My Bullet Journal Process

  Happy 2019, all! It's crazy to think we're already a whole month into a new year. I've been feeling a little exhausted the past couple week from farm-sitting for my family, working my new job, and trying to keep up with my projects - but on the whole January was a really good month with lots of productivity! I tried to set up my 2019 to be as efficient and effective as possible, as well as taking time to try some new things, including....BULLET JOURNALLING! 

  I've seen people's beautiful bullet journal spreads floating around the internet for some time now and I always thought they looked so fun and gorgeous. So, I decided to make 2019 my year to try bullet journalling. Now that I'm a whole month in already, I thought I'd share some of my spreads and my review of the whole bullet journal process with you all.

(click on any image to enlarge)

do you like my little plant?? :DD

  So my first spread in my journal is a 2019 Year at a Glance page, which is pretty helpful and looks nice and aesthetic. I have my own mental legend for all the colored marks I've put down, including trips, birthdays, holidays, my weeks at camp, weeks where I am house/farm sitting, etc.

  My next  two pages are a 2019 Goals page which I'm planning to illustrate and work on further when I get the chance, and a Exciting Things (or things I'm looking forward to list). I did a similar list just in a regular notebook last winter when I was feeling really depressed and down and it definitely helped me get through that tough period and help me visualize the year ahead and all the cool stuff that was going to happen. I'll also be adding to this page in the future.

  I have several different horse/equestrian related spreads, including this to keep track of my personal horses, their costs, their care schedules, and my goals with them. I imagine these spreads aren't probably super relevant to most of you, haha, so I just included this one here.

  Next I have a spread for my writing goals/plans, kind of a Year at a Glance checklist for my writing.

  Followed by my 2019 Reads page. My goal this year is 30 books again and this page will be for me to record the book/author and rate it out of 5 stars for future reference. Kind of like Goodreads in my book.

  I created this little spread to help me when I get in a funk, dragged down by stress or circumstances or my own self-destructive brain. Just a little cheatsheet to get to a better place. I saw something like it somewhere else while looking at spreads and it looked really helpful. I want to decorate this one a bit more too.

  Finally we come to my monthly spread design for January. I liked using this design over the month, so I'm planning to continue with it into February and beyond. On the left is my sort of cover/front page for January, and the right is my monthly checklist, something I've been doing in this format for a couple years now, just adding it to my planners. I have a section to remind me of events, one for my regularly scheduled activities, one for my work, my writing for the month, equine for my horse-related things, one for home-based to-dos, and miscellaneous for anything else I need to remember to do. Like I said, I've used this format for awhile and I've found it really helpful so of course I wanted to include it in my bullet journal - so much easier to include it here too!

  The next page is my Habit Tracker, which seems to be a staple of bullet journalling, and honestly, I can definitely see why. It's really helpful to see your daily progress in different areas and I for one feel more motivated to get things done when I've got an empty box to fill out.

  Finally, here is my actual week-by-week spread. I have the week dates at the top, and then a section for each day. I use a triangle symbol to mark events, activities or appointments, while using a regular square for checklist/to-do items. At the end of the week I have two extra sections for jobs to be done at some point in the week. The To Do being general, and the House section for other (boring) stuff like cleaning and laundry.

  And there you have it! My bullet journal process so far in 2019! I have a few other spreads and pages: a Wishlist, a Travel page, Exercise, etc. But they're pretty blank right now so I didn't include them!

  I'm really digging this whole bullet journal thing and I think it's something I'll continue to do in years to come for sure. It's been very helpful and beneficial to me so far. Initially I thought that taking time to set-up what was essentially a planner would be the exact opposite of efficient, and arguably, that's true, but I think the enjoyment and personalization is totally worth it.

  If you're a planner type, have any creative or artistic inclination, or like to journal, I would absolutely encourage you to look into bullet journalling and find what works for you.

  Or maybe you've already been bullet journalling this year, or for many years! I'd love to hear any tips and tricks you have. How have bullet journals helped you? Let me know in the comments below!