Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Memory Keeping Management

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!

…

Scrapbook Secrets - digital photo organization

It's nearly impossible to scrapbook if you can't find the photo(s) you want to use!

I use Microsoft Windows Vista (and I seem to be the only one in the world who likes it - lol!) so this system is windows based. The way I organize my digital photos is pretty simple, but it works well for me. I guess it is a lot like the system I used for printed photos - filing them by year in a photo box.

On My Computer:

This is what is in my "Pictures" folder right now. All other picture folders from past years are on my external hard drive AND backed up to DVD AND backed up on flickr. I'm totally paranoid about losing photos! My current folders (pictured belw) are also backed up in the same way, but I leave them on my working computer as well so I have easy access to scrap with them or use them for blog posts.

I keep the past year in the folder and also a file for each month of the current year. Since we are only 2 months into 2010, there are only folders for January and February so far. I name each folder in this format: Year- Month or 2010-01 for January. At the end of the year I create a folder just for that calendar year and place all the monthly folders in it.

This is what 2009 looks like when you open up the folder:

There are 12 individual folders for each month of 2009. Inside of those folders I have the pictures for that respective month. I've fiddled around a lot with how to organize these and the best system I have come up with is to label the photos in related groups as I upload them. Here's my February file so far so you can see an example.

You can see that the photos are grouped together by the date taken.

The lego pictures were taken on february 8 so they are titled "feb 08 2010 lego" and then their respective number. This isn't as hard as it sounds, the computer does most of the work for me. When I upload pictures to my computer, a file is automatically created.

I always tag with the month and year. I don't worry about any other tags at this point because that makes it too complicated. After all, I'm uploading pictures from several different days with many different subjects.

Now my computer generated a folder with these new files. I don't rename the folder since I will be moving all of the images within it to my 2010-02 folder.

I open the folder and work on any basic editing that needs to be done. I get rid of the "dud" pictures, evaluate duplicates, and make simple adjustments in Photoshop Elements (more on that in another post). Then I select all the keepers at the same time and select "Rename"

I simply insert the day into the date. Sometimes I start the numbers over at 1 if I have deleted several (like I did in this case)

Putting more details in the title here is optional. I like to do it if I have several photos on the same date of different topics. For example if I went to the beach and the zoo in one day (that would be pretty hard to do here in Utah!) then I would add "beach" to all the applicable photos for that date, and "zoo" to the others. Again, this is optional, and probably not necessary if you are going to tag your photos individually (more on that in a minute).

On Flickr (or another backup site):

Now I upload my new photos to flickr before I do anything else because I know I will at least have 1 backup in place in case my computer crashed. If you aren't familiar with flickr be sure to read this post on 20 reasons why you should use flickr. If you don't like flickr, then just find another site that you can upload your photos to where you will have access to the full resolution versions to download.

My flickr photostream is organized as well. I have folders for each year as well as folders sorted by theme and project.

After the flickr upload,  it is time to move them all into the 2010-02 folder. Once I do that , I can just delete the folder that was created with today's upload.

On My External Hard Drive:

Now I want you to know that my folders from past years are not this organized. (Yet!) I do have the framework in place though. Here's a partial shot of my Pictures folder on my External Hard Drive where I keep all of my photo folders.

I actually started the folders with the year my husband was born continuing on through present day. There is also a folder called "Katie Heritage" and one called "Jeff Heritage" - these are for all photos from our respective heritage lines before we were born. So if there is a picture of my parents on their wedding day, it would be filed in "Katie Heritage". Someday, I will have subfolders in our heritage photos, for now I'm concentrating on organizing the pictures from my own lifetime.

Tagging Photos:

What about tagging? I mentioned earlier that I do tag all new uploads with the month and year. I do plan to use the photo organizer in Photoshop Elements 8 to tag my photos, but I just haven't gotten there yet. I love the idea of using the face recognition that elements 8 offers and I know it will be worth my time to use the features there. I do tag all of my photos on flickr as I upload them which really helps me use the powerful search features there. I usually search flickr before my own External Hard Drive and then just download the photo from flickr to work with. It's so much easier and then I'm not opening and reopening my files (which is supposed to reduce the quality over time).

My Organization System:

This system works well for me. I usually have no trouble finding what I'm looking for. If I can't remember the month and year to search for when looking for a specific picture, I can usually find that information on flickr and then either download the image there, or find out where to locate it in my files. I know when I implement more tagging in PSE 8's organizer, I will feel even more organized.

For information on how I file my digital scrapbooking supplies, be sure to read this post on Digital Organization.

The Ten Things Trick - How I force myself to get things done

Sometimes when I'm uninspired or simply overwhelmed I play a little trick on myself to get going. I call it my Ten Things Trick and I don't know if I have ever even told my Mom or my Hubby about it. Here's how it works:

 

See that small pile of mail and random items sitting on my desk? Boring! So not interested in it. But I'm the one that is supposed to take care of this kind of stuff and I know it won't be long before it turns into a huge pile. I've seen it happen.

 

See this screen full of random photos? Some are scanned in their original hacked up "cropped" shapes. Some photos are from high school, some are scans and downloads of graphics and memorabilia. There are pictures from 1993, 2004, 1999, 1988, and plenty of other random years. There is a reason that I didn't include photo organization in yesterday's post - I'm still working on it myself! I feel like I'm showing you my dirty laundry, which I won't actually do. I have plenty of that around also, but I refuse to photograph it!

 

Those are 2 examples of some big or unpleasant tasks that I really NEED to do and I really DON'T WANT to do. There are more of these types of tasks facing me of course, but these are easy ones to illustrate. So how do I trick myself into doing them?

 

Ten Things! I just tell myself that I will do 10 things for each task that is challenging me. So if it is time to pay the bills or sort through a week's worth of mail I just tell myself that I will do 10 things. Here are some examples:

• find 10 things that can be thrown away or shredded and do it.
• Pay 10 bills
• file 10 things that need to be saved

Now you might be asking "what are you going to do with the rest of the stuff?" It's true that there are more than 10 things to do here, but that forces me to prioritize. I should pick the 10 things that need to be done the most. Now here's the secret that I don't want my brain to figure out... I often get started on those 10 thing and realize there are really only 14 total tasks that need to be done so I go ahead and finish them. That happens a lot. Sometimes it doesn't though and at least I got 10 things done. And that is 10 more things then I would have finished if I didn't trick myself into doing something.

 

What about the pictures that need editing, sorting, backing up, and filing? That is such a daunting task. My digital photos are pretty organized but that only entails about 4 years of photos. I have decades of photos that need to be scanned and even plenty that have been scanned and they are not edited or organized. Many of them are not backed up. Yikes! I think photo organization is the hardest part of being a memory keeper (paper or digital) and it is a task that almost every single person has to deal with in some way whether they scrapbook or not. So I plan to work on some posts about this subject, but I have to clean my own act up first.

 

For now, all I can do is assign myself to deal with 10 pictures at a time. Someday it will really add up!

Organizing digital scrapbook supplies

This is an updated version of my organization article originally posted on May 8, 2008. I still use the exact same system, just thought I would update the post with some better screen shots and a few more details to show you how I've refined my digi organization. I've been a digital scrapbooker since 2005 and I've tried several systems of organization until I settled on this one. It really works for me!

 

The question I get asked the very most is how do I organize my digital scrapbooking supplies and photos? I am somewhat of an organizing freak in real life (I love clean closets!) but there are times when I let things get sloppy in real life. What I love about digital scrapbooking is that I'm always organized! Even if you aren't into clean closets you will want to have a system to keep track of your photos and digi supplies.

 

Katie the Scrapbook Lady's Guide to Computer Organization:

What does it mean to be organized on your computer? It means that you need to know where to find things. Just like socks should go in a sock drawer, you should have files for photos and digital designs. Some people buy programs for this but I just prefer to use the basic folder system on my computer. All you need to know is how to create a new folder (just use the right click button on your mouse and choose “new folder”) and how to change the view in the folder (go to “view” at the top of the screen in the folder and pick either “thumbnails” or “filmstrip”) so you can easily view what is in your folder.

 

I created a folder just for my digiscrap supplies. I now keep this folder on my external hard drive because it is pretty big - I am a Scrapbook Lady you know! This is what it looks like inside my digi scrap folder:

click to enlarge

 

The Number System:

 

Here's a list of all the sub-folders - the numbers in front of them are to keep them in a certain order since windows likes to organize the folders in numerical and alphabetical order automatically. I wanted the first folders to be related to the months of the year (holidays) so I numbered them that way. I decided to put Birthdays at the beginning of the year. 

1 Birthday

1 Winter

2 Valentines and Hearts

3 St. Pats

4 Easter (even though sometimes Easter is in the 3rd month)

6 Summer and Beach (June is the first month of summer)

6 Travel and Camping (This just seemed to fit next to the summer and beach file)

7 Independence Day

8 School/Art/Music (August is back to school month around here)

9 Fall

10 Halloween

11 Thanksgiving

12 Xmas

Does that make sense so far? It's pretty straightforward - these are the folders for  holiday or theme specific stuff. If I have a full kit that is a Back to School kit, it goes in the file marked "8 School". If I have a cute little heart doodle it goes in file "2 Valentines and Hearts". I like to select "Large Icon" view in my window so I can see the folders. I also select an image to represent the folder by going to the folder properties and changing the image if needed.

click to enlarge

 

Next I have files of individual elements. I put a 13 in front of all of these so they stay in alphabetical order based on subject; alphas, buttons, frames, etc. So continuing on with my list of files:

13 alphabets/numbers/dates

13 buttons and brads

13 flowers

13 frames

13 journaling/quotes/tags

13 misc. elements (the ones that just don't fit anywhere else)

13 overlays and masks

13 ribbons/trims and bows

13 shapes and borders

13 staples and fasteners

13 stitches

 

click to enlarge

 

 

Next up are papers and kits. Let me emphasize here that I always keep a kit together. I know some people like to separate out elements to use, but I just think it's more work than it's worth. If I find a staple in a kit that I REALLY love, then I might copy it and put it into my staples file. Most of the time I just leave things as they are. Having been a designer myself, I know how hard digital designers work to put together a kit. For me, that is the way I like to store them. Plus, if I separated everything out, I would have an ENORMOUS file of buttons to go through, every time I wanted to use one. Most of the time I just use what comes with the kit. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?  

I file the kit in the appropriate folder. If it's a Halloween kit, it goes in folder 10 Halloween. If the kit is more general in theme, it is filed in 14 Misc. Kits.  Yes, that file is really big! But because I have "thumbnail view" selected for every folder in it, I can browse through my kits in a flash. I do keep sub-folders within that file that I will show you in a minute.

My paper and kit files all have a 14 in front of them to keep them nicely in place behind the element files.

14 misc. kits  - (for all the kits that didn't fit into other categories and yes, it's a big file, but that's ok!)

14 paper prints and packs

14 paper solids

 

and here's a peek into my rather large misc. kits file:

 

click to enlarge

 

 

There are several ways you could organize this folder. I have folders sorted by designer. Each designer gets a folder if I have more than one of their kits, otherwise the single kit will go into the misc. sub-folder. I was surprised that some of my favorite designers didn't show up here, then I realized that I only bought embellishment packs or theme kits from them. This is an easy way to evaluate what kind of purchases you make.

I do have an Asian sub-folder because I'm collecting Asian style kits to use on pages for my husband's Japan layouts. Perhaps you might want to set up some folders for boy kits and/or girl kits? It can be difficult to categorize some kits. Most of the kits I buy have flowers in them - does that mean they should all be filed under flowers? You can definitely overthink this step. I suggest just finding a method that makes sense to you and won't take you to long to browse through. I used to keep this file full of individual kit folders and I did like that approach as it was easy to browse through them. It just got too unwieldy though so I needed to create a sub-folder system.

I strongly suggest that you keep kits together though. I read an article by a very popular digi scrapper who said she breaks up all her kits and puts the flowers in the flower file, the ribbons in the ribbon file, etc. I tried this and not only did it take me an eternity to do, but then it was nearly impossible to scrap. It took me months to undo this mistake!

 

The next category for me is templates. This is probably the area that took me the longest to organize but it is the one that has had the biggest payoff for me! If you read my Power Scrapping Secrets article at The Daily Digi you will see how having templates sorted by number of pictures they hold can save you oodles of time. I will give you a peek into my template folder so you can see what I'm talking about.

click to enlarge

I have filed all of my templates by the amount of photos they are designed for. I realize that some templates might fit in more than one file depending on how you use them but I just tried to stay basic with my filing system. I can't tell you how useful this system has been. Even if you think the rest of my digi organization is bunk, I bet you will find this part useful.

 

These folders are not pretty when organized this way, but they are very functional! When I go to create a page that needs to have 3 photos on it, I just open up that folder and start browsing. Even if I don't use a template, it at least gets my creativity working.

I don't use subfolders here and all I keep is the preview of the template and the actual template file right next to. Sometimes I have to rename them to get them to stay next to each other in the file. Every once in a while I have to make a jpeg image so I have a preview of the template so if you are a template designer - PLEASE include a preview of each template! My very favorite templates are in TIFF format because you only need that one file to serve as a preview and the actual template. This really isn't as complicated as it sounds - basically, I just like to see what each template looks like at one glance through the folder it relates to.

 

Now we are getting into sort of the misc. area of my organization.

 

 

16 albums, calendars, and quick pages

17 actions (even after you load them, it's helpful to have a place for the instructions)

18 CU (commercial use stuff from my designing days)

19 TDD - The Daily Digi (I keep all the past Digi Files in here rather than separate them out. This could also be filed under 14 Misc. Kits, but I like quick access to TDD stuff since I'm part f the team there.

 

I have a separate place on my External Hard Drive where I keep my photos, and another one for layouts (will show more on that in a future post)

Organization will pay off in many ways. If anything, it helps you avoid duplicate purchases. The best part for me is that it makes me a more efficient scrapbooker which means I get more done in the time I have and I enjoy it more! The only downside is that it is truly a boring task. I mean all you are doing is moving files around - so my solution is to take my laptop out to the couch for this one and watch tv with my family while I'm digi organizing. It's nice to have something else to think about while you are staring at the screen. And you don't have to feel guilty about watching tv because you are cleaning while you are doing it!

 

...this post was updated on 02/25/2010. I also wrote an article on digital scrapbook organization 3 ways for The Daily Digi where I compared my system with 2 other systems (Steph of the Daily Digi and Ali Edwards). Be sure to check it out! 

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - in a different way

 

I'm all for saving the environment and I do my best to recycle paper and cans, but that isn't what this post is about. I've been thinking about how much "stuff" and information we already have around here. We have lots of movies on DVD, tons of video games, oodles of board games, and bookshelves full of books. We won't even get into what I have loaded on my external hard drive and computer! Ok, maybe we will get into that but not for a few paragraphs ;)

The bottom line is that we have a lot of good things around. My guess is that many of you can relate. Even if you don't consider yourself "well off" you probably have toys for your children, books to read (or a nearby library), movies on hand (or a netflix membership or blockbuster in the neighborhood), or even a kind neighbor who might lend you some of these things.

 

Do you use what you have?

Do your kids tell you they have "nothing to do" or that there isn't anything to watch on tv? Do you ever feel bored with what you already have so you go shopping for more? How many pairs of shoes can you really wear? Can you read all the magazines you subscribe to? Have you read all the books on your shelves?

I've been thinking about these things a lot lately. I decided that if my family decided to read all the books we have, play all of our board games, play all of our video games, watch all of our movies, listen to all of our songs, cook all of the recipes in our cookbooks, play with all the toys, and use all the items we have in storage, that we could be busy for a LONG time!

Now what if I decided to make all the patterns I have, scrap all the photos sitting around, tackle all the crafts I have bookmarked on the web, actually completed the challenges and ideas from all the links I have tweeted and blogged about, and used all the kits I've been collecting? I could be busy for years!

 

It's overwhelming. But it's also exciting.

Think about it. You probably have access to several years worth of fun and entertainment right at your fingertips without having to spend anything (or a very small amount).

 

Now I'm all about making lists. (This is also a great way to take inventory for insurance purposes, but that isn't why I'm doing it.) I figure it will keep the kids busy for at least a few days and it will get all of us excited about using what we have. How many times have your kids started to play with something just because you set it out to give away. They probably haven't seen it for years and suddenly they are so interested in it! It is the same principle. Adults and kids alike will have fun getting re-acquainted with the stuff in their stashes if they take some time to go through everything.

 

Here are some lists that you can make. Remember to print them out and put them somewhere you can see them. Then be sure to cross of each thing that you complete. Maybe you could even offer yourself or your family members a "prize" for finishing the list!

 

• Make a list of all the books in your house that you haven't read and also the ones you want to review or re-read.
• Make a list of all the movies you own and would love to watch again. Consider grouping them into themes to make it more fun. For example; my kids and I want to watch all the Pixar films in the order they were made and do a Pixar study. Have a Star Wars-a-thon and make a party out of it. Dedicate a few weeks to watching musicals. You get the idea.
• Make a list of all of your board and card games. Decide that you won't repeat playing any of them until you've made it through the entire list. Or have game tournament nights with family and friends.
• Make a list of the toys that you want to play with or that your kids would like to have fun with. We never get out the Lincoln Logs or the toy cars anymore now that my kids are older. I bet they could still come up with creative ways to use them though, and I could photograph them!
• Make a list of all the outfits you haven't worn in a while. If they don't fit anymore, get rid of them. If something else is stopping you like you don't have anywhere to wear a formal gown to - find somewhere fancy to go!
• Make a list of all the sporting equipment you own and plan to use it. Do you have a volleyball sitting around? Find a park with a net and actually use that ball. Get out those old baseball mitts and play catch. Put on your walking shoes and go for a walk.
• Make a list of all the recipes you have been meaning to try. Now really make each one of them. It might take you years but that's ok.
• Make a list of audio books you've been meaning to listen to. Or cds that you want to listen to.
• Make a list of puzzles to put together, craft projects to make, birdhouses to build for the yard, garden projects to try. Use what you already have as much as possible.
• Make a list of patterns to sew, crochet projects you have gathered, quilts to piece, etc. Again, these are items that you already have started or intended to start. If you have more patterns than any human could every complete (you know who you are!) then get rid of some of them. You will feel better.
• Go through your fabric stashes, your paper stashes, your stamp stashes, and yes, even your digi stashes and start using them on projects. No sense in just being a collector of "stuff" - be creative!

 

I'm sure you can come up with even more ideas. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, applies to more than just what you would put into a garbage can. How about using these principles in every aspect of your life? Make the most of what you have and enjoy the fun of rediscovering your own possessions.

 

Related reading: Love Life, Not Stuff on the Zen Habits blog