The end of the month is a great time to take a few minutes and roundup your memories. You can do this by looking over your calendar, blog posts, or whatever records you may keep, and simply filling in a few quick notes using a simple format. I've been doing this for 3 years now and I can't even begin to tell you how much easier it has made memory keeping for me! I am constantly referencing my monthly roundups for ideas for scrapbook pages and I always have material for journaling now. After I answer the questions I just post them to my blog and my roundup is done. If you don't have a blog, just save them on your hard drive or print them out.
Here are the questions I use:
What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
What gifts did I give and/or receive?
What special or unusual purchases did I make?
What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
What were my accomplishments this month?
What were my disappointments this month?
Anything else noteworthy to include?
When you combine these roundup prompts with a few month end tasks, you will find that you are much more organized and ready to begin a new month!
Here are the tasks I try to make sure are done by the end of the month:
- All digital pictures uploaded to my hard drive, uploaded to flickr (or any offsite photo storage site), and backed up to DVD. Ideally, these activities should be done every time you process any pictures through your computer so you don't lose any precious files.
- Choose photos or digital layouts to be printed out and get it done while you are thinking about it.
- Backup any other documents or files as needed. I use an external hard drive, I use backblaze as an offsite backup, and I also upload many documents to Google docs. I don't like to lose stuff!
- Backup your blog if you have one. (Typepad backup or blogger backup)
- Clean off work area and empty inbox or clear up papers that have been piling up. I always end up with a messy desk by the end of the month and it feels good to get it under control again, even if it doesn't last long.
- Clean off your computer desktop as well. Unzip files and put them away. Here's my digi organization system if you are interested.
- Change desktop background to something new for a fresh start to the month! Free desktop resources right here.
If you post your roundup on your blog, it would be great if you could give a link back to me so others know where to find the roundup tool, but it's not a requirement or anything. LOL! Also, feel free to edit the questions and tasks however you want to make them useful for you.
