August 15, 2018

Catching up on Project Life. 5 tips to get you started in the right direction.

Today I am sharing some of the insights that I gained while trying to catch up on my Project Life 2016. Those might be helpful for you when you are trying to decide whether or not to take on such a big ongoing project and also when you want to start tackling one of you unfinished projects. So let's dive into my five tips.



Before you start with the creative process, I encourage you to spend some time editing and printing your photos. This might sound like a very daunting task, but having everything ready to go when you have some spare time to work on a spread is so helpful! If you are working with a double spread there are 16 pockets so I suggest you choose between 8-12 photos per week. Once you have them printed, sort them by week in envelopes so you can grab them when you want to create a spread.



While you are choosing your photos keep a notebook where you add a note for each photo you choose. This way you remember why you chose the photo to be documented and what you wanted to say about it. It is also very helpful to add the week number and date range for each week, then you have one specific place you'll find that information once you start your creative process.



When you try to catch up on a big project like Project Life it is better to limit the configuration of your pocket style page protectors, the most common one is Design A. and I highly recommend this configuration due to its popularity. You will find the most inspiration for this style of page protector. It eliminates a whole step in the decision making process while printing photos: all vertical photos get printed in 3x4 and all horizontal ones in 4x6. You will also find that when you progress, you get more comfortable with this one specific style and you start to develop a routine.



Instead of using everything you have available to you in your stash try to limit your supplies: either use a special pocket kit like the Cocoa Daisy Memory Keeping Pocket kit or create your own kits from your stash. By limiting your supplies you will find that you can create a lot faster because you will not spend hours looking for the right card, the perfect sticker or the best stamp. Getting new supplies every month or rotating through your stash also keeps things fresh and interesting.

Lastly, don't force it. What does that mean? If you want to also work on other projects during this time set your monthly goals low. Commit to one or two weekly spread per month. Even if that means you will be working on this project for quite a while to come, don't let a "catching up project" overwhelm you and burn you out. And if you are done and there is just no way you see yourself ever finishing this project? Then give yourself some grace: decide to leave a gap in your album and call it finished. Remove the visible gap and don't look at the weeks you didn't finish. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder and see all the amazing things that you did manage to document! You rock!

I hope these five tips were helpful and you can incorporate them in you creative process! Here is my process video for Week 36/2016 that I am slowly catching up on. I use my Cocoa Daisy kits each month to create one week this leaves me enough time to work on so many other projects. I have everything already printed and my promots for each week in my notebook so I can take as much time as I need.


Thanks so much for stopping in today!

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