I have been interested in bullet journals and the idea of using them for well over a year now. I have been trying to set them up and use them consistently each month, as you can tell from my previous posts here and here.
As much as I enjoyed my first attempt there were many things that held me back and didn't make me fall in love with what I was doing or how I was doing it. I decided that for the year 2017 I would take the leap and buy the well talked about Leuchtturm 1917 dotted notebook in grey.
Previously I had been using a lined notebook and although there is no reason this can't work, I felt that it held me back from getting the full potential out of each page and generally laying things out how I really wanted to.
This being said, it has taken me a while to find my rhythm with this journal too. For the first couple of months - I started properly in February but set my journal up for the end of January - I still maintained a very clinical approach to my layouts and nothing felt very creative or fun.
I decided that in April this would be different! It really started as I had a single right hand page to be used and I didn't want to waste it but I also didn't want to cram my month overview onto one page - like I had been doing. This is how I came up with the idea of doing almost like an introduction page to the month with some drawings around it to brighten it up. Now I know i'm not the best artist in the world but I wanted to give it a go and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.
The next major change was my monthly overview. As I have mentioned I used to do my monthly spread on one page and I just put the dates in one vertical line. I would then put anything important over that month beside the date. I felt however, that it was time for a change and I this is when I decided to do a double page spread with a small ruled box for each day of the month. I then added some grass and leaves to brighten the pages up. I think it's turned out really well and I am very happy with how it looks.
When it came to my weekly spreads, I had normally just been lining out 7 spaces per page. This was working to an extent but it began to make everything on the pages seem very squashed and not very neat at all. My main aim is for everything to look neat and tidy as this is how my mind keeps things organised.
The main change I have made for this month's spread is that I have put my weekly spread over two pages and I have outlined boxes for the days. I decided to have my weekends split into one box with a line down the middle as I tend to have less to put in for the weekends. I also thought that these pages could do with a spot of colour and added some green vines in-between the boxes to tie in with the nature theme of the main April page.
Changing up my weekly spread seems to be working really well as it's allowing me the freedom to think differently about how things are laid out on each page. I like the added colour and designs, these are helping me feel less restricted with what I want to do with each page.
The only thing I have left to do for this spread is to add in movies I have watched this month and a possible savings page. There are so many movies that I have but haven't yet watched and I find it fun to keep track of what I am doing each month. Saving is also something I want to keep a track of. I am trying to put away money every week and seeing it down on paper helps me keep a good track of this.
So there we go, this is how my bullet journal is looking this month and I am really happy with how it looks. I think that I will continue to use a similar spread for next month but keep changing things up and adding in more pages. The more the better I think.
What way do you set up your bullet journal?
Do you keep a bullet journal?
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