Current Bullet Journal Layout

My current bullet journal is the simplest one yet. Here is how it is organized and what information I keep and why.

Yearly Setup – kept at the front of the bullet journal

1. Index page – essential for referencing all the lists interspersed through my daily spreads. At the beginning of the year, an index doesn’t seem important, but by July it saves me from flipping through pages trying to find things.
2. A future log – this is where I keep track of important dates like birthdays, vacation days, travel, and appointments. Its rare that past months are referenced, but when I start each month I copy over the events for the current month onto my monthly spread. To allow plenty of space for notes, the future log is split into three double pages.
3. Goals for the Year – one page for a list of goals I would like to accomplish in the year and one for goals for each month. These goals don’t need to be lofty. One of my monthly goals is to file that month’s paperwork.
4. Book List – a great and track the books I read and want to read. Books I want to read are indicated by an empty bullet point. Once the book is read, the bullet point is filled in and the date the book was finished is noted. No more wondering what my next read should be!
5. Craft List – a list of things I intend to make one day. Empty bullet point list and once I make the craft – anything from felted Christmas ornaments to an apron – the bullet point gets filled in.
6. Wardrobe changes – I want to be more intentional with my wardrobe purchases. Keeping track of what I purchase helps me reduce the mindless purchase of new clothes.
7. When Did I Last… – A list of things that only happen a few times a year with their corresponding dates. Things like getting my oil changed, the date of my last flu shot, and when I last changed my toothbrush.
8. Health Notes – a quick reference for information on allergies, appointments, and vaccinations.
9. Things I Want/Need – List of purchase I need to plan for, essentially anything that I am not going to buy at the grocery. Also, a great place to list what I think I want and then reflect on before purchasing.
10. Extra Income – a partial page to keep track of miscellaneous income from babysitting or selling unused items from my wardrobe on Poshmark.
11. Dates – partial page to keep track of any dates I go on. Each date’s info is kept on a single line – the first name, where we went, initial impression, and the date.
12. Weddings and Engagements – partial page to track when people get engaged and weddings for the year. A really easy way to keep track of people’s anniversaries years from now.
13. PTO and sick days – a partial page where I like to track what days I took off from work, just incase in need it for reference.
14. Important Events – a partial page to list the dates of important events – things like raises and moves. Especially useful for reference in future years.
15. Baking Inspiration – whenever I come across anything that I think I would like to bake, I write it here so I don’t forget it when I have time to bake.
16. Gift Ideas – I am a terrible gift-giver. Gift giving is not my love language! When I stumble across something that reminds me of someone, I take notes here in case I need a gift for them.
17. One Day I Want To… – essentially a bucket list of things I want to do ‘one day’. Places I want to visit, and things I think would be cool to do.
18. Job Thoughts – Personal notes on my job and my expectations. If I were planning on changing jobs, notes on that process would be kept on this page.
19. Gym Classes – List of classes I attend at the gym and how frequently I attend them.
20. Etsy Shop Ideas – I love the idea of multiple income sources, no matter how small. One idea for an income source was to sell digital downloads on Etsy. This page is where I keep all those ideas.

Monthly Spread

At the beginning of every month, I use two double pages to plan the month. Each month get its own unique color for accents and headers. This helps quickly identify each month when flipping through the pages. Every month has a combination of the following items.

1. Month Calendar for reference
2. Goals specific for the month
3. General To-Do list
4. Favorite things that happened this month
5. Bills I need to pay
6. Gratitude List
7. Days in a list format for keeping track of my schedule

Weekly Spread

Every week takes up a one double-page spread. The weekly spreads are how I keep my life on track. Most of these pages now that the exact same format. These are very functional pages and rarely have any extensive doddles in the margins or fancy headings.

1. The month in calendar format with current week highlighted – much easier to reference in the future this way.
2. Days of the week in two columns in the center of the page – I only write out one day at a time with that day’s list. So the length of each day’s notes varies. I have found that I am more productive when I don’t try to plan out the entire week ahead of time.
3. A weekly to-do list – everything I need to do for the week gets added to this list and then transferred to an individual day when needed. This may seem like extra work, but I find I am more likely to complete my to-do list this way.
4. Habit tracker -I like to only focus on a few habits at a time. Some habits are more important during some weeks and I find this works better for me than a monthly or yearly tracker.
5. Grocery list – list of what I need at the store. I never take my bullet journal into the store, what I do instead is take a picture of the grocery list with my phone.

Collections

In a perfect world, all of my random notes throughout the year would be kept at the beginning of my bullet journal so that the month and weekly spread would be consistent. But I never know how many pages to reserve at the beginning of the year. My workaround is to put my collection pages between months. If there is something I want to turn into a collection page, I will count out how many pages I need for weekly spreads for the remainder of the month and then create the collection page. This ensures that there are no blank pages in my bullet journal.

Collection Pages for this year so far…

1. Quote pages
2. Sketches of Herbs
3. Book Notes: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp – still haven’t finished the book
4. Book Notes: Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
5. Book Notes: Burnout: the Secret to Unlock the Stress Cycle
6. Birthday list – a few years ago I started making a list on my birthday of all the things I would like to do that year. This year it’s my 34 List.
7. Garden plans
8. Bedroom Organization Ideas
9. Personality Test Notes – notes on my personality test results and the results of some of my friends
10. On My Homestead – all my daydreams of what I would like to have on a hobby farm one day
11. Blog Info – List of article ideas (including this one)