THINGS THAT MATTER - THIS CHALLENGE
2021
THIS IS YOUR CHALLENGE
CREATE a recurring appointment with your photos as of today. Maybe once a week, once a month, whatever WORKS and whatever you are going to show up for.
Pick a day.
Use a term on your calendar that makes it MATTER. If you don’t make it a priority you will fail. Mark your calendar for one day in January RIGHT NOW. I currently have scheduled 30 minutes today on my calendar and i’m committed to it because i want to motivate you to commit as well.
Duration of appt: UP TO YOU
10 minutes, 2 hours, don’t be unrealistic - schedule what you KNOW you can commit to. Otherwise, you’re reading all of this for nothing and will simply leave here with a reminder of how dire your situation is … still… because it doesnt go away.
PUT THE APPT ON your calendar. Literally. The one you use all the time. With reminders. Treat it like a commitment bc you’re going to make it a commitment.
Make it REAL.
START HERE:
I did prelim research but found that we really already know which apps people use the most. Pick one and download the app. Right now. Stop reading a pick one. Download it.
GO.
After you download, open the app and SIGN UP for an account. Fill all of the info in. If you have PayPal, a few of them offer this as an option which I thought was a nice convenience. This is not rocket science.
NOW, for all of you “shiny motivated” people… there are going to be a LOT of shiny things in your app. Books, canvases, collages, masks, … an INFINITE number of options within your app for printing photos.
WALK. AWAY.
You’re in the middle of an intervention - WALK AWAY from the shiny stuff.
You are going to look for PRINTS.
JUST PRINTS.
We need to keep it as simple as HUMANLY POSSIBLE. The fact that the quantity of photos is overwhelming is enough for now. We aren’t going to add options. There’s a price range from 1cent to 2.00/ea. Do something that works for your budget. It’s not for the museum. Its’ a 4x6 photo. It’s enough.
I saw a special this morning that you can get 1cent prints until midnight tonight on one of the major sites.
Another, called FreePrints, literally just charges you shipping. I read a lot of reviews. Half a million people use Free Prints. The reviews say that the prints take forever, but at the end of the day, if you haven’t printed any at all, will it really matter how long it takes?
Many of them will also let you print directly from Facebook and Instagram.
ALL OF THIS CAN BE DONE STRAIGHT FROM YOUR PHONE.
There are good and bad reviews on everything. Just pick one.
I am trying to help you so i remind you again,
Walk away from the fancy stuff. Walk a-WAY from the the fancy stuff.
4x6s - consider shipping when you are looking for an app bc I’m guessing some have a fee some don’t. If it’s a “standard photograph” taken on your phone or camera, it is sized at 4x6. You won’t need to adjust or crop or see if it fits. It fits. It’s the default size. No tweaks. Just select photos and done.
MAKE AN ACCOUNT IN YOUR APP
You may or may not pay shipping. Consider this when you order.
HOW DO I EVEN START?!?!?!
We’re just going to start on the phone for now.
If i open Photos on my iPhone (dont’ hate me, android people, but i’m going to guess you can do something very similar), and select LIBRARY (bottom left), I can have all of my images sorted by Year, Month, or Day.
If i choose MONTH, it reorganizes and offers me a chronological view of my months.
GOOD PLACE TO START. Start with your oldest pics first. They will be most fun to see since some of you haven’t seen them for THIRTY THOUSAND PHOTOS. When you see them, be in the moment and notice how you FEEL when you get teary and nostalgic because you can’t believe how much things have changed in your life since that month. THAT is what you’re going to be printing. IT MATTERS.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE delete-FEAR, you don’t need to delete anything yet. Baby steps, I know.
You can start today. You know you can.
PLACE ONE ORDER.
Might be 10.00 - might be 100.00 - again, that’s up to you. You don’t need a huge budget. Use the time within your scheduled appt only. When the appt time is over, send the order and walk away until your next appt. Then carry on with your life.
Dont’ make such a HUGE order on your first appt because that will deter you from showing up for the next one. Be reasonable. Don’t binge print. That will come in time. The process will incline. You’re at the bottom. Don’t binge.
RATIONALITY is your friend.
IMPORTANT - DON’T MISS YOUR APPTS. You’ll be back for another one.
WHEN YOU GET THE PHOTOS, write the subject matter or month or event that you printed and then put them somewhere. In the future, you will have an overwhelming amount of prints in a drawer. That’s our goal. Overwhelmed with an abundance of PRINTS - not an abundance of HOPING they’ll always be accessible and easy. SHOW YOUR KIDS that it’s important so that they do the same.
I almost missed this boat but have noticed over time that the TEENAGERS are using snapchat and instagram stories more than anything these days. Those pictures are nowhere to be found… what will they have to look back on?
Your pictures are history. Don’t let them die on your phone or your computer.
Create prints. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and being lazy is our only excuse.
Think about this:
At the end of this 2020 Pandemic Covid year over 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE have left this world, just about 350,000 right here. Can you even comprehend that many people? If you are reading this and have lost someone that you love, I am so sorry for your sadness. I offer an idea only, respectfully, to print some photos. Hold their photos in your hand. Remember them. Tell stories about them when you see the photos.
PROOF OF LIFE.
I BEG OF YOU - do this for your family.
Happy New Year.
Print your life.