I admit I like processes; in fact I’ll go as far as to say I love processes. There are so many wonderful things about processes, here are a few:
- help explain what needs to be done
- ensures every stage of a task has been considered
- helps to identify efficiencies
- helps to teach other people
- ensures consistencies
I get a great deal of pleasure from breaking tasks into its component actions and arranging them in an efficient manner. Despite this I’ve never used processes at home; maybe I thought it was too much like work or perhaps I thought it was just too anal!
One of the tasks that is constantly on my task list is to sort through photographs and particularly to put them on the internet to share them with friends and family. It seems I upload only a small proportion of the events where I take pictures. While I was downloading software to help me sort some pictures from a recent weekend with my parents, I realised one of the reasons I don’t work on the task as often as I’d like is because I have to think too much about what needs to be done.
Having completed the process for how I deal with photographs on my laptop, I was inspired to discuss with my husband how we will store photographs when we have established our server. We have agreed how this is going to work as well as a file naming format. So although it could be months before our server is up and running we can both ensure our folders are in the same structure and files use the same naming format.
Of course this means, I now need to update my process with a second version to incorporate what we discussed.
Plus I need to decide what I’m going to do with these processes. Do I establish a household wiki and upload them or create a hard copy manual!
Would be really interesting to see some of these procedures when they are done – are you willing to share them for others to use too?
Also, does your process for including pics on your website include being able to link them to the full-size versions? Would make viewing and reading them easier! While I know where the full version is, others may not! Interestingly, you also have an extraneous forward slash in the path of the smaller version.
Gary,
My process of putting photographs online, is actually for my photograph website not this one (I don’t think any of my family read this blog). I don’t have a process for adding pictures here, I just use the add media button, but if it didn’t work properly perhaps I should create one! Anyway, I didn’t think people would be too interested in reading the details of a process that I suspect is very specific to my life. However, if people are interested I would be delighted to share them. I used Powerpoint to produce the one pictured, however I’m contemplating getting a copy of Visio which apparently will make things easier.
BTW, if you follow the link to my photograph website you may find some pictures of you (was that cruel?)
Having been working for the past 11 years, i always thought of flowcharts as a “business thing” or what students would learn in college, but i really didn’t imagine it could be used to sort photos! By the way, if you’re looking for a software for flowcharts, try mindmap. I find it pretty useful.
wow… your a pretty anal person… wish i had systems in my house i could maybe the the kids to do something… hehehe…