So excited to start the new year with a fresh bullet journal! This is normally the time when people who are obsessed with planning, or “always busy” people get hyped for new planners. This and July, when the 17-month planners start. I don’t go to school anymore so the 12 month planners are fine by me.

There are so many resources about bullet journaling, from the creator to random Buzzfeed articles. Some of you have asked me to share pages of mine, and I’ve snapped, or DM on IG the response. I am still fairly new to this but I love it so much and think it could work for anyone! Even if you don’t have a jam-packed schedule, it’s also a journal and you can reflect or recount the day. It can be ANYTHING. And don’t feel intimidated by all those artsy fartsy ones you see on Pinterest. It can be as minimal as you like. I like colors so even though mine is colorful, it’s still pretty linear.

Let’s start!

The Bullet Journal Setup

I love using May Design notebooks. They are the perfect size (to me). Not too big, not too small. I love dot grid pages because they give me structure but I’m not forced with lines. My absolute must-have pages in my journal are the following, and in this order:

1. Cover page: Tells me the months and year, and where I keep my Icon Key

2. Index Pages: This is where I list the content and location of everything in my book

3. Future Log: Covers 6 months at a time

From here, you can add whatever pages you want before you start the monthly/weekly/daily layouts. For me, I have my budget page and then “Odds&Ends,” which holds bits of notes that I’ve transferred from the last journal that I may need for the following months.

Monthly

I keep my monthly spread to one page (so I guess it’s not really a spread then is it?) Because I use a smaller notebook, I go through them pretty quickly. That means I keep my spreads fairly minimal. I haven’t felt the urge to move to a larger capacity notebook like the leuchtturms  yet. I get bored easily and love the feeling of fresh notebooks. May Design notebooks are about 80 pages. I include a month view of the dates (so I know what date is what day) and then list events for each date. I add a tasks list where I jot down things that need to be done that month.

Weekly

At the beginning of the week (I run mine Monday-Sunday), I start with a list of scheduled events, and tasks to be done each day. At the beginning of each week, I refer to the Monthly view and add appointments/tasks to my Weekly view.

Daily

My daily pages (or sections if I don’t fill a whole page) consists of things I need to do today, things to remember, notes, thoughts and anything else I want to write! Doodles included.

For my system, I keep two bullet journals, one for work and one for life, as well as a blank page journal (also known as a “bullshit journal” for quick sketches or random stuff that I don’t have time to organize neatly in my bullet journal yet) all in a traveler’s notebook cover. My favorites are from Webster pages. You can find them on Amazon for prime shipping! Be sure to check my bullet journal page to see my tools for organizing life.

This is just how I use my BuJo and definitely is NOT the only way to do it. What is great about this, is you can make it your own way and define your own system. Feel free to comment below with any questions or share how you use yours. Don’t forget to check out my Bullet Journal bullet journal page for more info, supplies and links to more articles on BuJo.

Happy Planning!

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