Need Help/Suggestions about streamlining Project Life

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm including in mine and I've just decided to focus on trying to take pictures as often as I can and writing at least one thing down each day about what we did in a calendar so I have lots to work with. I have been pulling out the things that I most want to document and adding them when I have time. I'm seriously not worrying about a page a week or a page a month and just putting stuff in there that I think I will want to remember. It's definitely a work in progress and I'm not even finished with January's stuff (I got a late start). Since I got a late start I'm planning on starting fresh with April and going back and adding the rest as I have time.

 

christine, this would be exactly why i'm so far behind. i just can't sacrifice the other stuff to take so much time to do my PL.

 

Sorry, I cannot help you here.. It takes me a lot of time as well, and I am *almost* caught up (2 weeks behind). I would have thought that the digital pages you did a few weeks back would be faster to make, but I think you said they weren't.. I think it just takes time to edit all the photos, figure out how to place them, and embellish..

 

i used to paper scrap. i felt so overwhelmed by all the paper and product i had, a room full! i told myself when i started project life that i will keep it simple. though i love seeing the "extras" that people put in, i keep to the pictures. i add some journaling to the photos themselves, that saves time. i have few journaling blocks and that is about it. don't worry about making it perfect. just focus on what you want to remember. don't get stressed out. if you have a lot of pictures just pick the ones that mean that most to you. it maybe takes me an hour each monday to do my pages. sometimes longer if i have more photos and need to journal more.

i kind of rambled so i hope this helps. if you want to see my pages they are in my blog below. good luck!!!

 

As the year has gone on, mine has definitely become more digital than I thought it would be. I'm typing out a lot more than I'm writing.

My process is spread out over the week because every night I sit down and get the photos ready and journaling cards made for that day. Then on Sunday all I have to do is finish up Saturday, print out my journal cards and send the order in to print the photos. I thought at the beginning of the year that mine would be more hybrid, but it just takes too much time that I'm not willing to take.

 

I don't know if you've done an insert every week but I seem to remember you doing a number of them. Maybe skip inserts? Look at the week as fitting into those 2 pages and don't worry about making more room for extras? I bet you cover the stuff you would do an insert of, on your blog. (?)

Do you spend much time editing your photos? Could you work on using more pics right out of the camera?

What do you think takes the MOST time? I'm thinking that you should look at that task first to find ways to streamline it.

I hope you find a way to make it work!! I would hate to lose you (from PL)!

 

I started last night at about 7 and finished at about 10. I printed 7 horizontal 4x6 to fit in the big spots, typing some journaling on the photos. Then I used Lili's 4x6 template that splits into two and did 4 3x4 additional photos with a little writing in the open spot. I filled the rest with smash pad pages and a written journaling card.

I agree with Tracy, mine is a lot more digital than I thought. I journal on the photos, I use the digital journaling cards, insert a photo maybe and journal on those. My written stuff is reserved for the title card and maybe 1 or 2 paper journaling cards in a week. I used to spend just about all day Sunday doing PL and that is just not possible during this time of year. I was using all sorts of cute little digital tags and tabs and the pages were pretty but not sustainable when I'm this busy.

I figure when you look through the book you'll see where tax season falls into my world and hopefully I'll be able to spend a little more time at other points during the year. I'm not going to stress over this, telling some stories is better than telling no stories. I LOVE using screen shots of texts in my book, they are little stories in themselves.

I hope you find a way to make it fun again, Christine. Because it is supposed to be fun!

 

Can you do some of your journal cards and maybe jot down or sketch out ideas on your lunch break during the week? Then you'd just have to print pictures and stuff them in on the weekend... if you simplified everything down to just pictures and journal cards...

 

I really re-vamped what I was doing several weeks ago, and then totally re-did all my pages! I knew I wouldn't be able to keep at it if I didn't. I made a right page template and a left page and use those over and over. For me I let the photos be the main focus and add just a bit of journaling. The only thing I change each week is I add different papers and change the color of the labels...that adds some creativity, but minimal decision making. I plan on printing a book, so I think I'm going to be happy with the continuity of the sameness of the pages. I admire so much those who are making such beautifully detailed pages, but knew I couldn't keep up trying to do that. Hope you figure out something that fits for you!

 

--less post-processing/editing of your photos
--more photos and less journal cards/words
--moving to one page per week or to a more monthly format (if your life is already well-documented, perhaps this would be the best idea for you?)
--taking this weekend to pump out some pre-printed journal cards that you can write on while you're out and abt/during the week
--committing to documenting the same things on a pre-planned basis so there are many less decisions to make e.g. a weekly weather screenshot, a monthly goal card, a monthly spotlight on your current faves or an important person in your life, etc.
--not giving yourself as many options in terms of supplies
--only using inserts to hold ephemera that won't fit in the pockets/allowing some photos or events to go un-PLed and giving yourself permission (or the freedom?) to scrap them later

HTH!

 

Go digital! I've done so 7 years ago and just recently started to do paper again but I'm only doing a 4 x 6 card each week. For my project life (project 365) I'm using the same exact template each week. I made the template and I just put my photo over it and control-G and it's done. My journaling cards are different. I try to write about what happened about the photo. If it's an ordinary photo I just do a week in review card. Then if I have more of a story I try to write more about it. I am also trying to put in quotes that have been talking to me. I keep a blog where I upload my photo each day with some journaling about it. I also tag it with the week so if I get behind I can just go to my blog and click on the week I need to do and all my photos come up. I've been doing this for 4 years now (project 365). The blog really helps! Good luck.

 

Maybe you can write out the journal cards during the week? So you just have to stick them in?

 

Maybe you could have your journaling cards with you at your computer and while your doing your blog you write that on one of the journaling cards...

Instead of documenting everything maybe you can pick one or two things from the week and print out some of your blog and insert it in there... It just seems that since your already documenting everything on the blog that maybe there could be a way to do the journaling and getting the pictures ready to print at the same time and then you can spend just a couple hours in your craft room with your cards and pictures already done and then your just doing the art part of it instead of having to do all the documenting and decorating in one sitting

ETA: on my phone so excuse auto-correct and grammar lol

 

LOL, I didn't see Angie's response before replying

 

I'm there, too. I love it, but I'm getting a little overwhelmed by it, especially since the weeks ahead are going to be nuts around here. I did speed through Week 12, and I'm really just about as happy with it as I was when I took 5 plus hours a few weeks ago.

I do hate that it's taken away from my digital layouts, but I'm going to stick with it and hopefully not let it bog me down too much.

 

The way you do your pages is so *involved*! They're lovely to look at, but I wonder if taking it down to the simplest ground that Becky Higgins designed it for would be a good thing for you. Select your photos. Maybe do some color balancing if needed. Use the text from your blog OR OhLife (that's what I've started doing; taking the text directly from the emails) and cut it down to a half-hour per page. I'm trying for that, even though I'm doing it entirely digi. I think I'm giving up on the clear page covers, myself. Those add about a half hour of fiddle-time to my process, and although I like the look, ugh, they're fussy things.

Like I told another perfectionist on the board, look at your simple pages as a rough draft, not fixed in time, that you can go back and fiddle with *later* when you want.