Week In The Life 2013 | Ready, Set, Go
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Ready, set, go!
This past weekend I took some time to think about what I wanted to capture in my 2013 Week In The Life album.
I jotted down a few questions that I hope to make come alive visually in my album and that I think are the important questions I want to be asking myself right now:
How do I work?
How do I play?
How do I nourish myself?
How do I give thanks?
How do I show my kids love?
What are my favorite things about my life right now?
What is the truth of my day (awesome, hard, exhausting, wonderful)?
In addition to thinking about those themes I also took a little time to read back through my Monday posts from past years and decided to share what I wrote back in 2011 as I think it's pretty universal for beginning this project:
As you embark today here’s a couple things I encourage you to keep in mind:
Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. There’s no right or wrong way to approach this project. You might be doing in-depth documentation or you might be doing a single photo each day or something in between. When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed just take a deep breath and keep moving forward. My goal is less to get every little detail and more to simply create a picture of what seven days in a row of our lives look like right now. Some days I may have a ton of photos and other days just a few – and it all works out.
Your story is important. No matter who you are, what you do, your family structure, etc – the story you are living right now is important and worth documenting. I’m one of those people who totally wishes I had this sort of documentation before I had kids, when I was in college, etc. Life situations change so quickly and the things you think are part of your “normal” right now may not be all too soon.
Have fun with this project – it’s such a great opportunity to see the basic details of your life through the lens of your camera. Use your camera as your eyes this week – shoot those things you see regularly that you notice (or maybe don’t take the time to notice most of the time).
If at all possible just focus on the content gathering this week. I’ve had the most success with this project when I’ve separated the two steps – one week for content gathering and one week for bringing it all together in a completed album.
No stress. Take it one day at a time. I tend to start off really strong and taper as the week progresses. I am totally fine with that. I’d much rather have a couple solid days and a few lighter days than nothing at all.
Also, check out my post from last Friday with links and thoughts.
Thanks for participating this week! I'll be back tomorrow to share my photos and words from today and have a space for you to share a link to yours as well.
Enjoy Monday!
TODAY'S POST SPONSORED BY | STUDIO CALICO
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57 comments
I love your perspective on asking yourself what you want to capture this week, visually. I definitely want to think of this and hopefully have it translated in a meaningful way in my WIL.
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After many years of looking on, I'm a joiner. Taking your one little word class, has helped me make the leap. Thanks for all you do.
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I've been doing Project Life for the past four years, and December Daily for the past four as well, but this is the first time I've done Week in the Life. I'm SO excited about this project, although DH was not impressed with me taking a pic of him brushing his teeth this AM! :P
P.S. Love the school lunches idea, too! I was in too much of a rush to do that today, but great idea for tomorrow.
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Oh, I also wanted to add that I sent both my older girls (8 and 5) top school with their own cameras today. I'm looking forward to seeing what they capture, and including some of their viewpoints in my album as well.
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The Boy Child is just off to bed here in London and I am 70 photos in to capturing our day. A good day; thanks for always being so inspiring and encouraging, Ali!
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First time for Week in the Life and first time I have used my self timer on the camera. Hurray !
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3 hours in to day one. Loving the printouts for documenting. I'm focusing on one moment every hour. This is my 2nd try at WITL...hoping this year I make it through the entire week! Will be posting my progress all week on my blog.
laura @ luckypennylove.com
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[…] in den letzten Jahren hat auch in diesem Jahr Ali Edwards wieder einmal zu “Week in the Life” aufgerufen. Bei diesem Projekt dokumentiert man das […]
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Yay, Week in the Life! :)
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Love this project! I tried to download the daily sheets and they wouldn't load! Yikes!!
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Hmmm. I just did it - maybe try using a different browser?
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So far, so good. Can't wait to see how this year's week in the life comes together!
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I'm so excited it's finally here! It's perfect timing too, because I just found out that we may be moving out of state in a few months. So now is the perfect time for me to document what our lives are like here & now before it all changes. Thank you Ali. You are appreciated! :) <3
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I love this project, but I never participate. I feel like I miss a big chunk of the day when I'm at work (I cannot take photos at work because it violates all kinds of privacy laws). I don't feel like I'm getting the whole picture of my day when I start my photos at 2:30 in the afternoon.
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Nothing wrong with adjusting the project to fit your life. No big deal if you can't take photos during work hours - take photos in the morning and evening and use words for those hours during the day. Make it work for you.
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I'm now on to my Tuesday here in Aust, and I'm reminded just how much I love this project each year! Yesterday was a completely out of the ordinary day here, and it looks like most of the week will be the same, but that's just how life goes being ever changing! If anyone is interested, I shared a long post the day before with my tips of WITL and ideas on things you can document :)
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I always need to have everything just "right" before starting a project and then I never start it. This time I'm just jumping in with very little planning.
I'm already inspired by today's comments and suggestions.
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Awesome!
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Ali, I'm really looking forward to this week, visiting your site and seeing how you document your WITL. I'm not going to participate this time due to several work projects, but have in the past and I love it -- especially when I'm done! :)
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Help! I didn't use the weekend to prepare, but I took notes throughout the day. Now I'm trying to download the PDF sheets - but I've been unsuccessful - either at work or at home. Any ideas for what I should try?
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Have you tried using a different browser?
I have tried Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All give me either an error (not responding) or a blank page.
I just tried Google Chrome, and it worked. I have no idea why, but I'm going with it!
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I had a busy work day today (8am-7pm) but managed to get about 20 pics for the day. Really looking forward to this week.
(I'm having somebody snap a pic of me typing right now). ;)
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This is my first year participating. Hope I can keep up...
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Kids had a brutal night sleep so off to a slow start on the picture taking front but gathering momentum. Looking forward to the week...this is my first time doing this project.
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