As we are nearing the end of August and having completed 2/3 of the year, I figured out it was about time I let you all know how things are going on the bullet journal front.
For those of you who either just started following me, or just forgot, I took the plunge into bullet journalling in January. I even wrote a blog post about it to let you all in on how I set up my planner for the whole year, you can go refresh your memory there.
As I went, my journal evolved a little and I now have a better idea what my needs are and what I will dump next January.
As a refresher, this is how the daily section of the month of January looked like when my journal was yet to be put to the test :
Back when I set that one up, I was still transitioning from years and years of using a regular planner, to something a bit more flexible. January had a rigid layout with columns and a grid.
But as I went, I started breaking the mould and at least embellish it :
This above is what it looked like half way through the first month. I needed to insert a specific to-do list and so I did. For the reccord, there are a lot of doodles and illustrations through the whole journal.
In February, I felt the need to drop the grid and rigidity and add more colors :
The cash expenses notes are looking like pinned notes and instead of dividing each days with a solid line I started exploring different styles. Each month has different styles and colors so I can tell them apart quickly.
The monthly spread also got a massive update. This is what it looked like for January :
That layout was way too minimalistic, I ended up adding the days of the week too it because I was getting constantly confused as I planned my month.
From the month of February onward this is how the Month at a glance page looked like :
Not only do I grid everything, I color the date AND include the day of the week. This simple trick has helped me TONS. It makes it much easier to find what I need to read or add to the planner.
I spend a little time setting that page up by the time the last week of the previous month rolls around and I know how many more page I need to plan things to end the month before inserting this spread. That little work is really really worth it in the end.
This page above is this current week and right now I am again feeling the need for a big change.
First, I am more and more in favour of not creating entries for days I have no to-do lists or expenses to log. As you can see, Sunday is missing in the picture, I was busy on that day, attending a social event, but it was already logged in my "Month at glance" page, I didn't need to enter it again, especially since this was a day long event and had nothing else to do and remember.
I also started doing less illustrations because I hate ruled paper and already spend a lot of my day doodling on quality paper. So instead I started entering one thing I was grateful for the day.
I already keep a gratitude diary on the side, but I enjoy closing my day by coloring the expenses box and putting one thing I am grateful for underneath before moving on to the next day. It's a closure ritual of sort.
At the end of my planner, I glued a pretty envelope to store all the odds and ends I want to keep. It contains important bills, pictures and business cards I do not want to loose.
The last few pages of the journal contain my important contact infos, my earnings reports and this :
These are my "practice pages" where I practice headers and stamp technique for the journal, and where I test pens to see if the ink would ghost through.
For those of you who either just started following me, or just forgot, I took the plunge into bullet journalling in January. I even wrote a blog post about it to let you all in on how I set up my planner for the whole year, you can go refresh your memory there.
As I went, my journal evolved a little and I now have a better idea what my needs are and what I will dump next January.
As a refresher, this is how the daily section of the month of January looked like when my journal was yet to be put to the test :
Back when I set that one up, I was still transitioning from years and years of using a regular planner, to something a bit more flexible. January had a rigid layout with columns and a grid.
But as I went, I started breaking the mould and at least embellish it :
This above is what it looked like half way through the first month. I needed to insert a specific to-do list and so I did. For the reccord, there are a lot of doodles and illustrations through the whole journal.
In February, I felt the need to drop the grid and rigidity and add more colors :
The cash expenses notes are looking like pinned notes and instead of dividing each days with a solid line I started exploring different styles. Each month has different styles and colors so I can tell them apart quickly.
The monthly spread also got a massive update. This is what it looked like for January :
That layout was way too minimalistic, I ended up adding the days of the week too it because I was getting constantly confused as I planned my month.
From the month of February onward this is how the Month at a glance page looked like :
Not only do I grid everything, I color the date AND include the day of the week. This simple trick has helped me TONS. It makes it much easier to find what I need to read or add to the planner.
I spend a little time setting that page up by the time the last week of the previous month rolls around and I know how many more page I need to plan things to end the month before inserting this spread. That little work is really really worth it in the end.
This page above is this current week and right now I am again feeling the need for a big change.
First, I am more and more in favour of not creating entries for days I have no to-do lists or expenses to log. As you can see, Sunday is missing in the picture, I was busy on that day, attending a social event, but it was already logged in my "Month at glance" page, I didn't need to enter it again, especially since this was a day long event and had nothing else to do and remember.
I also started doing less illustrations because I hate ruled paper and already spend a lot of my day doodling on quality paper. So instead I started entering one thing I was grateful for the day.
I already keep a gratitude diary on the side, but I enjoy closing my day by coloring the expenses box and putting one thing I am grateful for underneath before moving on to the next day. It's a closure ritual of sort.
At the end of my planner, I glued a pretty envelope to store all the odds and ends I want to keep. It contains important bills, pictures and business cards I do not want to loose.
The last few pages of the journal contain my important contact infos, my earnings reports and this :
These are my "practice pages" where I practice headers and stamp technique for the journal, and where I test pens to see if the ink would ghost through.
Things I want to change or keep for the next journal
The number one thing I am going to change in the next year's journal is that I will move away from lined paper.
It's too rigid and has gotten in the way of illustrations. Most bullet journalists will tell you that the best paper to journal on is the "dotted grid" paper. That kind of notebook is sadly still a rarity in India.
So, there is a solid chance I will bite the bullet and invest in a Moleskine notebook to plan 2018 (affiliate link alert by the way).
The notebook I am using this year is the "Look what happened" Donut diary. The paper quality is awesome, the binding so far has held its own and I have nothing against it other than the fact I really really wished they would tap into the dotted grid paper.
As far as planning things go, I will keep the month at glance and that type of yearly spread :
I will change the daily spread and only really enter days I have to-do lists to log and/or expenses and I will definitely go for a more artsy way of going about it, I got cured of my need for columns. Besides on days I have nothing to log I could end up saving space and pages for other things in the journal.
I will do away with that page :
Well not entirely, but it sure won't be a whole section. I can write my goals on top of the Month at glance page and see them more often (confession I do not consult the goal page at all...epic fail).
I will keep the blog stats section though, that one I find useful to have in one place to compare how my blog is doing months after months.
I already am in the process of implementing a financial page at the end of each month, where I list the total amount I need to pay to the ironing guy, and how much each of my income streams are earning me (and which months it is expected to end up in my account).
All in all, I love my bullet journal as it is a far more flexible system to plan my year/month and days than the conventional planner was. I also really enjoy my little ritual of closing the day and starting planning the next before bedtime. Then I can go to bed with a far more relaxed mind and it has reduced the amount of tossing and turning I usually do because of unsettled scores with the day to come.