I really appreciate all the input about my task list that was previously included as part of my monthly roundups. I’m feeling really good about making the change to working on these items before the roundup at the end of the month and I feel like it will make the roundup process even easier and more organized. I’m also ready to be better about making my memory keeping life more manageable. Here’s my new plan:
Every Month:
I will try to do as many of these tasks as possible each month. I plan to start working on them about a week before I post my roundup (I’m late this time) and I’ll just do what I can before the end of the month. These tasks will take longer the first few times you do them, especially if they are new to you. Once they are part of your regular workflow, you will find that they hardly take any time at all and will actually save you time in the long run!
- Upload all digital pictures to my hard drive and clear off memory cards in my cameras. I like to batch import mine into Lightroom and apply tags, descriptions, and run Matt’s free preset on all my photos (Auto Preset for Portraits – even if they aren’t portraits because it doesn’t overdo it on the editing). If any of them need further tweaking, I can adjust the settings for that individual photo. I’m generally happy with the results I get and my photos are nice and pretty and ready to share. My digi friend Peppermint has a similar approach using one of Lightroom’s installed presets. She has a very helpful video tutorial on her site to explain how to import photos this way.
- File all photos for the month in a computer folder labeled with the month and year. I have a folder for every year of my life and in each folder is a sub-folder for each month of the year. Actually, only the digital photos are that organized because my computer can read the dates from the files. My pre-digital photos are still sort of a “hot mess” but most of them are at least filed in the correct year. If you label and tag your photos your photos as you import them, you will save yourself a lot of headaches down the road and it will be easy to file them for later use. You will feel so organized!
- Backup all new photos from the month on my external hard drive and also upload them all to Flickr. You can use any offsite photo storage site, but make sure you will be able to access the full size resolution of your photos. In my opinion (and after years of research), I’m convinced that Flickr is the very best option out there for photo storage. I usually do these back up steps every time I process photos and that’s the ideal method. It’s just become part of my workflow. If you’ve lapsed on this, here’s a good reminder to get these photos backed up in at least two places so you don’t lose any precious files!
- I’m a digital scrapbooker so I have a lot of files to unzip, organize, and file each month. Even traditional and hybrid scrappers will probably have quite a few computer files to manage as well with pdf classes and printables, photo actions, and downloadable goodies. Now’s the time to get all those files moved out of your downloads folder (or off of your desktop – shudder!) and into your organizational system. This is how I organize all my supplies. Here’s a link to the organization section on The Daily Digi where you will find a lot of helpful advice on this topic.
- All of my files and supplies are backed up to 2 different external hard drives. I no longer use DVDs because I have such a large collection of “stuff”. I also just started using an online backup service. I signed up for an unlimited yousendit account where I can upload zipped files for permanent storage. I also hear great things about CrashPlan. I upload a lot of my word and pdf documents to Google docs so I can access them from anywhere. I have an iPad so I also like to load some of my downloadable class pdf files into iBooks so I can learn on the go.
- Backup my blog. It's easy to do if you have one, just use Typepad backup or blogger backup. Some bloggers just copy and paste everything into a word file. I’ve really slacked in this area over the last year.
Focus Project This Month:
The list of to-do items for every month will keep me on track with managing my memory keeping, but it won’t do much to help me catch up on past disorganization problems or to tackle large projects. I’ve decided to focus in on a specific project for each month. I will pick my focus area and start working on it with the Memory Keeping Management prompt during the last week of the month. If needed, I can carry it over into the coming month until it’s time to do my task list again.
This time my project will be organizing all my existing word files and documents. I have a folder system that is somewhat organized, but the truth is I’m not always good about filing my word docs in those folders. Sometimes, I just put together a quick note to someone and save it in my general documents file. I have several years worth of documents backed up to external hard drives that were moved off of previous computers before I upgraded. Many of those documents haven’t been viewed in years. I even have files from more than 10 years ago when I used Word Perfect! The time has come to decide what needs to be kept and what can be deleted. I will share my results before next month’s MKM (Memory Keeping Management) prompt.
Feel Free to Join Me:
If you need some organization motivation, I’m happy to be your buddy! If you like the idea of printing out or saving a simplified form of this list in your own to-do app or format, feel free to copy and paste this list:
Memory Keeping Management - March 2012
Upload all digital pictures to my hard drive and clear off memory cards in camera
File all photos for the month in a computer folder labeled with the month and year
Backup all new photos from the month on external hard drive and also upload them all to Flickr
Clean out downloads folder/computer desktop and put away into digital filing system. Consider online backup
Backup blog
Special focus - organize/purge existing word files and documents
Here’s to a more organized and less stressful approach to memory keeping!
…
