Week In The Life™ 2015 | Getting Ready

Next Monday I'll be embarking on my annual  Week In The Life™ project. Seven days of daily life documentation. Seven days of photos and stories of my/our life right now. Seven days of content that will be placed into the album above in the coming weeks after focusing on the words and photos next week. 

I generally don't do a lot of album prep for this project, especially since for me it's so much about the photos and the words and that's what I want to focus on during the actual week. I did go through and put my page protectors in order and cut up the 3x4 cards  from the kit as you can see above. This will give me a nice flow when I start printing. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to add my words via Photoshop again like I did last year (directly onto my photos before printing) - that enabled me to include so many more words which I'm really thankful to have now. 

As usual I'll be sharing my daily photos and words here each day (posted the day after) and you're invited to share yours.  

Here are a few posts to get you in the mood for documenting and telling stories next week: 

• Our Days Are Built With Stories
• What Stories Will You Tell?
• Getting Real: Thoughts On Creativity & Scrapbooking
• Week In The Life™ Photo Tips

Also, I was a guest on a recent edition of the Paperclipping Roundtable podcast called Look For The Light. We talked about everyday life photography and some of our favorite ways of seeing through the lens - definitely applicable as you embark on this project. 

2015 INTENTIONS

My personal intention with this project for 2015 is to simply capture who we are right now. 

I'm specifically interested in the who - what are the things that make each one of us who we are as we go about our everyday life. Obviously that will include our daily routines and some of the same themes I include every year, but that's where my head and heart is at for this project this year. What makes Anna, Anna? What makes Simon, Simon? What makes me, me. What are our individual strengths right now? What are our challenges? I'm not really sure what that's going to look like just yet, but that's what I'm most interested in capturing via my words this time around.

Most likely it might be less about the times of day, less about a recounting of exactly where we went and what time we ate and when we did such and such. Those things will be represented of course - maybe more on some days than on others - but my intention is to get to the heart of who we are right now in August 2015. 

As usual my photos will drive my stories. Obviously the photos are an integral part of this process, but when focusing on the concept of who they might be even more important. I'm excited to figure this out as I go along. 

Please keep in mind that everyone will have their own intentions going into this project. Some might be focusing totally on a chronological accounting of the day, others might be only about food, others might have tons of photos and some people might do a more limited number per day. Make this work for you. What do you most want to capture about your life right now? 

ACTION LIST

1. Think about what you'd really like to capture during this week. What photos do you really want to take? What stories are you on the lookout for? Are there specific stories you'd like to make sure to include this week based on the life you are living right now? 

2. Download and print the Daily Sheets.

• Download the 6x8 Daily Sheets here.
• Download the 8.5x11 Daily Sheets here.

PS | I didn't end up using these last year and I'm not sure if I will or not this year. They are a great way to track your day and I definitely recommend using them if this is your first time and you want a bit more of a path forward. Last year I mainly used my photos as a guide and worked hard to get my words into each blog post at the end of the day.

3. If you ordered  the kit, take some time to look through it and see which cards you might want to use during the week (vs. ones you'd fill in after). There's a couple in there that are good jumping off points for stories to tell during the week.

4. Consider purchasing the  Week In The Life™ layered templates (in 6x8 or 8.5x11) or the 4x6 printable cards/overlays (these are great if you just want to include pieces of this project in Project Life®). I'll be using some of the 6x8 templates (specifically the full page daily one with the days of the week). See below for more details on those sets.

5. Charge your camera battery. I tend to use my bigger camera vs. my phone during this week. I usually include a few phone photos but most tend to be with my 5D. If you print photos at home you might also want to check your ink levels to see if you need to order more ink.

6. Get your head in the right place. This isn't a competition. This isn't about who has the best or the most or crafting the perfect story of your perfect life, this is about documenting what is real in your life at this point in time via words and photos and intentional embellishments. You are not going to get in trouble if you forget to take photos or write things down. If you find you forgot at one point or another it's no big deal, just start where you left off. Every year someone leaves a comment that they woke up and forgot to take photos on Monday morning so they end up bagging the entire project. That is not what this is about. Start where you're at with what you have right in front of you. You can do this. 

7. Live your life. Next week just do your regular stuff of life and capture it along the way. I will absolutely take more photos next week than I do on a "normal" week because I have a specific intent to capture more. The photos I take during these weeks often end up being some of my favorites for the year simply because I'm focused and know, without a doubt, that the effort is worth it. 

DIGITAL PRINTABLES & TEMPLATES

For the last few years I've designed layered template/overlay sets that can be used as the foundation for your album or as a jumping off point. 

The new digital layered templates and printables are now available in my shop. I'll be using at least  the date portion in my album on my 6x8 full page photos. 

Here's a look at the new sets:  

First up is a  4x6 set of overlays that include both dated and non-dated versions (PNG and PDF for easy printing). These are also great for adding to Project Life® (anytime of the year) - either on top of photos or printed out as journal cards. 

The  6x8 layered template set includes 14 total pages for use in Photoshop/Photoshop Elements (daily pages + photo collage pages as shown above // not all pages are shown in this one preview).This set includes seven new pieces of word art on the collage pages. Additional preview images located here. 

If you are new to working with digital layered templates in Photoshop you can check out my post for working with the templates last year (the steps are basically the same). 

Also available is an  8.5x11 layered template set that includes the same number of pages and designs as the 6x8.

YOU CAN DO THIS

Let's tell stories together. I'm super excited to embark on this project again and I can't wait to see what kind of stories I end up telling over the course of the week. 

You can scroll through all my past Week In The Life™ posts here.