Your 2020 Time Capsule (and Why Time is Running Out)

Riddle: What has no lock but can’t be opened for years, sometimes decades?

Answer: A time capsule!

Your 2020 Time Capsule

When I was a child, my church built a new wing on the building, and someone put together a time capsule. I remember being fascinated with the idea of putting things aside that couldn’t be looked at for years. The idea of a time capsule has been popping up lately during the coronavirus pandemic.

But there are many problems with a time capsule. What should you include? Where would you store it? What if it gets damaged? How will you remember to open it?

There’s a better way to build your time capsule, and you already have the tools. A photo book, also called a photo album, will hold your memories safely neatly on a shelf, but you can enjoy them with your loved ones without the wait.

When you think back on this time ten or twenty years from now, what will you remember? Will you wish you had built a time capsule? Will you have and be able to locate images of this time, just like any other milestone event? What will your kids remember?

A photograph is the pause button of life.

A photograph is the pause button of life

Have you’ve taken more or fewer pictures since we went into lockdown?

Today is Day 48 for us since school closed. I’ve taken over 123 photos since then, most of them awful since I am not a pro photographer. But there are more than enough to make a lovely photo book.

There’s how my girls felt about school being closed for the rest of the year. (The cat looks pretty happy about it.)

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule

There’s the Easter service with a lockdown twist.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule

There’s the strange way that our local businesses are operating, open-but-blocked off.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule (1)

There’s the strange but wonderful way that I attended my annual conference with my photo organizer colleagues around the world, including Matt Paxton of PBS fame!

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule

There’s the birthday party my daughter’s insisted we have for Peep, her favorite stuffed animal.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule (1)

There’s #CoronaBeans.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule

And #CoronaBaking.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule

There’s the proof that nature will do her thing, regardless of what’s going on in our lives.

Photos from Pandemic Time Capsule (1)

 

In just a few minutes, I was able to find, select, and edit enough pictures to start to tell the story of our days in lockdown. With just a handful of photos, I’m well on my way to printing a great photo album to share with my family for decades. A great photo book can be as few as 20 pictures. Don’t overthink it.

You can do this, too!

You can use this time to learn how to organize your photos and make a photo book of YOUR pandemic experience. Then you’ll make photo albums and gifts more often, preserving important times for your family without stressing about where your photos are, whether they are backed up, and whether they are good enough.

If you are the kind of person who likes to eat dessert first, I love you for that. Remember, I’m all about pie! Making a pandemic photo album scratches that itch to actually SEE the end result–the reward!–quickly and without a big investment. It’s a time capsule, but with nearly immediate gratification. Yessssss.

I’d love to guide you with a step-by-step process to get your next photo album DONE! Check out the Save Your Photos with SORT and Succeed online course. This pre-recorded course goes into detail at the exact right level to get results fast AND help you over the inevitable frustrations when you are working with photos. Lessons are short, usually between 4 and 15 minutes, and you can watch and listen on your computer or your phone. It takes you through the steps of organizing both print and digital photos, and it guides you through the steps of making your own printed album. I designed this course so that by the end, you’ll have photos selected and ready to print in a beautiful photo album of your own. Whether you work on it all at once, or you take the rest of the year (or longer!), you’ll be proud of yourself for finishing an important organizing project.

The course never expires and you can take the course at your own pace, so it’s a ridiculous value at $99. But add in a 30-day money-back guarantee, it’s a no-brainer. All these links take you straight to the signup page. 

If you’re not quite sure if this is for you, watch the promo video on the course page and see if you have some of this same photo mess at your home. We’ll help you turn a photo mess into treasured keepsakes.

Save Your Photos with SORT and Succeed course

 

It’s time to get started on the most important organizing project you’ll ever finish.

Whether you take this course or not, I hope you are inspired to take some photos of this weird, challenging, precious, historic time.

Have questions? I’m all ears. Leave a comment below.

 

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Annalee

    Darla
    How much of my time will it take for me to do 1 photo album for all of 2019? All pix on phone.
    (My occupation has not slowed for Covid.)
    I can do 30 minutes every Saturday. How many Saturdays will that take?

  2. Darla

    Hi, Annalee, you can absolutely spend 30 minutes a weekend and get a photo book done. How long it takes will depend on so many factors, including how many photos you want to include, how much time you need to find and organize your photos, how much editing you’d like to do, and how much time you want to spend on the book design. I’ll provide you some shortcuts to all of those steps and more inside the class. And remember, if you get stuck at any point, we’re here to handoff your project to. So whether you do it all or you get help, you can take full credit for getting your 2019 photo book completed!

Comments are closed.