January rolls around. But for now. I just want you to follow the steps.

[00:22:41] Take note of maybe questions that you have, what's tripping you up. And start putting together your plan. My plan looks like having context in each box. So for example, in July and August, I wrote that my daughter is starting high school. So that I put that in parentheses, as you know, to me, that means context because that's going to be something that takes time and energy away from my scrapbooking.

[00:23:10] That's going to be a lot of things to do and changes in routines. And so not only will that provide new stories to scrapbook, but it's going to impact my context for being able to scrapbook.

[00:23:22] So this whole conversation, all these questions kind of layer together. To help give you an idea of how to make a plan. That feels fun. That is doable. That's realistic. That's full of possibility and potential that you can work from. Throughout 2025.

[00:23:42] And then of course I provide a whole page of notes for you to list questions that maybe you have for me,

[00:23:48] that you want to post on our event page, that you want to ask at the Instagram live or bring to the "Let's Plan Together" live stream of event.

[00:23:59] I hope this offered helpful additional context from my thought process, as I went through updating this planning workbook for you, completing it myself, knowing that we have tested this process.

[00:24:15] We've refined it. Every year, we're iterating to make it even better. And to move you towards that place of satisfying soul filling scrapbooking. We want your hobby to feel good, to fit your life ,and be all that you want it to be. Scrapbooking is not an inexpensive hobby. We know that. We invest a lot of, not just our finances into it, but our hearts, our energies, because this is also so incredibly personal. I'm honored to be with you here for this process. And I can't wait to see how your plan unfolds during the Planning Party and in 2025. Thanks.

[00:25:01] Let's talk again soon. And as always. Please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.