What do you with all your photo prints? I am often asked this.
If you still have many photo prints, and they are stored randomly, the best advice that I can give you is: sort the photos in chronological order, discard the failures, second-class photos and duplicates, and store the best in envelopes, folders, photo wallets or box files, together with sachets of silica gel (these keep the photos dry, and you can often find them in packed goods that you have bought).
Around 2004, many people began taking digital photographs. So did I. That means that I now (2020) have 17 years’ worth of digital photos, about 40.000. They are in chronological order in folders in my computer (iMac – Photos).
Besides the date (year-month and in some cases day), the folders are also given a name, such as “Italy” or “Paul’s Exhibition”. That is my most important tip: in the photo application on your computer, make main folders by year, and sub-folders by subject, or main folders by subject (holidays) and sub-folders by country and/or year. For a trip, a special birthday or for example a sub-folder ‘ideas’, if you regularly get inspirations. It is important to remember that when you start a new sub-folder, first clean up the collection, discard all the failed and second-class photos, and make critical choices about which photos you want to keep. After a time, tens of photos of the same mountain are nog longer of interest. Are you a user of the iCloud, then the photos will gather by themselves. And still then it is critical to clean up. Do it once a week or month, or after a special happening.
For smart organizing in Photos (Mac): If you use keywords with the photos, you can have ‘smart’ folders, which gather the photos with the corresponding keyword.
Copy all the photos onto two external storage mediums (USB-stick or hard disk) as ‘back up’. Once a quarter is a good rule. You can copy the entire Photo Library onto the External Disk via the Finder, or you can export alle photos to your Desktop , using the ‘Photos Takeout’ programme. Keep one back-up disk in a safe place in your house, the other in another place. See also my tip ‘Make back-ups as support for memories’.
Clothing is a recurring theme in terms of organization. Do you have a large pile of clothes on a chair – and thus clothing that is not in the wardrobe? Perhaps those are things that you wear most often.
Assign a fixed place for things – this is a well-known rule of organization. Your keys in particular need a logical and fixed storage place.
It makes time, clears your head and gives you a good feeling, if you can work in a concentrated manner. But how do you do that, if you are in a busy work environment, or you are constantly haunted by the feeling that you have so many other things to do? ….
If you are looking for a light-hearted way to plan activities, look no further than Lego. You’ve probably got some in the house, but you will need a baseboard. If you also have plenty of bricks and figures, you can go to town.
You have a good idea – to make time to clear up your house. But how do you start? I’ll give you a few important tips:
A proportion, or a large proportion, of the e-mails in your in-box are probably digital newsletters, or updates for organisations or products for which you registered long ago.
Sometimes you wish there were more hours in the day. You have been busy the whole day, and you still have not got round to setting up a project that you planned, or looking up a course that you want to follow. What can you do? Take a look at the way that you spend your time. Lees verder “Boulders and pebbles”
Imagine your work, or a project in your work, as a vegetable garden. The vegetable garden requires constant attention, but not all the required work can, or needs to be done, at the same time.