So did you think about your process? Did you take notes? Did you even make a flow chart because you thought that would be fun? (Or is that just me who does things like that?)

Here’s the great thing about knowing your process: now you have a way to organize your stuff, and you have a way to get yourself out of non-productive ruts.

What? How is that possible? Like this:

First up: Organization

Keep commonly used items close at hand.

By knowing your process, you know how often you use certain items. Your paper trimmer gets used multiple times per page. Stickers rarely. You’ve found you love adding certain techniques to your page (stamping, anyone?) and others you stay far away from. This leads to the easiest and most obvious organization tip ever: Put things you use often close at hand and easily accessible. Things you rarely use can be put in less accessible areas, or even taken out of your stash all together.
How’s that for a cool result from knowing your process?

Another fun result:

If you know your process, you know where you run into problems. Have trouble finishing a page because you can never find the photo you want to use? Then you know you need to work on your photo organization. If you get everything done except the journaling, you need to work on your story telling. (My friend Lain Ehmann has some great ideas for those pages that are missing journaling on her Layout A Day podcast. You should definitely check those out.) Unsure of how you want to design a page? Explore the world of starting points and sketches.

Also, by knowing your process, you can switch it up if you feel like your scrapbooking has gotten stale and boring. (Stale and boring? Never!) If you always start with story, you could start with a product you love or a technique you’ve been wanting to try. If you are a photos first person, you could start with a sketch or design, and work from there.

Starting with the technique, rather than the story.

Aren’t those fun results, just by knowing your own process? Take the time to think about it. You’ll be surprised by how much knowing your scrapbooking method helps you become a better, more efficient scrapbooker!