Week In The Life™ 2025 | Special Guest Linda Jordan

Hi there! This is Linda and I’m so excited that we’re going into Week in the Life season because this is absolutely my favorite scrapbooking project that I do each year. I have been participating in WITL since 2015, and it brings me so much joy to see my TEN completed albums on my shelf!

Even though I absolutely love this project, it is a ton of work and I get that it can be intimidating. In fact, before I created my first album, I simply observed the community documenting for a couple of years because I was unsure if I would be able to finish this project or if I would have anything interesting to document. But it turns out I can + I did + you do too!

I have found that the key to success with this project is going in with a plan + being flexible to adjust as you go, if needed. One of my absolute favorite ways to approach this project + keep it fun is to go on a “scavenger hunt” for specific stories/photos/information during the week. Today I wanted to share a bit more about what this means + some ideas you can use to bring this into your own documenting week + album.

What is a “scavenger hunt” in Week in the Life?

The original concept for this project is to just capture your everyday life for a week. That concept is amazing + can totally be your entire project. But, for me, I like to have a little more direction to prevent myself from taking 1000+ photos per day and completely burning out on trying to capture every single detail.

So, instead, I create a list of specific photos + stories + information that I want to capture each day. This list has to be manageable, whatever that looks like for you. I also recommend keeping your list out somewhere where you will see it during the documenting week to remember to capture all the details (I keep mine on my desk). I also recommend checking in at the end of each day to see how you did capturing details on your list. In the photo above, you can see the list I used for last year’s project.

For this post, I want to focus in on what to capture + share my plan for a “scavenger hunt” for my Week in the Life project.

Use the By the Numbers Kit as a jumping off point to count something

If you are stumped with what to document, let the products be your jumping off point! This year there is a “by the numbers” kit which is full of prompts of things to capture during your week. Some ideas of things to count using this kit:

• Minutes spent on a particular activity (work, journaling, reading)

• Cups of a beverage (coffee, water, tea)

• Pages/chapters read

• Steps or miles

• Car trips

• Times you opened the fridge

• Diapers changed

• Times you opened instagram

• Photos taken

If you are unsure what to count here are some questions I asked myself in figuring out what I am going to focus on:

What do I do frequently now that I won’t always do like this? For example, if you are in a season of changing diapers, that might be a great thing to track because you won’t always be changing diapers, so it would be interesting to look back on.

What is something that I can fill in later if I forget? If you are worried that you’ll forget to capture a detail, consider something that you could go back and figure out later. For example, I know I will track my daily steps because my apple watch does that for me and I can always get that info at a later date.

What is something I want to do more/less of? Is there a particular activity you want to pay attention to because you hope to increase/decrease it? For example, if you have been wanting to read more, maybe consider counting the pages or minutes you read every day. Paying attention to how often you do something is a great way to track your progress with this goal over time and would be really neat to look back on in the future.

Don’t be afraid to be silly with it! What is a completely silly thing from your day that would be fun to count? For me, how many times I lose something on my desk comes to mind. It could also be something like how many times your kid says “mom” or how many strawberries you eat.

Let the products guide the photos you want to capture

In addition to writing down details, I’ve also sought out specific photos during my project. What is something you could photograph everyday? Some examples of photos I’ve collected in the past:

• Daily outfit

• Dinner

• Something circular

• Daily coffee

• Me at my desk

If you are unsure what to document, let the products guide you! For example, this year there are these fun scalloped dividers in the main kit with 3 large horizontal blocks. You can use this as a home for photos that come in threes or a long/narrow photo. Some ideas that come to mind:

• photos of your breakfast, lunch + dinner each day

• photos of your morning, afternoon + evening each day

• a long, narrow horizontal photo (what can you capture that is that shape?)

Consider a progression photo through the week

One year, I was working on a puzzle during week in the life and I captured a photo of the progress each day, including the completed puzzle on Sunday (once I knew this was happening, I intentionally finished it on Sunday). This was so fun to see as a piece of my album! What is something you could capture every day and watch how it changes?

Consider a different item each day

Are you worried you will get bored with capturing the same thing every day, or that you’ll forget, or do you just have too many ideas to narrow it down? Consider documenting a different thing every day. For example, the main kit includes fun word phrase strips with “ing” words like watching, working, reading and eating.

It would be fun to pick a different one of these words per day and use that as a jumping off point for a specific photo + story. In last year’s album, I picked one “ing” word that focused on a hobby of mine to document each day. In a previous year, I created pockets to document 4 different ing words each day. Some of these were duplicates day to day and others were not. You can also use this concept with the By the Numbers kit and count a different item everyday.

Don’t be afraid to fill things in later

If you are a little nervous to tackle a photo or stat that must be captured during the day, don’t be afraid to pick somethings that are simply a snapshot of life right now that don’t have to be captured on a specific day.

In 2022, I decided to capture 7 spaces that I frequented to get photos of what they looked like right now (like my kitchen, craft room, and office at work). I didn’t necessarily take these on the days that they were included in the album, but took them during the week or the following week. They still show what those spaces look like at that particular time in my life + I love having them in my album. I also did something similar with flat lays of objects that I used during the week.

So what am I documenting this year? I am still not 100% set on how I am going to be doing this project, but I will be participating during the same week as Ali. However, I am starting my plan by creating my scavenger hunt list. This is what I have so far:

• daily purchases/money spent

• my daily to do list

• the daily world, connections & NYT front page

• weather each day

• a circular photo (or more than one)

• daily steps

• miles walked

• cups of coffee

• meals cooked

• an AM photo & a PM photo

• a space in my house/life (similar to 2022 because so much has changed in just 3 years now that I am an empty nester!)

In the video below, I talk through some additional ideas + the ones listed above and how you could include them with the products from this year’s release.

I hope this post helped give you some ideas for what to capture during your week in the life. I’ll be sharing how mine comes together over on instagram + youtube, I hope to see you there!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindalovescreating/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LindaLovesCreating