You might remember that I decided to start a new Project 365 on September 1st? I was really good about posting my photos online for that project for a whopping 14 days and then I fell behind. I was still taking photos each day for about 7 weeks, but not managing them very well. Then a few weeks ago I stopped. Actually, I never stop taking pictures, but I certainly wasn’t getting a shot in every day. I thought maybe I could make it up and plug in some photos on the days I was missing. I really didn’t want to admit to not getting this done! I mean I announced it on my blog and on The Digi Show! I also joined the Capture Your 365 community. I know it’s not a big deal that I couldn’t keep up with it, but for me any failure feels like an “epic fail”. I’m a little hard on myself that way.
What went wrong?
- I started the project on September 1st which was about the same time we started our homeschool year. This is my 6th year of homeschooling and I thought it would be like past years. It’s not. I have 2 high school students. My son is taking physics and it’s doing us both in. I’m working a lot between The Daily Digi, The Digi Show, Big Picture Classes, and this blog. My family’s needs and other commitments have been heavier than usual. I’ve been in over my head for a few months now and not willing to admit it.
- I went against my own nature by starting in September. I thought I was shaking things up by not starting on January 1st. I want to be more flexible and less “OCD” about creative projects. I want to be more “go with the flow” as an artist. It’s just not who I am though. I like organization. I like order. I need it. January 1st will be a better start date for me in the future.
- I was trying too hard. I wanted each picture to be a masterpiece. I was determined that I should use this project as a chance to improve my photography skills. I was playing around with aperture settings, using different lenses, and trying to work through photography tutorials at the same time. I’ve now realized that I should keep Project 365 in a different compartment creatively and just focus on getting the actual photo each day.
- It takes more than just snapping the photo. In all reality, I have enough photos that I could have still not surrendered this project right now. The hardest thing is that I haven’t been tagging them as 365 photos, or uploading them on a regular basis. I haven’t managed the project very well. On Saturday, I started to go through my files in hopes of salvaging what I had started. I then realized that it just was too overwhelming to try and go back and make sense of it. I need to be keeping up with the photos I take.
- We went on 5 vacations in 8 weeks. That’s VERY unusual and certainly something I’ve never done before and probably will never do again! We had the chance to travel 4 different times with my husband on business and we went on a family vacation to Yellowstone. This means that I added more than 1,500 photos to my files in that short amount of time. It also means that my life was pretty hectic during those weeks. I did not take that into consideration when I felt so ambitious back on September 1st!
After looking at the reasons why I “failed”at this attempt, I realizing that there really was no way to succeed. It was the equivalent of starting a diet on Thanksgiving Day. lol! It probably shouldn’t be classified as an “epic fail” but more like a psychological experiment in what will drive a Scrapbook Lady batty!
Do Over
I’m planning to start again on January 1st. That might seem crazy, but I feel like I learned a lot over the past few months that will help me. The biggest reason why I think I can succeed next time around is because Steph told me about this app (her pick on this episode of The Digi Show). This has given me a new excitement for the project. I’m going to try again starting on January 1st of 2012. I will probably just use my iPhone each day now to capture my 365 and that has taken a lot of pressure off.
I also plan to cut back on some of my other creative projects in 2012 to make room for this one. It’s time to refocus myself on what matters in the long run.
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