What made you fail or succeed?

Falling behind on the pictures (or I guess on any part of it) and getting overwhelmed.

This year, my motto is to just "do my best". If I don't have a picture for every single day, that's ok!

 

for me, we MOVED. and i got WAY behind. and instead of feeling like i could get caught up, i let it overwhelm me.
plus, i had to choose between catching up on p365 pages or keeping up with my CT commitments. CT commitments and new goodies won.

 

I failed in the past because I tried to do too much with P365. I tried to not only take the picture each day, but scrap a layout each week and blog them all. That is just not realistic for me. So this year, I'm going to try to take a picture each day. That's it. I would like to do a monthly page with them all, but if it doesn't get done, at least I'll have lots of pictures to scrap with.

 

I think I succeeded with 2 successful years of P365 because I kept the "project" part minimal. I took a photo a day, captioned it and put it in an online album. That's it. I never intended on scrapping them or making weekly layouts.

Project Life is already a little bit more work but I have a few things working for me I believe: I am not planning on daily photos, I don't mind handwritten journal cards if it keeps me moving ( something I usually hate) and I am coming off a break year (no P365 in 2011) so I am hoping I have enough wind in my sails to get this done.

 

What helped me succeed this year was not worrying if I didn't get a photo everyday. I ending up trying to get 2 or 3 photos a couple of times a week. And...keeping going even when I didn't get any. I have two weeks in my book with no photos. I used papers and did a bit of journaling in the photo spots and called it good. I also have one week that is made up of photos from the week before. (They are just a few days off, though. ) I almost quit multiple times, but now that I have the book put together, I'm so glad I didn't. It's the most satisfying project I've ever done. I think for me I had to let go of high expectations and just go with the flow of our life. I can't remember where I heard the phrase, "perfectly imperfect," but that's how I feel about my 365. My advice to anyone, (for what's it's worth, hehe) is just do your best, have fun with it and I think you'll love what ever you've be able to do at the end of the year.

 

I have to say, for me it was the overwhelming task of trying to take a picture everyday. Perhaps, I should think of it on a smaller scale this year and do one a month? See where that takes me?

 

I've completed two years successfully with Project 365 and it was just because I plugged away. Every photo did not have to be perfect; I just kept moving forward.

 

I've tried to do 365 three years in a row and my best year I made it to July. At my quitting points I felt boring and inept. I never intended to live up to a great picture a day but even so, I really struggled, it became a chore and I was hating my pictures and feeling like the most boring person evah. I may still do a low key version of something but I'm not exactly sure what that is yet.

 

I succeeded in 2009 with project 365... BUT none the less, I only took the photos and blogged them! I started scrapping the weekyl pages, but it just wasn't how I had it in mind. This time I'm making a 365 for our girly for her 2nd year and the photos won't be a problem... and if the rumours are right, scrapping won't be a problem either, cause I heard there's something FAB coming to TLP

Mmm, all of the sudden I remembered I did 2010 too... started with project 52, but couldn't pick one special subject and tried 365 again, but then I got pregnant and we bought a house...so gave up early

 

I completed Project 365 a few years ago and even finished a book with 2 pages per month. It was so much fun - but at the same time, it would get stressful, trying to come up with new ideas everyday. I attempted a Project 2011 last year, which was just going to be a collection of cool photos and an attempt to really learn how to use my camera, but I just didn't have time to keep up and I had a big creative block for most of the year.

One thing that helped me through Project 365 was learning that it was ok to miss a day! I tried to come up with fun themes for weeks like close-up shots, pictures of yellow things (since that's my favorite color) or Beatles week (since I have lots of memorabilia). Some days I'd have 4 cool photos and other days nothing and I learned to make that work! If you'd like to see my book, here's the link.

I decided I was going to try the Project 365 app on my iPhone. The minute this isn't fun, I'm deleting the app! I'm so jealous of all the project life goodies you all are getting! I will be happy if I can keep up with my scrapping this year, finish some projects in the works, and continue to learn and be creative.

 

I am pretty sure that the biggest motivating factor for me starting and finishing my P365 this past year was seeing my sister's book from the previous year. It also helped me feel like I had a place for those events that happened, but didn't necessarily need an entire page devoted to them. I felt like it was helping me to 'work smarter, not harder'. yes, some weeks were more difficult than others and I didn't always get a picture every single day, some days I would take random photos of daily things that I could plug in to some of the off days that I had. If I was really stuck, i would ask the boys what they wanted the picture for that day to be and they would always come up with something--usually a lego creation or their toys all lined up in a row.

 

Asking your kids what they'd like the picture to be is a great idea, Becky!

 

I failed in part because I ultimately didn't see the value in it for me. If the pictures weren't of something relevant, or beautiful, or improving my photography skills, why was I doing it? I did enjoy it for a few months, but then it became a chore. Until I become a better photographer, I enjoy scrapping a lot more than taking pictures. I would like to be a better photographer though! That's why I am hoping that a p52 this year is a balance between taking meaningful photos more often, but not so often it's not fun. We'll see!

 

My P365 failed in 2010 because I was too critical of myself. I wanted every photo to be perfect and tell our visual story and I was trying to be someone I wasn't. I also started way too many projects that year and they all fizzled.

I just blogged about why I haven't called what I started yesterday a P365 or a Project Life or anything. I'm not trying to keep up with anything or follow rules that work for others and maybe won't work for me. My goals for this year are to just keep telling our story. Some days it will be a photo. Sometimes it will be a little journaling. Sometimes a scrapbook page and sometimes a drawing the kids made or a spelling test they brought home. At the end of the year, I hope to have something for them to hold and enjoy.

 

My first attempt failed because I felt like my life was boring. I just wasn't in it as much as I wanted to be. Plus I was pregnant, incredibly sick and dealing with premature labor.

Right now we're at the tail end of a cross country move. We're still not in our "groove" and spent Jan. 1 & 2 on the road - but I still got pictures. I think that my switch to PL instead of P365 will be easier for me. I'm approaching it as documenting a week at a time, instead of every single day.

 

For me, it was having to haul my camera everywhere and then feeling like I ran out of "interesting" things to take pictures of. lol Pretty lame, huh?

This year, I have my iPhone which is really really cool (the most amazing iPhone yet! haha) and the camera is awesome. I always have my phone on-hand, so no excuses.

 

Mine failed because every time I took my gigantic camera bag out with me to capture those daily "real life" things like shopping for groceries or doing chores, I felt so darn conspicuous that I ended up hating taking that camera along. I got to the point where I didn't even want to take photos of major events let alone little things. Add to that I couldn't come up with a "style" that I wanted to use to scrap them, and waffled around for the first 12 weeks from one style to another, that I ended up with something totally incoherent and inconsistent. Also, at the time I wasn't at TLP, and I had to work with products that weren't exactly my first choice.

So a few things are different this time around:

I'm not planning on scrapping weekly

The focus will be getting the photos and if I can scrap a monthly summary, great, but if I can't, then no big deal.

I'm not sweating it if I miss taking daily photographs

I have a little Nikon S8100 point + shoot that I plan to use for most of my photos. They won't be great quality like with my D40X, but at least they will be taken.

Also, I plan to scrap these as time permits, but as monthly summaries, using existing 2-page templates. I have a couple options at my disposal already - some heavily layered mutli-photo summary templates, plus some clean graphic-style monthly summary templates (two different designers), so I'll see what I think looks the best for the first couple, and then continue on in that style no matter what else comes along. The goal is a consistent album to print at the end of the year.