A few months ago in the DST Insider, I wrote about a spreadsheet method I had used to keep track of events in my life, photos I had taken and pages I want to scrap. It was very utilitarian and not at all a fulfilling, creative way to manage my memory keeping. I actually stopped using it and haven’t found a potential replacement… until today.
This week I received a copy of the 2010 Logbook from Log Your Memory. I had heard about this product around the Web, but really wasn’t sure what it was all about.
The Memory Logbook is a 392 page guided journal designed specifically for scrappers. While it is hefty, this book will take you through the entire year, offering as much free space for notes as it does suggestions and prompts. As one of those people who LOVES new journals, office supplies and paper products of all types, I was excited to get my hands on this almost-snuggly book.
What I Love
I love (and enthusiastically endorse) the approach of “real life” scrapbooking, where the little moments are honored with the big ones and the focus is on documentation.
I love how the Logbook helps scrappers centralize and organize their memories and scrapping ideas. This makes it easier to maximize bits of time to get things done in memory keeping.
I love how the Logbook gets back to basics, forcing me to capture my memories with pen and paper.
I love all the brief questions and list-style prompts that allow scrappers to easily generate a great page that captures life “right now”.
I love the repetition of interview-type questions as part of each monthly checkup. This greatly facilitates end-of-year big picture scrapbooking as well as cohesive album development.
I love the spaces for layout idea sketching. Drawing the bare bones of a new idea or even a scraplift is very motivating and not something I do enough of!
I love that the challenges have several variations listed, allowing scrappers to pick and choose as well as complete multiple projects for one week.
I love, on my coil-bound version, how the pages stay just where you want them and the cover seems able to withstand a year of abuse.
I love that Kristin launched Log Your Memory with the community in mind. She’s reaching out, making connections and has an active blog and forum that go well beyond promotion of her products. As Chris Brogan would say, she’s “doing it right”.
What I’d Like to See Next
The introduction suggests keeping the Logbook in your purse. Um, this thing weighs more than my cat; I’m not sure that’s feasible. I’d prefer the text acknowledge the book’s heft, that its very much a tabletop item.
I’m the type of person who wishes all stores had the arrows on the floor like IKEA. For this reason, the Logbook’s flitting back and forth between calendar pages, prompts and challenges was a little overwhelming. I’d love to see a version for us neurotic types that includes section tabs, with like content organized together. Since this is a user preference, there might be easy ways to offer this customization via the download version.
More guidance is needed on how to uniformly document the location of photos and (for digital scrappers) products to be used for a layout. There isn’t enough tie-in between recording memories in the Logbook and managing the rest of the scrapping process.
The page design is reminiscent of a 1990’s zine, using very full pages, a photocopied look and a wide variety of fonts. I’d like to see a cleaner, more streamlined design for 2011.
I’d like to see a comparison chart of products, since there are some new items that are subsets of information from the annual Logbook.
The Web site is quite narrow (in design), making it sometimes difficult to find things since I prefer not to scroll too much. I’d like to see some updated graphics and a stronger design befitting of this well-organized company.
Just the Facts
Web site: http://www.logyourmemory.com
What you’ll find inside the full 2010 Logbook (19.95):
- Monthly & daily calendars, complete with US holidays & room to jot down your activities.
- Space to document daily memories, jot down ideas, or create lists.
- Your own personal “Story List†so you can track those pages & stories you know you want to share but haven’t had a chance to create yet.
- Weekly pages for sketching layout ideas.
- Weekly challenge questions to get creative juices flowing & help you tell the “real†story of your life.
- Examples of “real life†scrapbook layouts for added inspiration.
- Annual & monthly questionnaires to help track how life changes over a year.
- Monthly worksheets for documenting family holidays, plus extra pages for birthdays and other celebrations.
- A handy list of 2011 holidays, plus a place to jot down birthdays and other important family dates.
Other Products:
- Monthly Logbooks (5.95)
- Real Life Challenges (12.95)
- List My Life (10.95)
Your Chance to Win
Log Your Memory is giving Simple Scrapper readers three chances to win:
- 1 winner of a print Memory Logbook 2010 in their choice of coil-bound or perfect-bound format
- 1 winner of a PDF download of the Memory Logbook 2010
- 1 winner of their choice of any one download from the on-site store
To enter, check out the Log Your Memory site and leave a comment here with one way the Logbook or other Log Your Memory products would help you be more productive in 2010. Enter by 11:59 Eastern time on Monday, December 14.
I think the daily prompt, whether it’s a list, a quiz or a question about normal life would really be helpful. I’m so busy doing the every day things, I never stop to really think about how I’m actually living them.
I would like all the my lists located in one book! And a place to document every day life would be great!
I think just having a place to keep everything would be so helpful. I don’t really write anything down now because I don’t have a good place to do so & I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot as a result.
I too love office supplies and planners and journals. This book has been on my Christmas wish list because I think that if I logged things here even if I didn’t manage to scrap them later it would be a great recap of the year. I am constantly making lists and it would be great to have a fun place to coral all of those notes.
I’m hoping this would help me be more organized and scrap more – I’ve fallen more behind on that than I’d like to be!
More organized with all the things that I need to remember and do. This would be a great help.
I think it might be able to help me with my “to scrap” list by making it more attainable and more organized.
I am always in need of a good planner. One that helps me remember the stories that I want to tell is a total bonus! I sometimes have trouble remembering the little stories that I would love to get down before they are gone forever!
I would love to win a copy of the Memory Book for 2010. I really need a resource that not only prompts me to document my life but also gives me inspiration, and this would be perfect!
I think that the daily reminder to record something would be great. Life is so busy with little ones, sometimes a lot of time passes, and suddenly I don’t remember just what day that special thing happened.
I saw this when they launched their website. It’s a really great idea and I wish I could afford to buy it since I really need help with organization and keeping track of my thoughts! I’ll just have to hope & wish that I win. This logbook would help me keep track of things in my hectic life with a toddler. I really wish I had something like this to help me scrap the everyday. If I had something like this I’d even give doing P365 a try. Right now, I don’t even attempt because I know I can’t keep up. Thanks so much for the chance to win.
I have the worst memory! I document my life with photos. But when I want to know when something happened, I have to search for a photo I memeber taking. This organizer sounds perfect for me as it would help me create a workflow for documenting my life with my family. Thanks for the opportunity!
I think the prompts look great (Real Life Challenges book)! They look like they have more of a creative-writing edge to them and are pretty specific. They seem like they would help you to get your everyday thoughts/desires/values/etc. documented in a way that seems meaningful, not just for yourself, but for others who may look at your book.
Wow, this is one amazing tool for a scrapbooker! I love the idea of a all-in-one journal for scrapping, I love paper products but I never found anything “perfect” for keeping track of scrapping ideas, so this would be so great! And all those challenges, ideas, promps, lists… wow, so many inspiration in one place could surely help me improve my scrapping style since I really want to include more journaling in my pages and more “real-life” subjects. So this would really help me in a lot of ways, thanks for the chance to have it!
I keep going to the website to look at the books for the last month or so, but I agree that the product descriptions could use some fleshing out. However, from what I’ve seen it looks very helpful! Although I love digi, I sometimes miss the simple process of pen and paper too. I like that this would sort of be like “paper” scrapping my ideas. 🙂
What a great idea this is! I love the combination of inspiration and a place to save your day-to-day thoughts, half-baked plans, kids’ quotes, and more. Would love to have a “purse”-sized version too. Maybe she could work on that next…?? 🙂
I am adding this to my Christmas list. I think the biggest impact for me would be a visual reminder to document something every day.
Love your review–especially the section on what you love about the Logbook and what can be improved. I would love to win this b/c as so many others have said, having everything in ONE place would be so helpful to me. Thanks for the opportunity to win.
I think it would help me in planning my pages so that I actually do them instead of thinking of an idea and then forgetting it (LOL)!
Thanks for the chance to win!
I would love to have the ability to note things that have happened during the month as well as sketch ideas all in the same place.
I like to scrap not only events but moments from everyday life that are special. I like to note what life is like for us at the moment because things change all the time and it’s so nice to look back and reflect. Noting ordinary life also in ways makes it more special. Thanks for the chance to get this logbook and have the opportunity to track my life and plan for even better scrapping.
I love that it’s something to prompt me to think about everyday life for scrapbooking and not just the big events. I just finished a photo book as a Christmas gift and it would have been much improved with more ‘real life’ included. Next year’s will be better 🙂
I do wish the website offered more than one image of the inside of a the book. I like to preview these kind of things a bit more, but I think I’m sold anyway. 😉
Michelle… just a little tip. You can see more than a dozen pages of the book by visiting the product page at Lulu.com here: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/scrapbookers-all-in-one-memory-logbook-2010-%28coil-bound%29/7715498 Just click on “Preview” under the book image.
I will be very truthful . . . I can’t remember if I kept up with any log type book this year – I know, I am bad and I ever went on a cruise to Alaska and didn’t journal one thing – Yikes!
So as you can see . . . any help I can get will be greatly appreciated!
I love the List Your Life book. I enjoy writing all kinds of lists, but they are all over. I need a place to keep them, in one book would be great.
Wow! What a cool product! I always keep lists, notes, ideas but they are all over with no organization whatsoever. This would be the perfect way to keep those things in one place. And I think it would ultimately make me more productive 🙂
I love the idea of this, and almost ordered one, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t stick with it! I have little moleskin books I keep in my bag, and write in now, as well as tape in inspiration from magazines. I think I’d like the downloads best because I could print a few pages at a time and keep them in a little book.
Thanks for the great, in-depth review!
I like having all those prompts at my fingertips. I love the thought of being able to jump around based on whatever is suiting my mood at that time. I also like the thought of consolidating several of my print books into one (idea notebook, calendar, random thoughts journal, etc. )
I am not very good at capturing my thoughts when an event happens and then when I get around to scrapping the photos, my journalling is very weak. I think this system would help me capture the thoughts and keep them in an organized place for when I do decide to scrap the photos.
Wow! I really need this book! I have five children and a horribly busy all the time. This book would be a lifesaver to help me keep track of what I am doing scrapbooking wise!
Just wanted to say thanks to Jennifer for taking the time to review the Memory Logbook and share a new addition to the Log Your Memory site, inspired by one of her suggestions. You can now find a Memory Logbook product comparison chart at http://logyourmemory.com/compare-your-options/ for your convenience. Great idea, Jennifer… thanks again! 🙂
LOVE the 2010 Logbook! What a great idea.
I’d love to try this out. I would keep this in our family room, so each of us could jot down our thoughts. Then I could consolidate into our family YEAR in the LIFE scrapbook album.
Looks like a great way to get me to scrap everyday life and not just events.
I, too, think the prompts would be the most helpful. Thanks for hosting such a great giveaway!
What a great idea. I think this would be so helpful. Maybe with something like this I could get past “overwhelmed” and move on to “productive.” Thanks for a chance to win.
I would love to win the downloadable version of this for some of the reasons you already mentioned (wish for tabs, etc.). I keep trying all the sites I can to win this as 10+ months of unemployment makes even this small purchase one I have to forgo for now. With 2 small kids (under 4 years) I can use all the help I can get for keeping things in mind to scrap. Thanks for the chance!
know how hard it is to be a scrapper and OCD at the same time? LOL I really think this would be great to help me get past the everything needs to be perfect stage and actually get some layouts done, especially with the prompts. The downloadable version would be great because I know me and I will have to make tabs and add extra pages for longer journaling etc. See I told you I was OCD!!
I would love either the log book or the real life challenges. I get so caught up in either trying to photograph the picture and forgetting to live the moment, or living the moment and then having nothing to spark the memory. An organized approach would be awesome!
I would love all my notes in one place, then you know right where it is when it is time to scrapbook. Thanks for the giveaway!
This would be a great way for me to actually remember all the stories that I want to tell that sometimes get lost in the shuffle.
I love the idea of having challenges/prompts each week to help me create those great life pages that I can never think of when I sit down to scrap. I’ve been eyeing this product for awhile and really appreciate your review of it.
I have actually been drooling over the Log Your Memory book. I would love to have one, but at this point the finances are not where they need to be. BooHoo.
I thinks that this would be great in so many ways. I could keep track of my daily schedules and all of the little things., plus it gives me a place to record page ideas. Many times I will take a picture thinking up the perfect layout and then by the time I get the pictures developed I have totally forgotten my idea. Now I will have a place to jot down the idea.
I love the idea of having one place to gather all my thoughts. As a teacher, I love hae a place for everything and having everything in its place. This would allow me to do that in my scrapbooking.
I usually carry around a notepad or notebook and this will be so much easier.
I love just having a place to write everything down at ! I have notebooks but it’s so random and scattered that I loose a lot of info! having one place for everything is so handy for me!
I believe that the book will help me to remember things that have happen. I always think I will remember but when it comes time to scrap I forget and this will really help me.