What Can You Get Done in 15 Minutes?

Yesterday I worked on my Project Life album. After only ten days into the new year, I’ve already seen lots of blog posts of what their first few pages look like...journal cards filled—out, pictures already in place and some with lots of embellishments to make them all look pretty. I have found some pins on pinterest as well and started my own board for Project Life. 

This is what mine looks like.

Not exactly like some of the ones I’ve seen posted. But I am caught up on my journal cards. What I try to do is sit down once a day, usually in the evening after the kids are in their rooms, and write my journal card. But sometimes life gets in the way and it doesn’t get done. That’s when my back-up plan comes into place. Every Monday, I set time aside to catch-up. With my camera by my side and my plan book open, I can write those journal cards pretty quickly. I still don’t have my pictures in the album. They won’t come until the end of the month. At the end of January, I will download all my pictures for the month to Shutterfly and when that bright orange envelope arrives in the mail, I will slide the pictures into place. Not all of my cards will stay exactly where they are now. Depending on how many pictures I have for a particular day, my cards may get moved around. Project Life can be different for different people. Some people take a picture a day. I try to do that, but I don’t always stick to it and that’s okay.  There are some days that I wouldn’t be able to stick to just one picture…Ryan’s birthday or Molly’s pictures from her own little picture project, for example.

I follow Gretchen Rubin’s blog, The Happiness Project. She has written about organization, using time more wisely, and getting things done and how it all relates to your happiness.

Some of her words that run through my head are:

People usually overestimate what they can get done in a day and underestimate what they can get done in 15 minutes.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a “to-do” list for the day and at the end of the day I am disappointed because I didn’t get everything done. It wasn’t because I wasn’t busy. It wasn’t because I wasn’t focused. It really was because I overestimated what I could get done in that day. We sometimes set ourselves up for failure. We think about all the things we didn’t do and not all the things we did get done that day.

Once a week, Gretchen Rubin posts a video on her blog. In 2011, she was focused on resolutions. Each week she would have a resolution suggestion. This year she is focusing on getting rid of those “pigeons of discontent,” kind of the opposite of the “bluebird of happiness.” What are those “little” things that weigh us down and then make us discontent? On yesterday’s post she talked about that overwhelming task of doing something with all those family pictures. She said if you do something for 15 minutes everyday (which equals an hour and 45 minutes by the end of the week) you will make a dent in whatever overwhelming task is before you.

Click here to see her blog.

People overestimate what they can get done in a day and underestimate what they can get done in 15 minutes. So if you take 15 minutes out of your day, everyday to do something with your family pictures, whether it’s scrapbooking, digital books, or Project Life, by the end of the year, you will have something that documents your family’s life.

It only takes 15 minutes.