Every year I blog about all the great year-end information I find to inspire scrapbook layouts documenting the year that is ending.
- Ending 2008 in scrapbook style
- Using lists to round up 2007 memories
- Year end roundup in 2006
- Top 5 of 2005 (several posts)
As you can tell, I really like the end of the year and I have a great time documenting the details to celebrate the year that is ending. Looking back over all my roundups really helps me do this. If you have been faithful about using the roundup tool you will have a very easy time rounding up the year! If not, well that's ok also. It might take you a little longer but use the same prompts and tools as a regular monthly roundup, but apply it to the whole year.
In 2009:
What books and/or magazines did I read?
What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch?
What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
What gifts did I give and/or receive?
What special or unusual purchases did I make?
What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
What were my accomplishments?
What were my disappointments?
Anything else noteworthy to include?
Look through your calendar, photo archives, email archives, facebook status updates, tweets, blog entries, scrapbook pages, journal entries, or any other form of record keeping. We are so lucky to have a variety of ways to keep track of our daily lives these days!
I would also love to encourage you to do the tasks that go with the roundups! I don't always do them, but I sure am going to right now to make sure my year is properly backed up and cleaned up. It will be so much more motivating to start the new year off right with a clean slate (and desk!).
Tasks I'm doing to get organized and ready for the new year:
- I will be backing up all digital pictures to my hard drive, to flickr (or any offsite photo storage site), and to DVD. I'm already done with the flickr part ( I LOVE flickr!) because I do that every time I process photos. I've been lapsing a bit on the others so I need to focus on making DVDs and organizing my hard drive photo files.
- I'm going to choose photos and digital layouts to be printed. I really like scrapbookpictures.com so I will be watching to see when they have a sale. I ordered a ton of layouts for Christmas gifts without waiting for a sale price, so I'd like to save a little bit this time around. They seem to run them around once a month. I'm also going to evaluate which frames in my house need updating and order some prints and enlargements from Costco.
- I need to backup my word documents, excel spreadsheets, and quicken files. I use an external hard drive, I use backblaze as an offsite backup, and I also upload many documents to Google docs. I don't like to lose stuff! It's a good idea to make a yearly backup of financial information as well and store it in a safe place. You can also password protect your documents which is important with sensitive stuff like finances.
- The end of the year is an ideal time to backup your blog if you have one. (Typepad backup or blogger backup). I will be doing this as well. I also like to review my posts for the last year because it really helps me become a better blogger and gives me new ideas.
- I insist on starting the year off with a clean workspace and an empty (or almost empty) inbox. This year I really want to zero out my email inbox as well but that means I better get busy!
- I also like a clean off my computer desktop. I started a new system this year that has really helped me in this area. I do have several files to unzip files and put away. Here's a link to my digi organization post.
- Sometimes I change desktop background to something new for a fresh start to the year, but I still really like the one I'm currently using. Hubby uses this one that is also very cool. More free desktop resources right here.
When you finish off the year this way, you will feel so much more ready to tackle a new one! You will also be happy that you have your memories documented when you use the roundup questions. Even if you never use them for a scrapbook layout, you will always have those details saved. I use a lot of inspiration from my roundups when I do scrapbook layouts. I will be doing a year end layout soon using a lot of this information. I have already done 1 layout with the details of our cultural experiences throughout the year of 2009.
I had the opportunity to share some fun ways to scrapbook a year-in-review page over on The Daily Digi blog so be sure to check it out! Here is the page I created for my post on The Daily Digi. I linked to it on flickr so you can read the lengthy journaling if you want to.
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Ok, I've given you plenty to think about and do now. Don't let it overwhelm you, especially if you are new to the roundup idea. I promise that it isn't as hard as it looks! I haven't missed a month yet since I came up with the idea in January of 2006. That's 48 consecutive months of doing roundups!
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Hope everyone has a great time ringing in the New Year tonight!
