"Time flies, but you're the pilot."

One of the main things many people need to accomplish before they can be successful in preserving their photos and memories is making time for it.

As you may have read a few months ago here at LifeTalesBooks, {you don't find time.  You make it.}

  

Time doesn't just appear on your doorstep on a random Tuesday.  You make time for things.  

Marie Leslie put it perfectly in {"Time Doesn't Need Managing"} where she wrote, "Time Management should really be called Priority Management."  Glenn Santos even writes that {if you schedule your free time, you will have more of it}!  Isn't that an enlightening concept?  

I read something recently that really struck me.  It's not so different from the idea of making time for things.  Lanette Pottle calls it time creation.

Yes, time flies, but you're the pilot!

According to Pottle, time management is not the solution to finding more time--time creation is.  I love what she says at the introduction to her {Time Creation Course}:

"The problem isn’t that we need to find space to cram more appointments and tasks into our day, it’s that our decisions cause us to fill our days with monotonous obligations, unfulfilling activities, and other people’s priorities.  It starts innocently enough. We are ambitious and driven. There is a lot to accomplish to leave our mark on the world and we take pride in doing whatever it takes to make it happen.  Sacrifice becomes a badge of honor (especially for those among us that have people-pleasing tendencies). Deferring our own pleasure becomes common place. We buy into the belief that if we stay focused and committed, there will be time for that later.  The problem is that all too often later never comes… or if it does, it’s on the other side of burnout.  The REAL solution is to shift from managing our time to managing our decisions… and in the process, we become world-class time creators."  ~Lanette Pottle

{Productivity Manager Julie Davis} teaches the same thing to her clients.  I am an organized person, but I fall into the same traps many people do when it comes to feeling a little swamped.  One thing I've learned from Julie is that everything on your to-do list falls into one of these categories:

• Do it.
• Delegate it.
• Dump it.

Sometimes you need to just DO things.  (You're the only person who can exercise for you.  You have things in your job that you need to do.)  

Sometimes your time is better spent by DELEGATING something.  (Can your kids fold laundry, even if it's not perfect?  Is there a high schooler in the neighborhood you could hire to do that thing?)  

Sometimes you need to DUMP things.  Julie says if you've moved something off your to-do list three times, consider if you need to just dump it.  (Evaluate if it's worth your time or if you can let it go.)

Davis also suggests that there's no such thing as multitasking.  I've always considered myself a good multitasker (and I bet a lot of moms do), but Julie says that productivity actually takes a nosedive when we try to multitask--even if we think we're good at it.  #foodforthought

One last tip from Julie Davis:  If something is on your to-do list for days and days and you keep putting it off, and you know you can't Delegate it or Dump it, do procrastinated projects in chunks of time.  Take 20 minutes, set a timer, and work on your procrastinated project for just 20 minutes.  You usually find out it's not so bad, and you can do it.

So many things take second (or third, or fourth, or fifth) place when we aren't in control of our time, aren't managing it, or aren't creating it.  Doing something with your precious photos is often one of them.

I bet you have a photo like this--a moment in time stopped, a great memory you've had the blessing of capturing.

This photo, like yours, shouldn't just sit somewhere as a JPEG file.  Files aren't usually looked at.  Photos are.

Here are several {tips for bringing your photos to life here}:

• set aside (i.e. CREATE) time, maybe an hour or two a week
• think about {making it a family tradition}, like every Sunday night
• organize your photos so you know what you have and what you're dealing with  (You can find some pointers and actually watch me in my process of photo organization {in this video}.)  UPDATE 2022:  For the ultimate in photo organization tutorials, try the 3-part series at this link, including the difference between storing and preserving photos plus strategies for consistency.
• choose your favorites (If you have 1,000 pictures to deal with, you may make more progress if you narrow down the number you want to preserve by just choosing your favorites.)
• keep your appointments with yourself!

Time does fly!  The older I get, the faster it seems to go.  But I'm the pilot on that flight.  I get to choose how I spend my time.  

I hope you'll think about Marie Leslie's perspective of Priority Management--what you fill your days with and what you are (maybe inadvertently?) prioritizing.  I know that makes a big difference in my own time management and creation.

There's so much to be gained, {so much that's GOOD FOR YOU}, when you make time to preserve your memories and your life's story.  Start now, because there's no time like the present!

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