The first thing to realize with rather ambiguous goals, such as getting "caught up," is that in order to achieve a goal you must have a clear idea of the objective. Do you have a certain box of pictures that when they have been put into a scrapbook you will feel caught up? Will it matter that the pictures from your daughter's birthday party last week are still in the camera, meaning you are not completely caught up? So to begin, clarify this goal. Write down exactly what you need to get done. "I need to complete a wedding album and three baby albums." That would be a clear goal. Next, break the goal into manageable bits and write down objectives for each portion. Some more ideas to help with this goal include:

Organize your photos into one photo-safe storage box per album that you need to complete. Then using acid-free paper begin to organize the photos into potential pages, dividing each with a slip of the paper and jotting down any details such as dates, names, etc. that will be important for journaling that page.

Try to get the family involved in the project. Many hands make light work. See if you can convince your husband to do some journaling for you. You will love having his words in the album and everything he takes care of is one less thing for you to do. Try sisters, your mother, or older children, when considering recruiting more scrapbookers.

When you have a good pile of your photos organized jump right in and set some pages goals for yourself. Use the steps on page one of this article to set-up a time frame and stay on track.

For more tips on getting caught up, read the article Getting Caught Up and Staying That Way.

Letting you in on a little secret, this is my personal goal for 2002. My scrapbook supplies and projects need to be "taken-in-hand." The solution to every organizational project is to buy more plastic containers. Right? Well, maybe that is not the best solution. Let's apply the goals and objectives format to this resolution as well.

First, determine if your scrapbook goal is to organize your photos, your supplies, and/or your work area. Any of these make terrific goals, but being specific about which one you are hoping to attain, or in what order you want attain them, will help you write some manageable objectives. Some ideas include:

Determine which supplies you use most often. Organize these supplies in a convenient and portable organizer. These will be the "must have" supplies for each scrapbook project.

Find an order that makes sense to you for the rest of your supplies. The punches, paper dolls stencils, that new thing that you bought and never have used, find a place for each of these things so that you know where they are when the inspiration strikes to use them.

Just as in the getting caught up resolution, organize your photos based on the albums you will be creating with them. Divide the pictures into separate photo safe storage containers based on album themes. Label the boxes. And, choose a box to begin scrapbooking. Having family over can help you sort through pictures of relatives or events that have grown foggy in your memory.

Set-up (if at all possible) a location that is just for scrapbooking. I know this is something that we would all love to have, and for many of you it may not be a possibility. However, if you can organize a place in your home that is your scrapbooking workstation, your productivity will soar. You will be able to organize this area based on your work habits and likes. If a permanent location is not feasible, organize your supplies in such a way that you can get them out and put them away quickly and easily. The time spent preparing to scrapbook by organizing supplies, is not time spent completing pages.

Other Resolutions:

Have you resolved to lose weight? Stop smoking? Begin an exercise program? Use the goals and objectives format discussed above to break down each resolution into specific goals. Then, write down the objectives (or steps) that you will take to meet each of these goals. This process changes a resolution from a wish to a plan of action.

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