Purge and Prune to set your Photo Book Goals

Happy January! Also known as the month of setting goals!

I’m a planner through and through. I get extremely excited about setting intentions and outlining the strategy to go from concept to reality. I usually get in the goal setting mood in January and also August, as my kids are heading back to school and I’m trying to figure out what I want to accomplish by the end of the year.

January is really the time of reflection and assessment and big goal setting. I love the process of looking at what happened in the previous year as well as dreaming about what I want for the upcoming year. It’s also a time to embrace possibility and expand my horizons for what I hope to accomplish.

As I wrote last year, I’m a big fan of SMART goals. But this only helps what you know you want to focus on. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make – with all goals, but particularly when it comes to photo book goals – is the desire to take on too many projects. And SMART goals won’t help when you’re trying to tackle 5 photo books at one time.

Your should start with the Purge and Prune Method. Inspired by this Marie Forleo video, I’ve created an exercise to help you apply this to your own photo book goals. In fact, I’ve created an entire free workshop – fresh start – to kickstart your 2017 printing goals.

So let’s get started!

Step 1: Purge

This first step is all about the brain dump. I want you to get every project you hope to accomplish out of your head and onto a piece of paper. Include everything. The practical projects, the necessary projects and the wouldn’t it be nice someday projects. Write them all down.

Immediately you should feel some relief.

Step 2: Prune

Now it’s time to look over your list and determine what one project you want to pour your energy into first. The goal is to narrow your project down to a select few and I really recommend honing in on one project that you will start and finish, no matter what.

This does not mean that you will forget about your other projects. It’s merely setting your intentions to see at least one project all the way through.

How to decide what to select? Think about what you know about this project, all the steps it will take to get you from point A to point Z and how much you really want a particular book.

Once you’ve selected your one project, I’ve outlined six other steps to help clarify what comes next. Here’s a quick summary but if you want to go deeper into each topic, I’d love to have you join my free workshop, fresh start, where we’ll tackle all steps in great detail. 

Step 3: Identify what has worked for you in the past and consider why you were successful.

Step 4: List all roadblocks that stand in your way.

Step 5: Determine why you want to print your photos.

Step 6: Find tools, tips and strategies to help you work faster, smarter and easier.

Step 7: Create a game plan for your project.

Step 8: Get started!

Grab my Purge and Prune Worksheet and get started with my free fresh start workshop.