Write it Down
Before you begin on your quest to preserve your photographs, get a 5x7" spiral notebook and write everything down. Write down what you learn, shortcuts, what you want to accomplish, your plan of action and each step in your digitizing routine. Continue to write things down all throughout the process. Write down what roll of film you are working on scanning, which rolls you have already scanned, where you are storing your photos on your computer, what photos you have touched up in Photoshop and which you have yet to touchup.
Believe me when I tell you that you will forget these things! Something will come up in your life and you'll have to set everything aside, not able to come back to your projects for weeks or even months. You will have forgotten everything by then. If you have everything written down, you will easily be able to pick up where you left off without too much trouble.
I prefer a 5x7" spiral notebook for several reasons. First, it keeps all of my information in one place (unlike random pieces of paper or sticky notes). Second, it's small enough to where I can stick it right next to my computer and always know where it is and yet not so small that I can only write 2 things on each page. Thirdly, it's not so big that I can’t find what I need on a certain page. Lastly, I can easily cross of finished projects or tear out entire pages of tasks that are complete.
Write everything down! If there's even a chance that you will forget something, you will. I have written down what resolution I scan my slides, negatives and prints at and even how to put my slides and negatives into my scanner. I have written down all of my Photoshop shortcuts as well as processes in Photoshop that I don’t use very often. It's a good habit to get in to and writing things down will save you a lot of time in the future.
