Tackling Those Unfinished Projects

Over the last couple of months I've been thinking a lot about unfinished projects. Specifically unfinished memory keeping projects.

This year I'm going to make it a priority tackle them and I'm going to share the journey here on my blog.

Here are the steps I'm taking to make this happen:

STEP ONE | Make a conscious choice to make this is a priority this year.

We've set aside three hours per week (a block on Thursday mornings) for me to work through these projects. It doesn't feel like a lot of time, but it's dedicated time to only work on the projects on this list.

STEP TWO | Make a list of all the projects you have unfinished.

Most of my unfinished projects are travel albums. Some of them I started Scrapbook On The Road travel albums while I was on the adventure and others just have photos and stuff and no documentation was done along the way.

Here's what I would like to complete this year:

• China 2013 Album


• Paris 2013 Album


• Ireland 2012 Album


• Disneyland 2012 Album (see my start here)


• Italy 2011 Album


• Italy 2010 Family Album


• Maui 2010 Album

STEP THREE | Decide which ones are worth finishing and which ones you can let go.

My encouragement to you is to get real about this. Some projects can be let go. Letting go frees you up to focus on the ones that are most important. Another option if you don't want to let go of a project is to change your approach. Instead of a mini-book you might choose to add the photos and words to a Project Life album or simply create a couple of traditional layouts that can be added to an annual album. Remember that there are lots of options and it's okay to change your mind even if you started out in a particular direction.

Be realistic with yourself and your time and your motivation.

STEP FOUR | Make a plan but don't make planning your project. Make completing the projects your project.

So often it's easy to spend all our time planning and not enough time doing. What's your personal procrastination? Shopping for the perfect items? Writing the perfect journaling? Editing your photos? Making decisions about the format or what supplies to use? There are a million and one different ways to procrastinate on these projects or spend all your time planning and then run out of steam.

Each one of us will have a different plan for actually completing these projects. Your plan might be to set aside a couple hours a week or month to devote to these projects that have been on your list for years.

The important part is to have some sort of plan and then make it happen. You can do this. I can do this and I'll share the first part of my plan and my first action steps below.

STEP FIVE | Get to work.

Throughout 2014 I'll share my journey and update you on my process here on my blog.

MY PERSONAL ACTION PLAN | BEGIN WITH SOME ORGANIZATION

Here's a look at the specific steps I took this week to get things moving in the right direction:

When you enter my office there's a little room you walk through before you're technically in the office. This is the room that holds the white table which is where we photograph most of our projects. As you can see from the photo above it also includes a blue table (which is on it's way out) with a bunch of baskets and a large rolling baking rack (holding all the trays) that I purchased from a local restaurant supply store a few years back.

I first saw the idea of using a backing rack in one of the last issues of Better Homes & Gardens Scrapbooks Etc magazine. They had set one up in a common area for people to hold projects in-progress. I loved the idea and was able to locate one locally and have it delivered to my house.

When Katie and I started talking about tackling my unfinished projects in 2014 I knew I wanted to utilize these trays in a more intentional way. They've been holding projects and other miscellaneous stuff for the last couple of years with no specific purpose other than storage.

On Thursday we went through all the trays and removed all the random stuff and then assigned a tray to each of my unfinished albums. These trays are 19 inches wide x 26 inches long. We labeled each tray with the project name.

What I love about the trays is that I can simply pull one out and bring it to my work table (or down to the dining room if I wanted to work there) and then just put everything back on the tray to store it away until the next time I'm able to work on it. The trays rock.

Luckily for me most of the stuff for each project (photos, stuff collected while traveling, albums, some products, etc) was all already together. Most of the time I came home from a trip and put everything into a bag and then put it in a pile somewhere in the office. Ah, piles.

Here's what you'll find on each tray at this time:

ITALY 2010 | This is the only trip where all the photos are already printed. A couple years ago I had Katie go through all the photos from this trip (she came on this trip with us) and organize them into envelopes based on themes (vs. a chronological timeline of our adventures). I'm considering putting this trip into a Project Life album because of the sheer number of photos that are all already printed 4x6 and that I didn't start any sort of Scrapbook On The Road album in advance.

ITALY 2011 | This was my first Scrapmap adventure and I did great collecting stuff along the way. I have Instax photos but no other photos printed yet. This album has a kit to go along with it (the one I brought for the people who came on the trip) so I'll likely be using those supplies to bring the album together.

DISNEYLAND 2012 | You can read my recent post about starting the process for this album here.

IRELAND 2012 | My second travel adventure with Scrapmap. I actually did a bit more scrapbooking while we were traveling on this trip, but still nothing near done with no photos printed.

PARIS 2012 | For Paris I took along my own little set of supplies (including my Epson printer) but ended up doing very little (which I was totally fine with). No photos printed yet except for the Instax images. Inside the bigger bag were the supplies I brought along with me. Inside the album are all the pieces of paper and such I picked up along the way.

CHINA 2013 | Again, lots of stuff collected on the way. No photos printed. I can't wait to work with the photos from this trip.

The only one from my list that's missing is our family trip to Maui in 2010. I need to go back and take a look at what photos I have from that trip and figure out how I want to tackle it. It's the only one that I don't have anything from - no plane tickets, notes, etc.

As we were getting each project on it's own tray we made a couple of assessments:

1. Did I have a format already in place/what album was I planning to use?


2. Did I have any photos printed?

This was really more for my general information. Most already have albums that go along with them and I'm planning to continue using what I started with for each of those trips.

As I write this up today I actually feel really excited about tackling these projects. Having a plan in place and some time set aside feels good.

NEXT STEPS

After your figure out your own list of projects you'd like to finish this year the next question will be which one to tackle first. I'm planning to do mine one at a time vs. batching my steps such as printing all the photos for all the projects at one time which would be something I'd consider if I didn't print at home.

Next week I'm going to decide which project to begin. Most likely I'll start with whichever one I feel most excited about on Thursday (the day I've set aside to work on these projects) and go from there!

Ready, set, go!