Say what you will about the advantages of editing your film on screen. With the advent of digital cameras, we've merely traded envelopes full of unsorted snapshots for scores of images stuck in another sort of purgatory: the virtual netherworld of a digital-camera memory card or a hard drive that is just a system crash away from oblivion. What remains consistent in the digital and analog worlds is the need for rigorous maintenance. The following is not a project with the usual trappings of glue sticks and pinking shears, but a four-step plan for organizing your photos that actually works—even if you're starved for time. And sleep deprived. And desperately in need of a pedicure.
Next Page: The one-hour-per-month plan for getting your photos in order
