Project Life Catch Up

I go backwards start with the current week first... and I still do 2 page spreads for each week... but the beauty of PL is that you can do whatever you want and you don't have to do weekly but can do monthly or by events or the everyday stuff in a few pages just to have that kind of stuff documented

 

Yes, if I was going to catch up from March AND if I didn't have lots of pictures, I would do it by months. Also I agree to start with the most current month. If you take some time to sit down and plan it out, the actual process of putting it together will go a lot faster and be more fun, IMO. I didn't make a spread for about 2 months, so when I sat down to catch up, I did the most recent week as a 1 page spread. It went so fast and easy that I went ahead and did the previous week the same way. Plus printing them out and putting them in the album encourages me, too.

 

I think it depends what you've got from the 'missing' months. I'm playing catch up too. I have a gap for the summer months, but I did take plenty of photos (mostly, there's the odd week here and there where I seem to have forgotten what the camera's for!) and I did keep up with the journalling (again, mostly!). I've always been happy to be flexible about the length of time in a spread, sometimes its just a weekend, and I squish the rest of the week with the previous one, sometimes it's two weeks if wasn't a particularly exciting, or photoworthy time. Sometimes I'll pad it out with lots of journalling, random blather or filler cards.

If you didn't keep up with the photography or the journalling, it might be better to go monthly.

I'm working through in a kind of 'power-scrapping' style, I've edited all the photos as much as I'm going to and I'm now sticking them into templates, after that I'll go through and do the writing, then go back and pretty them up a bit - I'm sticking to very minimal otherwise I'll never get this done!

 

I was about 2 months behind on my layouts but I was taking pics & keeping notes for each day. Eventually I got around to getting the pics printed & into the pockets - then I went through w/the journaling & the finishing touches. MANY people suggest starting with the current week (or month) and move backwards while also keeping current. I think that sounds like a great idea yet when I was catching up I found I just don't work that way. So I did keep current w/my pics & notes but I was more comfortable moving forward with the layouts.

When I read that you are back to March my first thought was do it monthly, at least up to September - but that's just my gut reaction. Whatever you do will be awesome - b/c it will be done. Keep telling yourself that... people are good here about reminding each other. Getting it done and recorded is the goal, it's what will matter most in 5, 10, 15 years etc.

Good for you for going for it!!! A lot of us share our struggles, etc. in the "PL Chit Chat" post here - feel free to join in.

 

Man, I thought I would NEVER in a million years do a PL because it would be too much of a committment, but the more I hear about it, and the more I see the awesome layouts, I feel like I'm totally missing out. I think I'm going to start one now, but digitally. I don't want to mess with cutting and pasting and printing.

As far as your question, I'm not doing one currently, so can't really say how I'd do it. BUT I'm always behind with my regular scrapping, and so what I like to do is stay current on the things that are happening now, and then when I have time I work on some older pics. So, I think doing the current week first is a good idea, and then hopping back and doing an older one next. I also agree it might work well to do it monthly for the months you are behind unless you are really wanting to have the weekly method.

 

I'm as scattered with my Project Life as I am with everything else in my life, so I'm probably no help. I'm hoping to finish with the current stuff (last month or so) before we leave on vacation in a week. But I have tons of prior stuff that is not nice and neat and together...lots of post it notes marking what I still want to get done. And I'm ok with that. It may take me two years to finish this album...but even if it's all I end up with from my whole PL experience I'll be thrilled (I'm really hoping it's not though...I adore this project).

 

I too am playing catch up... the good point is that I have pictures and most of the journaling for each missing week and I use the same template each week; the bad part is that I need to sort & edit the pictures (I have 600+ pictures to go through for some weeks :/) and DS is teething and won't let me sit at the computer (oth, it means that I walk a lot with him in the sling, which is good too).
I have 2 huge gaps to fill : weeks 11-20 and weeks 31- until now (I moved in June and then we went on vacation and I completely lost track). My goal for this week-end (if DS lets me...) is to do weeks 30-35 and week 41, then on Monday, I'll be able to do week 42 and I'll play catch up from week 36 to 40 next week. Hole number one should then be filled . Then I plan on keeping current and doing weeks 11-20.

 

I quit doing my PL from July to September. And guess what? I'm not catching up. I'm just going to start now, again. I made the conscious decision to stop doing weekly PL at the end of June, even though I was not behind. After 3 months I miss it. But I'm just starting back now and not worrying about filling the gap. My first album was full, so I'm just starting a new album now.

I wrote a blog post about it here: http://www.listgirl.com/2012/10/project-life-lets-get-back-together.html

 

I'm hoping to start PL in January, so I'm not doing it yet. But I'm guessing a similar principle applies as to "regular" scrapping? I never feel totally "caught up" but I focus on scrapping current pictures first, then pull from older ones depending on how I'm inspired. Or maybe each week you could do the current week and one past week?

 

I started PL in March and decided to go back and do the beginning of the year. I also stick mementos/pieces from the week in the pockets and then get my photos processed in batches. So it is kinda like I am always catching up. If I wait to work on my PL for a few weeks, I find getting all of my photos printed out first helps a ton. The photos help me remember what we did that week. I also use post-its to mark pockets if I know there is a specific event I want to add in.

 

I kissed the frog!

 

oh...and yes. I really want to start back up. I miss it so much!

 

i'm going to try to concentrate on getting some pictures ready to print in the next few days. snapfish has a big sale on 4x6 until the 24th that i would love to be able to take advantage of, but i'm not sure getting 200 pics ready to print is very realistic. it would be great though to have them all printed and just have to go back through and slip them into the page protectors. so we'll see if i can pull it off.

 

I'm doing the same since I'm getting ready to start my year 3 I'm doing monthly/2 week/ completely random spreads. Don't make it a chore or you'll never finish. I'm a big stickler with not backtracking in ANYTHING in life and I refuse to do the same with pl. -keep moving forward. I always want to enjoy the new products/new techniques/new everything but I can't mix and match because of my OCD. I get super bored and I have to keep changing things up so I get super bored backing up and putting together 1 week 2 12x12 spread for a week that happened months ago. So I take away all those restrictions and grab my favorite photos, log onto my blog/fb/ect and jot down some cards and go! Its allowed me to never get more than a month behind and stay clear minded not to stress on it.

 

How amazing I found this thread...I am behind too...haven't PL'd since JUNE!!! To get caught up, I'm doing more of a monthly theme. And I'm sticking with all digital LOs. Once I get caught up from the last 5 mnths, I'm going back to hybrid.

Good luck on your project!

 

I still do it weekly and up to date... I was waaaay behind with lina's album last year, so proud I kept it up this year... But doing p365 digitally

 

Have you ever tried Winkflash? They've had a 6 cent deal going all year.