My 2021 Documenting Plans + Other Updates

I'm totally a fan of the beginning of the year. I've always appreciated the structure of beginnings + endings and I love the calendar based rhythms of our culture and find comfort in knowing that we get to begin again in one way or another each January.

Today I want to share with you my own personal list of memory keeping projects I plan to embark on this year and some thoughts/details on a personal intention + change for 2021.

2021 MEMORY KEEPING PROJECTS

Here's a look at the projects I'll be participating in + how I plan to document my/our story during 2021: 

• Story Kits™ // Each month I tell 3-4 stories using the Story Kit™ products + theme as the jumping off point. These projects, along with the process videos that show how my pages are created, are shared in the Story Classroom as a benefit to subscribers. You can view the upcoming themes for this year here. If you are interested in what this class content looks like you can check out the completely free classroom we have opened up to give everyone a chance to see what comes with the education portion of the subscription each month (we also added the digital kit to that classroom). 
• One Little Word® // This is a 12-month personal development project that I start each January and end each December to document my experience with my word. 
• Day In The Life™ // In 2021 I'll be doing two Day In The Life™ documenting days. We will release a collection of new products to support this project later this month and we will announce the specific days after the products are released. We generally do one community documenting day in the first half of the year and another in the second half of the year.  
• Pieces Of Us // Last year I lead a week long self-portrait documenting adventure and we are planning to share more about 2021 plans for this project in the coming months. 
• Week In The Life™ // Each year I select one week (usually in May) and document how we are living for seven days in a row. These albums + the stories they hold are absolutely some of my most favorites as they go deeper into the daily rhythms of life at a certain point in time. 
• December Daily® // Each December I embark on a documenting project where I tell one story per day December 1-25. We release a new collection for this project each year in early September. 
• Craft The Story™ You Tube Series // This isn't technically a documenting project but it is something I'm excited about and looking forward to embarking on this year. Starting today I plan to share a weekly video on YouTube that has something to do with memory keeping. Topics I plan to focus on over the course of the year include: scrapbook page how-tos, journaling/storytelling ideas, organizing tips, etc. If there's a specific topic you'd like to see me cover let me know! I'm really excited about creating content for this new series.

For 2021 I'm not planning to include a yearly  Project Life® style of documenting in my personal memory keeping plans. Rather than taking a specific monthly or weekly approach I want to take a more intentional story-focused approach + free myself up to re-imagine my own personal documenting process. I have no idea what exactly this will look like and I wholeheartedly welcome that shift. My 2020 PL monthly documenting fell apart half way through the year for a number of reasons and it feels like the right time for me to take a break (I might go back in + fill in those months at some point but am planning to just set it aside for right now). If you are looking for specific Project Life® pocket page inspiration you can check out my archives from the last 10 years of that style of documenting. 

I'll also be continuing to work on Just Write prompts and we will have a Travel Collection (and workshop) released in the summer. 

Consider yourself invited to join me on any or all of the above documenting adventures. 

LESS SOCIAL MEDIA + MORE CREATING 

This year I will be taking a significant step back from the amount of time I spend on social media - most specifically on Facebook. 

My personal, heart-centered goal for 2021 is simple: I want to consume less + create more. 

I want to inhabit my entire life more intentionally (both personally + professionally) + I have zero plans to stop memory keeping. 

Over the last few years I've tried a variety of techniques to reduce the amount of time I spend on social media. I've taken breaks. I've removed apps. I've set up schedules that allow for certain periods of time spent on this or that app on my phone/computer. I do okay for awhile and then one way or another I end up back to the almost unconscious habit of scrolling + consuming + having my attention stretched in way too many directions. 

I am craving a different way of existing: one that goes deeper instead of wider and one that gives me both time + space to focus on creating vs. consuming. 

As many of you know I've been sharing online in one form or another ever since I first started scrapbooking back in 2002 when Simon was less than a year old. I was sharing the ups and downs of my story before social media even existed. I don't have any intention of stopping the sharing of my stories, I simply want to reclaim the way I'm going about it. 

I want to be writing my own story in my own way. 

To help make this happen  Lisa Varshine is officially joining our AED Inc team. Among other responsibilities, Lisa will take on the role of Social Media Community Manager in our Facebook groups and on Instagram. Kelly Ishmael will be continuing to operate + create amazing content for our AED Inc instagram account, act as our Creative Team Manager, and she will also be taking on a new role next year as our Community Education Manager. In that role she will be assisting community members to bring new classes to our AED education platform (more on that to come later in the year). Katie Jaeger is still working right alongside me + is the boss of many pieces of our business puzzle. 

What does this mean for you? 

• First and foremost you will see less of me on Facebook and in the AED FB Groups. In her role as Social Media Community Manager Lisa Varshine is super excited about creating fun new ways to engage + share ideas within the Craft The Story Group. I will still be active and involved in our OLW Facebook Group for those of you who are participating in the 2021 workshop.
• We will continue to request that you direct Customer Service questions to our Customer Service team who are there to help you when you need it. 
• Our team will continue to provide information + inspiration + clear communication about our projects + products via the AED Inc Instagram account and within the Craft The Story Facebook Group (rather than coming from me in the FB group these posts will now come from our Admin AED Inc account). 
• We are committed to continuing to encourage + inspire you in your memory keeping adventures via projects + products that support your storytelling adventures. 
• I plan to continue sharing here on my blog, on YouTube (you can read more about my plans for that below), in our classrooms, and via my personal Instagram account from time to time. 

This is going to be one of my biggest personal shifts in 2021 and it is certainly the thing that is most on my heart right now. 

Thank you for understanding that my hope in stepping back from social media is to create space for me to create more in a way that feels most authentic to me. I greatly appreciate your support as I get more intentional about how I consume + create in 2021. 

Deeper. That's where I want to go.

As always, thank you for being a part of this memory keeping community. I so look forward to all the stories we will tell together in 2021.