Project Life | plans for 2015

Despite my initial 2014 Project Life plans and catch-up strategy, I am still barely one-quarter way through this year’s album, but I’m planning to get it done. Although I’d prefer to finish it sooner rather than later.

But with 2015 creeping up on us, I’m looking ahead to my plans for next year…

Things I’ll do the same

• 12×12 albums – I love all the space that 12×12 gives me for documenting everything that I need to, especially when the week gets busy, so no change here. I’ll be using these We R Memory Keepers faux leather ring albums. I ordered them earlier this month and I can’t wait for them to arrive! I’ve heard lots of good things about them, and the colors are lovely, so I’m pretty excited.
• Weekly format – I did consider moving to a monthly format since not all our weeks are very exciting. But I love the structure of the weekly format so I’m sticking to that.
• Standard weekly title cards – I will keep these consistent throughout the year, because I really enjoyed having one less thing to think about. But I will probably switch up the design of these for next year. The question is – to what?
• Design A page protectors – I like having the predictability of having standard designs so far. Boring? Maybe. Less stress for me? Definitely. I’m absolutely open to changing things up during the year if I need to though.
• Continue with weekly journaling – At the end of each week, I usually try to make notes of everything that happened. This is such a life-saver, especially when I need to play catch-up. It’s also super helpful for putting my spreads together and helping me with having more journaling.
• Use the kits and 6×6 paper pads that I already have – The big goal is to try not to add any more of these! I love including a mix of kits and paper pads, but I already have quite the collection so I’m remembering to be selective and use what I already have.
• Use inserts if I need to – Since I’m planning to spread out my year into two albums, I’ll add inserts if/when I need to. They’re also great because I don’t feel confined to just the two standard pages.
• Work in batches – I used this strategy, especially when I needed to do major catch up. But I love it in general just for completing my spreads.

Things I’ll do differently

• Gather standard supplies for weekly spreads – I think I’ve more or less figured out what my go-to supplies for Project Life are. Now I just need to put them all in one place for easy access and quick creating.
• Do better at uploading, editing and printing photos – I do this fairly regularly now, but still not as routinely or consistently as I’d like to be.
• Include more journaling – I have my week-in-review cards, which I love. But I want to include more stories and contexts for the photos that are going into the albums.
• Include more perspectives from the rest of my family – I’m not sure how I’m going to do this yet, but I think it would be really neat to have stories told from their perspective as well. Suggestions, anyone?
• Stay on track – Since I’m still playing catch-up for 2014, I’m far too familiar with the feeling of being behind. I’m going to work on keeping up as much as possible next year, for sure.
• Try using square photos. Because I print at a printer, printing square photos means just a little more work for me. But square photos are still super trendy so I really want to try it at least once just to see how I like it.
• Go hybrid – There are so many great digital kits out there (like Rachel’s, Peppermint’s, and Liz’s) so I certainly won’t be able to resist including those in my albums. Plus, they don’t take up space like physical kits do, so I can make an exception in using them, right? I’m not super tech-savvy so I don’t think I’ll be doing anything mind-blowing with the digital kits. But I want to use a mix of digital products and physical kits next year.

I love how flexible Project Life is and how easily you can change things to make them work for you. See what Andrea, Carly, Caylee, Rachel, Kellie, and Kelsey are doing for their Project Life next year.

I can’t wait to document 2015.

Tell me, what are your plans for memory-keeping next year?