When life goes its’ ordinary ways, I’m usually not able to make a week’s spread by the end of that exact week. Most of the time I’m 3 to 6 weeks behind on my Project Life – and I’m totally fine with that. But that means I need to have a way to keep note of the events of those past weeks – there’s no way I’m able to remember all the little details for several weeks. And I need a system to prevent little keepsakes from wandering around my worktable – or even worse, around the house – until they find a permanent place in our Project Life album.
It took me quite some time before I figured out a good system for both keeping up with notes and with keepsakes, but I’m pretty happy with what I have for now. And the best thing is, you don’t need any fancy supplies or anything. Simple works the best for me.
For jotting down notes throughout the week – which help me with my journaling a few weeks later – I ended up loving a simple ringband grid notebook the best. I use a page per week – unless it was a special week with lots of journaling – and usually keep enough room at the bottom of the page for a few page sketches. I don’t need many words to help me remember the particular events, so a small notebook was enough for me. If you’re more of an elaborated writer, I would suggest you go for a bigger size.
I love that I’m able to make sketches for my layouts on the same page – that’s why I picked up a grid notebook. Last week I came across this post from mydigitalartstudio.com on Pinterest, which offers some lovely Project Life printables for free. Currently I’m into mixing page protector designs, so this wouldn’t work for now. But I might end up switching to one of these mydigitalartstudio.com notebooks in the future.
Keepsakes, like little notes, drawing, tickets, receipts, etc used to pile up in a basket, or wander around, until I came up with a very simple system. I had an older set of Oh Joy! mailers, that I didn’t use up. So I punched wholes in a bunch of them, so they would fit in my current Project Life album. All kind of keepsakes now get tucked in an envelope, on which I stick a post-it note with the respective week scribbled onto it. So when I’m about to work on a particular week, I know everything will be in that one mailer. Once I’m done with the week, I pull off the post-it note and repurpose the envelope for a future week. I have a bunch of these circulating in my album, in a chronological order, sometimes even in between a set of page protectors. Nothing’s going astray anymore.
I told you this wasn’t anything fancy;) How do you keep up with everything until it’s documented? I’d love it if you shared a bit about your system in the comments.
Have a great week!
Els.
Libby
These ideas are fantastic, thanks for sharing your system! 🙂
Debbie Lee
This is a great idea! I currently use a file box with labeled folders for each week. Ideally I stick stuff from the week in its respective folder as we go along. This doesn’t actually happen though. I tend to pile it on top and then file when I get a chance. I need to be better about my note taking because I am weeks (read: months) behind. I rely heavily on my Instagram posts for remembering what was happening. And every Instagram post begins with the date.
bestamped
Thanks for stopping by, Debbie!! It has taken me a long time before I found a working system. It really helps me to take notes in a small notebook that I can take everywhere, so I can jot things down when I have a few minutes here and there throughout the day.
Thanks for sharing!
Els.