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Feeling hopelessly behind

bderby

bderby

No, I will not tell you what "merde" means!
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
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I did P365 for 2 years and PL last year, so this is my 4th year running with some sort of daily documenting project, but I am so hopelessly behind this year. I have just been feeling overwhelmed with life, underwhelmed with my photography skills that seem to be slipping away, and just having the hardest time getting caught up.

The month of September was just ROUGH--back to school (for my boys and me as a teacher), back to soccer practice and games, etc, etc--and there were some weeks I literally took 2 pictures. But I did edit all my photos from September and am about halfway done with a couple page spread to summarize that crazy month. That is my goal for this weekend--get something done!!

Anyone else feeling way behind?
 
I'm still working on my May pages for my regular scrapbooking, so if you're up to September I think you should pat yourself on the back! Lol! On the plus side, if you didn't take many pictures it should be easier to catch up, right?
 
Do not give up! If you don't feel inspired by the photos, then give yourself a break and move on to October.

It's so funny. I was working on my PL and took a break, and I came here and found this. I am actually proud of myself for keeping up these past two years. 2012 was another story.. I only got about half the year done (it was my first PL).
I am working on Week 39 at the moment - it is filled with photos because it's the week we went to Chicago, so it's taking me a while to tackle it. I like to be 3-4 weeks behind max and it's creeping up to almost 6 now, so I am starting to feel behind and want to catch up.
Anyway, PL is pretty much the only thing I am caught up on and I make it a priority. My scrapbook pages are very random and do not cover everything so PL is very important to me.

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i gave up on this a long time ago. I do want to get back into it, though - as my very favorite album ever is my PL one.
 
Karen said:
I'm still working on my May pages for my regular scrapbooking, so if you're up to September I think you should pat yourself on the back! Lol! On the plus side, if you didn't take many pictures it should be easier to catch up, right?
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Oh i haven't finished summer yet. I had a huge week full of photos around the 4th of July that I was about 80% complete on and I think school started and I didn't' open PSE for like three weeks and apparently I didn't save it (major fail) and it has kind of taken the wind out of my sails. So, in an effort to jump start the process, I just chose to try to get September scrapped and feel better about myself :)
 
I'm also working on May 2014 right now. And also on some 2013, as that is yet to be complete, and won't be complete any time before 2015. It's all good. The albums are worth it when they're done. I may not be done exactly on time, but I'll be done sometime. That's good enough for me.
 
All the time! Back in January, my word for the year was "accomplish," but in October that gave way to "let it go"! I do my PL by month instead of week, so you'd think it would be easier, but there are entire months I haven't done anything for this year just because I was so busy doing other things. Lately I've felt inspired by kits, like OLB's Fete has inspired me to go back & finish spreads for birthdays I haven't tackled yet. I'm OK with not doing things in order. They'll get done when they get done.

Sometimes it helps to make lists? To take some pressure off of yourself. Like, start with the most important event or week and work down through the weeks after that. Or start with journalling the things you don't want to forget, then do the spreads when you're inspired by a kit or by something else.

RebeccaH said:
I may not be done exactly on time, but I'll be done sometime. That's good enough for me.
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For me this is the key, not putting pressure on myself to be finished by a certain deadline.
 
MelanieB said:
Sometimes it helps to make lists? To take some pressure off of yourself. Like, start with the most important event or week and work down through the weeks after that. Or start with journalling the things you don't want to forget, then do the spreads when you're inspired by a kit or by something else.
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I agree with making a list. I did this a few weeks ago, and it has really helped.
I print my albums by quarter, so my list is also broken into quarters. it's like biting off smaller pieces of the elephant, you know? So I have each week of each quarter on a list in OneNote. Then I mark it off as I finish it... let's me set smaller goals of finishing one quarter, rather than the giant goal of "CATCHING UP."
 
I was feeling behind, but then I made the 'monumental' (it felt that way to me!) decision to stop decorating my photos (like putting little pieces of wordart on them or writing a couple lines of journaling), and that has saved me so much time. I still have a few work-in-progress spreads to finish, but I realize that at some point, my baby will start sleeping through the night & then I can catch those up.

I've found that it also helps to place the photos and write a blurb in the 3x4 spaces to remind myself of what I want to do for that week if that's all I have time for in the moment. Clipping a few photos to template spaces and writing in 'calendar,' 'weekly menu,' etc. takes 10-15 minutes, but really speeds the process along when I get back to that spread (especially if it's a couple weeks later) and know exactly what I'm going to put where.
 
LeeAndra said:
I was feeling behind, but then I made the 'monumental' (it felt that way to me!) decision to stop decorating my photos (like putting little pieces of wordart on them or writing a couple lines of journaling), and that has saved me so much time. I still have a few work-in-progress spreads to finish, but I realize that at some point, my baby will start sleeping through the night & then I can catch those up.

I've found that it also helps to place the photos and write a blurb in the 3x4 spaces to remind myself of what I want to do for that week if that's all I have time for in the moment. Clipping a few photos to template spaces and writing in 'calendar,' 'weekly menu,' etc. takes 10-15 minutes, but really speeds the process along when I get back to that spread (especially if it's a couple weeks later) and know exactly what I'm going to put where.
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Those are good ideas! I need to be more dedicated about just getting my photos off my camera and edited and onto some sort of template. I have definitely embraced the much more simple style and while it still make me happy to look at my pretty decorated pages, the ones that I simply get finished make me feel good too because they are simply done.
 
I think I've talked about this before but I just keep adding albums every year and scrapping what I can whenever I'm inspired (I'm working on a page for Nov. 2013 right now..but that certainly doesn't mean that Jan.-Oct. are done..lol).

I'll most likely add a new album in 2015 and have 4 albums on the go. I really try not to look at it as being behind (because that would make me quit) but rather that I'm documenting these years little pieces at a time, much like I do in my regular scrapbooking. This just gives me a way to record life chronological since my scrapbook pages are anything but.
 
I should add that I try to take lots of notes (some months I'm more successful than others)..especially for things I don't have pictures of and I use Facebook statuses to remind me as well. My memory is a bit like a sieve.
 
I'm way, way "behind". I haven't finished my 2012 PL album--got 12 weeks to go to finish it, then I can order an actual, completed 10x10 Shutterfly album of the pages: a first! I'm still recovering from a major block, whatever you want to call it. Had to take up loom knitting to feel the least bit creative again. I've also decided to use all those actions I've bought from Wendyzine that help you get through batches of pages. That's almost all I'm still capable of right now. The bummer is, there are several months in there that I barely took any pictures at all.

I'd say, if you can, focus on one small project at a time. It might help.
 
I love this topic Becky! I actually wrote a blog post on TLP blog about this subject last week! I try not to think of it as being "behind" Quite like Sarah I scrap out of order.
 
Like Jewelle and Sarah, I'm calling it "scrapping out of order. I have a little post-it note on my computer that has the weeks I still need to do in 2013 & 2014. I was all proud of myself this week because I just hit the over-halfway-mark on 2013... only 25 weeks left to do for 2013!! LOL. But I have the majority of 2014 still to do. :p

I get frustrated because I don't think about taking pictures, or because all of the weeks sort of blend into one another with the same old routine, but I'm not giving up yet. I'm going to try to throw in different things for photos and see what creativity I can come up with on that front. I also still get too fixated on trying to decorate every page and have lots of embellies. It is kind of crazy because that totally goes against what PL was supposed to be in the first place. LOL. I just need to remember that and be happy with less "stuff" on my pages.

I think the monthly subscription here will sort of help me out. I can use that one bundle for all of the weeks in November and not waste a lot of time shuffling between kits and elements and whatnot. And I'm going to try the same for December.
 
My PL album is months behind. This is my 2nd year of PL, and both years summer has kicked my butt. The kids are around more and we're doing more interesting things together, so I'm taking more photos and have less time to get them scrapped. Sept is always crazy, but then we get to Oct and all of a sudden I get motivated to work on PL. Last year I was almost as behind as this year, but I still got the entire year of PL LOs done by mid-Jan.

One way I'm trying to speed things up is using dedicated PL kits and card sets (especially Just Jaimee's Storyteller line) and not trying to do it all myself from a regular kit like I used to. I'm using more premade cards and fewer embellishments, but I can't do away with embellishing entirely or I don't like my pages.

The other thing I do is make sure to take good notes all year. My memory stinks--if it isn't written down, it doesn't end up on the page. And for me, it's all those little stories and kid quotes and such that make me love PL and stay committed to getting it done even when I'm behind.
 
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