Hi everyone! A huge thank you to everyone who read and commented on the first post about my bullet journal where I shared my 2017 set up. I have been really overwhelmed by all of the lovely comments, likes and views. It was the first time I ever shared my journal with the world and it’s something that is very personal to me so it has been really amazing to see how many people interacted with it.

I have decided that I will post a bit more about by journal here and there so this second post about my journal is all about the monthly set up I had for January. It is also a chance for me to share my monthly, weekly and daily spreads and for me to reflect on what I need to keep or change in February. (Can you believe it is nearly the end of January already?!)

As I set up for each month I have my staple pages, the ones that I update pretty much daily that bring my month together in a neat overview. These haven’t changed much since I first started with my bullet journal but I did try out something new this month!

Something I never did in my previous journal was to have a page to start each month. I think this is because I’m highly aware that my ability to create drawings/doodles that I’m happy with is practically zero but I pencilled this one out and then quite liked it so decided to keep it. I use different washi tapes on the edge of the first page of a month so that each month is separated and easy to find within my journal.

This spread is my main monthly spread and I really like how it looks. I’ve used this as my monthly overview for a while now and find that it really works for me. On the left you have an overview of my month. I split this into work related items and personal reminder such as birthdays/appointments/events. By doing this it means I have space to log multiple events on a day. On the right is a sort of ‘desktop’ approach to my monthly to-do list. I have a small work to-do section, somewhere for other reminders, my proposed monthly TBR and also my blog goals. Each of these really motivate me to get things done because I want to be able to fill in that little square and mark them off. I then have a small box to add in things for next month for example a dental appointment that I had to rearrange.

Then comes my habit tracker! I got the idea for this from Kara @ Boho Berry and I love it. One of my favourite things to do each day is look back at these and fill in my little squares. January CLEARLY was not a month for exercise (woops!) but mainly because I’ve been sick for most of it. I split my tracker into personal and blog tracking. I also happen to think that it looks cute with the rainbow theme (you’ll see more of this later!).

My new favourite monthly spread is my Mood Mandala, inspired by Fiona @ Bujo.Mama. I love this idea and am really proud of how this is turning out. The idea is to fill in a circle of your mandala each day based on your overall mood of the day. I love how this looks and will definitely be keeping this going next month too, it’s so relaxing to sit down at the end of the day and fill this in.

On the left you have a glimpse at my gratitude log. These are super popular within the bullet journal community and I like to keep mine simple. I go back at the end of each day and write down something that I am grateful for. These vary but I always love reading back at the end of the month. There’s not currently much to see on the right as what is there at the moment is just softly pencilled in but this page will eventually be filled with some doodles/typography of my January memories and highlights.

My final staple page for my month is something I decided to include and change up this month. I wanted somewhere physical to jot down my month in books and whilst this is super simple I like how it looks.

I have changed up my weekly spread three times this month but I’ve finally found the one. I think. Here’s a glimpse at the three I used and why I decided to change things up.

My first weekly consisted of two whole pages. On the very left there is a quick overview of my week with any events/appointments. I also decided to include a sleep tracker but this disappeared the following week. My weekly highlight box is something that I love as it forces me to look back at each week and find something that was positive. I then had an overall to-do list for the week. On the left, I created a huge meal tracker. As I am hoping to lose some weight this year I thought this would be a great idea but I didn’t really like that it took up a whole page in my journal.

My second weekly got changed up a bit and went over a page and a half, meaning it mixed with my dailies with I decided I didn’t like. On the left I kept my weekly overview but added my meal tracker to it, but I just feel that it was too boxy. I kept my weekly highlight but changed my sleep tracker to a steps tracker. Typically this was the week I was ill and didn’t go to work except for one day, can you tell which day it was? I then placed my master to-do on the top of the next page.

Drumroll please… Here is the weekly I am currently really in love with! I think I’ve found a way to make everything I love work and have even added a couple of useful features. I’ve kept the weekly highlight, steps tracker and weekly overview on the left but have added my weekly TBR/reading goals and also a blog post schedule. On the right I’ve come up with a reduced meal tracker and still have plenty of room for my master to-do list which I’ve split into work and personal lists. This layout has really been working for me and I intend to keep it for a long time. I also loved the rainbow theme as it makes this page so nice to look at!

There’s not so much to show you for my daily spreads as they tend to stay the same as I am happy with what they are but here are a couple of pictures for you!

As you can see they all look the same but I love how neat they look (well, in my opinion). I set each one up the night before and it’s really become a part of my daily routine now. I have a time tracker above the top which I co-ordinate with my colour code that I keep in the front of my journal. It helps me to get an overview of my day and how I am spending my time. My headers are all the same, I don’t tend to change things up with my dailies as I like how they look. I also track my daily intake of water as I aim to drink two litres a day, each square represents 250mls (one glass). Then I list my events, to-do’s of the day. As you can see in the top picture, if I ever am left with space under my dailies, I like to find an inspiring quote to fill the page and I couldn’t not have this one in my January spreads somewhere!

I have to start this reflection by saying that I’m so proud of myself for sticking with this every single day. I’ve found it really motivating and think I’ve definitely found a way to make this work for me. However, as I think forward to February there are some things to keep and some to change up.

Keep: 

• Monthly overview and habit tracker – both of these work exactly how I want them to!
• Mood Mandala (changes below)
• Gratitude Log – simple but does the job!
• Memories Page
• New weekly spread – still in love with this!
• Dailies – practically perfect in every way! (to me)

Changes:

• Mood Mandala – I want to reassess the moods I track for this and maybe add some more categories that I would have needed to track this month.
• Bookish Reflections – I think I want to jazz this up a little bit. I want to keep the main elements the same but maybe make it a little less simple by adding some doodles/banners/quotes.
  

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So there you have it! My January 2017 of bullet journalling. I’m happy with how it went and look forward to keeping up with it for the rest of 2017.

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What monthly spreads to you always have? What are your favourites?

What changes do you think you’ll make for February?

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