Some of you are having a hard time keeping up with Project 365 and need a little motivation. First of all, let me just say that I am your cheerleader. I so want us all to succeed in this goal of capturing and recording a snippet of our life, every day this year. It is possible. If I didn’t think it was possible, I wouldn’t be such a promoter of this concept and I wouldn’t have developed a kit to help people do it a little easier.

I also wanted to say that I have what most of you have: A really busy life. Life is full. Full of blessings and bumps in the road and to-do’s and places to go and people to see and all that good stuff. We all have a load of excuses of why we’ve slipped in keeping up when we were doing so good in the beginning of the year, right?

That said, let me assure you that I am a member of that “behind-on-365″ club. But I want to be the president of the “let’s-catch-up” club. Are you with me??

No matter what your situation (behind on daily pictures or behind on daily journaling blocks or both) … promise yourself that you will do what you can to catch up to today. It doesn’t have to be all at once. How you approach the catching-up depends on your organizational style & your schedule. Here are some suggestions:

[ Behind on journaling ] This is my category. I have not faltered in taking a picture every day. It’s so natural for me to grab the camera and snap a picture of something — anything — each and every day. There are a million opportunities! But I’ve fallen a bit behind on my journaling. So what I’ve been doing the past few days is I have my stack of journaling blocks, my date stamp, day stickers, and a pen all together on my desk. That way, I’m not making it feel like a “project” to get the stuff out to catch up every time I want to do so. I just literally find myself writing 2 or 3 or 4 journaling blocks when I have 5,10, 15 minutes to spare. Like when Porter’s in the office doing his homework or Claire’s drawing a picture. I’ll sit with them and I’ll work on the journaling blocks. Just a few at a time. And slowly, I am catching up.

[ Behind on pictures ] If you have slipped on a few days (or a lot of days!) in taking pictures, do NOT despair. Remember: Project 365 is whatever you want it to be. If you want to take the approach of “this is something we did today”, then yes — actually taking a picture in the moment of something you did that day would be a key part of your process. But life is about more than events. Your life is full of everyday stuff, too. Your routines and habits and “stuff”. You want this album to be a full picture of your life right now. That includes little details. So make up those missing-picture days by taking pictures of things (your toiletries, your breakfast, your place of exercise, the book you’re reading, the alarm clock, your favorite spot in the house). Or take pictures of people (co-workers, taxi driver, UPS delivery guy, your loved one as he walks in the door from work, your pet in their favorite hang-out spot).

For a little extra motivation, look back at those weeks or months in your Project 365 where you were doing great. Aren’t you SO glad you have that?? It’s just so cool. A picture a day every single day of the year. Seriously. What a story!

Come on, guys. Stick with it. I know you can! For those of you who are either totally keeping up, or you have fallen behind but are finding ways to catch up, please feel free to leave a comment with your added thoughts/tips.

Okay, on a bummer note, I just have to say that I am missing my camera right now. It was having an issue, so I handed it over to the Geek Squad at Best Buy and they shipped it away to be fixed.

I have to be away from the camera for almost a month. OUCH! Thank goodness I have a point-and-shoot, but STILL! For those of you who use an SLR all the time, you know what I mean. : (

Alrighty. I’m getting back to my day (and more 365-catch-up later on!). Stick with it, my friends. Don’t give up! You’ll be so glad you did this.