Game Plan

Discussion in 'Project Life/365/52' started by RebeccaH, Jul 27, 2017.

  1. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    Okay you guys! I'm in the full throws of the mid-Summer slump here! I swear I think I've forgotten how to scrap altogether! I just don't like anything that I do lately, and I feel uninspired. BUT... at the same time, I really really want to have albums done! I have a HUGE list of open projects I've started but not completed, and it is driving me crazy! Worse, I feel like getting "caught up" is an unrealistic endeavor.

    In an effort to squelch my own skepticism, I sat down this morning and wrote out a list of open layouts that I know need to be done to get caught up on my 2017 PL. There are a LOT of them! 12 left in 2nd quarter, and all of 3rd quarter to be done.

    So, I made a schedule for myself - it's pretty ambitious! But IF I stick to it, I will be able to be completely caught up and back on track by mid-September, and I will even be able to do a bit of catching up on another album I've not finished (like, say, 4th quarter 2016).

    Anybody else have any tips for getting back into a groove? It's so hard when a slump comes along, don't you think?!
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2017
  2. MrsGaramer

    MrsGaramer Using my imagination

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    I have been in a serious funk lately too. I keep telling myself to do my monthly pages because that will get me back in the groove but I just can't bring myself to do it. The best tip I have is to just scrap. Set aside as much time as you can to just open things up and place them. Play around with nothing really in mind. I find that starts to get my creative juices going!
     
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  3. tkradtke

    tkradtke Professional Brainstormer

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    I'm right there with you! I still have about a month and a half of 2016 and three months of 2017 to do. I started with Aaron's power scrapping method.... starting one step before, with filling in my PL planner with what we did every day and where to find the photos. But that's as far as it's gotten. I just have lost my PL mojo. I still love the project as much as I always have, I just have lost my desire to work on it. I love my plan for this year, but given all of the extra pages I allow myself, I find myself running out of PL kits to use. There are lots of journal cards out there, but they're all so themed. It's hard finding enough variety in the general/everyday cards. The other problem with the way I'm doing PL this year is that I can't start on the current week and go back and do previous ones when I have time since my weeks are more fluid. Both of these issues are ones I wasn't expecting... the running out of PL kits one especially.

    What does your plan to get caught up look like @RebeccaH? I need to come up with a good one myself. But to be honest, it's probably not going to happen until the kids go back to school. There is too much coming and going at the moment for me to get anything done it seems like.
     
  4. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    @tkradtke Tracie, I think a lot of my missing mojo is due to the fact that my scrap stash is super disorganized! I have TONS of stuff, but it's not exactly easy to identify and/or locate something that will work for the stuff I'm working on at any given moment. Then I find myself trying to force whatever I have at hand to work with the pictures I'm working with, rather than finding things that truly fit. It's kind of nonsense how much time I spend either searching around for something to use or trying to find a way to be satisfied with whatever I'm using that's not a perfect fit.

    My plan is basically numbers based... I have XX number of layouts that need to be done. I want to be done by YY date. So I have to do ZZ number of layouts per week. Then I sat down and plotted out a general game plan calendar (I made a quick calendar in Excel so it would be easy to edit until I found the right combination).

    It's a LOOOOTTTTTT of scrapping, and it might honestly be unrealistic... but at least it's a starting point. If I DO manage to keep to it, I could be totally caught up for the current year by September 10th. Then I would be able to do the next week's layout once the week was finished... you know... like you're SUPPOSED to do this project!! :giggle

    I figure once I get to that 'caught up' point, then I can figure out what my next open album is that I want to try to catch up on and basically do the same thing for that... every week plan on doing the current week's layout plus one or two from a catch-up album until that one is finished as well.

    What is Aaron's power scrapping method? I'm curious.
     
  5. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    Yep, I think this is part of my issue as well... I feel like every time I sit down to scrap I have to somehow create a masterpiece, even though I KNOW that's not true.
     
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  6. klee73010

    klee73010 I might have a thing for drummers

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    Sounds like you need the power scrapping article Aaron put up on the blog recently!!

    I recently determined I am a few pages out from another entire album completed... (that will be 4th I completed all the way this year, I think) power scrapping is my answer.
    In essence, you have already sort of planned out your layouts, so the next step is to make folders for them.... putting everything in them you will use (photos and maybe template wise). From there, you pick your products. Then you would start piling things on layouts. The last two steps being to journal and arrange everything.
    You would do each step in batches. So maybe today, you sit down and select all the photos. Then tomorrow, or whichever day you have more time, go through your stash to find the things that are going to work for your photos.... for all of them at once, so you're not searching multiple times!
    Then the next time you sit down, you start putting things together. Do each thing for all pages in batches.

    With this power scrapping method, I plan to have my 2013-2014 album completed in the next couple weeks. I have 13 layouts left (I think)!
     
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  7. klee73010

    klee73010 I might have a thing for drummers

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    Side note... I answered your question about power scrapping, but I had missed that Tracie had already mentioned it. Sorry about that. Haha.
     
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  8. RebeccaH

    RebeccaH Life is exciting, yes it is!

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    Thanks for the explanation - and the link! I can't imagine being able to plow through that many layouts in such a short amount of time! How awesome! I'll definitely look into it!
     
  9. LeeAndra

    LeeAndra A total Betty.

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    I wanted to chime in by saying that I do something like power scrapping (and have for several years now, actually) when I feel scrappy but not scrappy enough to actually scrap. :giggle

    I match up my 'To Be Scrapped' photos with my 'To Be Used' kits once every 4-6 weeks so I feel kinda productive. At the end of the each month, I pull all the photos I know I'll want to scrap into the 'To Be Scrapped' folder so I don't forget.

    My favorite albums, however, are my Countdown to Christmas albums, and I recently power scrapped those, too. My 2014 album (when my son was 11 months old) never even got started so I just went through all my pics from that year, decided which I wanted to scrap, and pulled them into folders for THIS December. I'm going to see if I can manage to take photos & notes for THIS Christmas while actually SCRAPPING Christmas from 3 years ago. I never ever get my actual C2C album done during December; it always manages to straggle on for months afterwards.

    I do have 2015 done so yeah for that!

    I also went through and deleted the 9 or 10 pages I made for last year's C2C album because I just couldn't stand them & paired up last year's kits with the photos. I'll probably work on that next summer. :giggle
     
  10. krscraps

    krscraps I'm a nerd.

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    I'm in the same funk. I have three free books that expires in a month and I know that there's no way I'll get my 2 July Disney books and 2016 Project Life Events done in time. It's too much. I'm hoping to at least finish one of the Disney books. It's just daunting when you have almost too many photos and you want to keep the page count down. XD

    I powerscrap those books though. I just need to sit down and do it.
     
  11. cookingmylife

    cookingmylife Pizza would be my last meal, except ...

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    I just put my 2016 PL album back on the shelf as I realized it was making me feel bad seeing it by my computer with the last 4 weeks of the year undone. Still undone. Those weeks include the England trip which I've totally bogged down on though in fact they are some of my favorite pieces to do using Anna Aspnes products. I don't think I could do that all the time but two sets of double pages or so a week might get me done if I do that in September. (or even start this weekend!)

    I also decided to go back to a subscription of MPM for the rest of this year. I have never minded using old products over and over and realized how much I like having some basics from MPM. I don't find it a problem to recolor or alter an old one if I think the original isn't just quite right. With that subscription I plan to make sure I have at least 1 or two MPM kits for each month.

    I also like a bunch of Just Jaimie sets of elements but like @RebeccaH those are some of my least organized products. Sometimes it does become too many choices!
     
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