Add a Photo Edit to Your Morning Routine

STRETCH, MEDITATE, COFFEE, CURATE

When you say “photo organizing” it sounds big and tedious. Like a whole Saturday afternoon when you could be hiking, hanging with friends, or reading a good book.

Not that it’s without its perks, but photo organizing is still largely in the task column of activities. Something to be checked off and admired, like a tidy living room.

But one way to finesse the process and add some fun is to fit it into your morning routine. In 10-15 minutes a day, you can clean up new photos, curate old ones, and even straighten up your Albums Collection. Resurfacing your memories over morning coffee beats doom scrolling social media any day.

Here’s how it goes.

First, check out yesterday’s pictures. Whatever you shot. Seeing them with a fresh eye makes it easier to be objective and tend to the photos that need to be cropped, adjusted, captioned, or sent to trash.

The extra takes that add clutter.

Reminder shots that should go to Notes.

Images that need a caption or keyword.

A video to be shared.

If the day was notable, you can even make a Journal entry about it.

And that may be it.

Or perhaps you didn’t take any pictures the day before.

In that case, you can spend a couple minutes on the backlog.

One easy way is to do a search on the day’s date. If you search on July 8, you’ll see all the photos in your library taken throughout the years on July 8.

Check them against the same rules as the dailies.

What’s extra? What’s good? What needs some context?

And here’s a tip; scroll down to the bottom of the group and review them in reverse order. Search results always sort with the newest photos at the top of the screen, so starting at the bottom lets you review them in the order they were taken.

Search always sorts with the oldest photos at the bottom.

Along the way, you might want to make a curated Album. But that would probably require another cup of coffee at a later time. So just add a photo from the group to a new Album. When you have time, you can open the placeholder Album and work on it. Pulling up the Info palette and choosing “Show in Library” will take you to where the image lives in your Library along with its siblings.

You can also create Working Albums as you go to hold random photos that need dates, event details, locations, or names. Whatever will help create meaningful context.

What about scanned photos and converted video?

Legacy images are the ringers. The outliers in the process. But that’s okay. The important thing is to get them into your Library where the People & Pets face detection can see them and create identities to tag. Old photos will start to surface in Featured and Memories to spark curiosity and thoughts. You can share with family and friends for their help, too.

The thing is that most of us are faced with a photo collection that took a lifetime - or more - to create. Getting it in order overnight is unrealistic and usually unnecessary unless faced with a milestone event. As long as they’re safe, you have time.

On top of that, our Photos Library will continue to grow throughout our life, whether through our own photography or shared additions. By some estimates, the average iPhone user takes 3000 photos a year. More than many people from my parents’ generation took in a lifetime. Image creation has become part of our lifestyle, the second language of the times, and incorporating some simple steps to review and refresh those pictures makes all the sense in the world.

Adding that morning check-in to your daily routine will create a Library of photos that you will be proud of and turn the process from task to treasure.

And it’s a lovely way to start the day.

If you want to try the morning routine and need a reminder about what to do, download Your Morning Photo Routine reference sheet and keep it at your desk. I will reach out over the next 3 weeks to help you keep on track.