Over the years, I’ve had many people tell me that they want to organize their photo collection, but there were so many reasons that it never happened. In fact, a few years ago, I would have used a few of them.
- I’m busy and don’t have the time
- I don’t know where to begin
- It’s a big job
- I get overwhelmed
But the hard part is that if you are the “keeper of the photos,” you might feel like you still have a responsibility, and so you go around and around. Feeling guilty, trying to do the job, then throwing up your hands at the task and feeling guilty all over again. That’s a tough place to be.
I might have a solution for you, and it’s so simple you’ll realize that you knew how to do it all along.
I’m reading a book called Tiny Habits written by BJ Fogg PhD, and I’m realized that I’ve been using this technique for some of the things I wanted to change in my life, and I just needed to tweak it to do more.
I’m not going to go over the entire book, but the first suggestion is that you choose a trigger and then have an action for that trigger. BJ Fogg calls it the Maui Habit. (Don’t ask me why it’s called that).
Maui Habit
Sounds simple, but once you start thinking about this, you’ll realize that you might have done this technique for some of your life, and now you can unleash it further. I’m sure when you see a red light at an intersection, you stop the car.
The final step after you do the action is you celebrate. It can be a fist pump with a “right on” or a happy dance. Whatever works for you.
Here’s an example of how I used this idea in my life. I read a lot, but I wanted to read more books for pleasure and there just never seemed to be the time to do that. First, you need to know that often I’d wake early in the morning, and either I’d toss and turn or just get up and start working. But I didn’t want my life to just be about working.
So with the Maui Habit in mind, I decided that I’d put my Kindle on the bedstand, and if I woke before my desired wake-up time, I’d grab my Kindle and read until my wake-up time.
So my trigger is waking up and looking at the clock, and my action is that if it is earlier than 8 a.m., then I’m going to read. I’m happy to tell you that I’ve read four books since I started and that hasn’t been very long. As I did this, I started thinking about all the other times I’ve used a Tiny Habit and didn’t realize it.
How can we put this same action into organizing our photos?
First, let us address some of the things listed above and decide how you can change them, and by doing that, you can create a tiny habit and move forward with the organization process. So let’s look at those reasons again and see what we can do.
- I’m busy and don’t have the time. – I’m not sure a person never has time but they just feel like it’s a huge job. So what if we broke it down into tasks. Collecting, sorting, scanning and organizing.
Hmmm still sounds involved and overwhelming.
So what if we made the trigger, if I find a photo in the house, I’m going to put it in a box on my table. Sounds pretty easy.
If you are at the sorting stage, your trigger might be when I sit and watch my favorite TV show; I’ll sort my photos.
Or if you are at the scanning stage and have mountains of photos to scan, what if you said, when I sit at my desk, the first thing I’m going to do is scan five photos. Again that sounds pretty simple.
Once you have them on your computer or in FOREVER at the organizing stage. You might decide after dinner I’m going to sit at my desk or use my FOREVER app and organize my photos for 15 minutes. (less time if that’s too much).
These ideas may have dealt with some of the reasons we are not getting started with our collection. We’ve broken it down into tiny habits that we can do.
Create Your Recipe
So how can you do this, so it works for you?
- think of a habit you’d like to do.
- Take that habit and make it tiny I mean really make it tiny
- Add it to your existing routine
- Finally the really important part… Celebrate your accomplishment
Choosing a habit that is meaningful to you is half the battle because you already want to do it. By making it tiny, you are making it, so you will always succeed. Celebrating make you happy.
“Emotions create habits” BJ Fogg.
I hope you’ll try this method, and then please tell me how you incorporated it into your life.
If you are interested in learning more about Tiny Habits, you can read the book; you can check out the podcast by Guy Kawasaki Remarkable People Podcast (January 19, 2022, he interviewed BJ Fogg. Or you can also watch the TED Talk given by BJ Fogg.
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I’m also a FOREVER Senior Ambassador, and I love helping others with their photo and digital legacy. If you want to learn more, don’t hesitate to sign up for a FREE half-hour consultation.