Week In The Life™ 2024 | Special Guest Jen Wong

Hi friends! I’m happy to be joining you to share my approach for Week In The Life this year. Week In The Life is one of my favorite projects. Time is moving fast and life is changing all the time, even if we don’t notice it, and this is one of those projects that is so fun to look back on and see how different (or similar!) things are today.

I’ll let you in on a secret: most of my Week In The Life albums are incomplete. While I am pretty good at capturing the photos and words during the week, I am not as good at finishing them up. I am not too worried though, since I have all the “stuff” to do it at some point, and this isn’t going to stop me from doing the project again this year!

It would be amazing though, to get the album done within a reasonable amount of time after the documenting week ends, so this year I’m attempting to further simplify my process. Week In The Life is not a very “crafty intensive” project like I tend to view December Daily. For me, it’s more about getting down the details of everyday life and some photos to go along with it.

My Plan Before The Week Begins

Since I want to make this as simple as possible, it’s essential to have a “design formula.” Like others, I have created a loose template for how each day will look in the album, and then I will repeat it for the rest of the week. I’ll walk you through what I’ve done in the video below.

As you’ll see in the video, I’ve also thought about the types of things I want to capture during the week. I would like to include other voices in my documenting, so I’ve laid out at least one place to record that.

I have prepared a prompt list of things I’d like to capture during the week. These range from photos (e.g. photo of the inside of our fridge) to lists (e.g. jotting down our morning/bedtime routines). I can sometimes get stuck during the week wondering what to write or take photos of, especially later in the week, so reviewing this list definitely helps.

My Plan During The Documenting Week

The Words

I’ve been journaling using an online note-taking app for years, and find this approach works great. It won’t be any different during the Week In The Life week, except I will likely fill in more details than usual. I am in a busy season of life, so I often take time during small pockets (e.g. waiting in line, waiting for my daughter at an activity, waiting for water to boil on the stove) to jot down some notes on my phone. Using an app that syncs to my computer and phone is key since I can do my journaling anywhere. If I feel I didn’t get enough down during the day, I will spend a little more time at the end of the day to fill in the gaps.

The Photos

I’ve been guilty in the past of taking hundreds of photos which causes me to spend more time sifting and selecting the ones I want to use. I don’t want to feel overwhelmed by the amount of photos so I will simply be taking less. Because I’ve already laid out my design formula, I know I probably only need a minimum of 14 photos per day. I was surprised when I figured that out, because that’s a super low number compared to the large amount I’ve taken in the past! I’ll

probably aim to take a bit more, to have some variety and choice, but no more than 40, and hopefully closer to 20 on average per day.

Stuff of Life

I already save more “stuff of life” ephemera than I’ll ever use on a general basis but will be saving these in an old scrapbooking kit pouch to look through later. Some examples of things I like to keep are tags of items I purchased, interesting packaging, drawings from my

daughter, and receipts. I plan to have about two pages in my album to hold these items.

Here’s a look at how I’ve set up my album:

That’s my plan for Week In The Life this year. I’m looking forward to capturing my week with the community and hopefully connecting with some of you! You can find me on IG at @circleplusarrow.