Hi everyone! It has been a long, long whilst since I wrote a post about my bullet journal to share here and so I thought there was no time like the present. As you will have seen in my previous posts, I absolutely adore my journal and it really has become a part of my life. I love my 10 minutes of peaceful reflection each evening as I fill in my trackers and write my list for the next day. My journal has certainly adapted over time but my favourite pages and layouts are still there, I’ve just added in some extras as I go.

I recently got my journal out in public for the first time when I went to YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) and I had the above page for authors to sign as I knew I couldn’t possibly take all the books I wanted signed. I received a LOT of really lovely compliments about my journal and it was a strange but lovely feeling.

I thought I would share with you my August monthly set up and as we are a few days in already there are posts of the original, blank set up and also what those spreads look like a few days in to give you an idea of what the end result will be! So without further ado…

As do most people who keep a journal, I have my standard set of pages that I always have at the beginning of every month. These are my monthly spreads and over time they have changed slightly but not a huge amount.

My first absolute must have page is my monthly dashboard as I like to refer to it! On the left I have an overview of the month split into two sections: one for personal dates/reminders/appointments and the second is dedicated to work appointments/dates. As it’s August there isn’t any work so there are only two items in there – results days! On the right hand side I have a set collection of slightly different styled boxes. A ‘To Do’ box for things I know I must do this month (this is often dedicated to work!), an ‘Other’ box for things that come up throughout the month I need to jot down somewhere, a ‘TBR’ box for the books I absolutely must read that month (usually these are books I need to review) and a ‘Blog’ box that I decorate with some Washi tape just for fun. Here I jot down some blog posts I have planned for the month already. If you look at the right hand picture you’ll notice I have edged the page with Washi tape. I do this every month as it makes a really efficient marker throughout my journal of the different months. My ‘Next Month’ box is for appointments that come up I need to remember to pencil in when I set up my next monthly dashboard.

After that comes my habit tracker. I adore tracking my habits and for the last few months I’ve done a pattern in the tracker itself but I’ve returned to my rainbow theme for August and I love how it looks. I can already see there are some things I need to start prioritising – so far reading is the only habit I have achieved every day … No surprise there! Then it’s my gratitude log. I love this page as it makes me think back about the positives of each day and I’ve found over time that no matter how bad a day can seem there is always something to take from it. Maybe a special memory, a kind comment or something I feel grateful for. I’ve gone back to my original list this month rather than my sun pattern and I just did some little doodles to brighten it up.

August is the month I return to the mood mandala. I love this idea and I did it for the first two months of the year. Since then I have been doing a Tetris style mood tracker but fancied changing it up again for August and I had the time to set up (which does take some dedication!). I track quite a few different moods and although it’s true that one day isn’t always spent feeling only one emotion, I always pick the one that I have felt most in a day. This is probably my favourite part of the journal to fill in at the end of the day and I’m excited to see how it will look at the end of the month. As I had some space left under my key, I decided to put a little section to jot down ideas for blog posts – as you can see there are quite a few on the list now (but tactfully blurred out!).

My final absolute must have page for every month is my bookish stats page. If you’re reading this there is a good chance you will know that I am a VERY bookish person and I read a lot of books and so I love to track how much I read each month. I do use Goodreads but there’s something nice about tracking it in my journal too. I used to just write a list of the books but decided that having a shelf and drawing on the books as I finish and colouring them in looked much cuter. I then have a little highlights section that I fill in at the end of the month to summarise the month as a whole. As I had a spare page before my dailies and I’ve been feeling very inspired lately I decided to do a cute little header and have an ‘Ideas’ page to jot down or doodle bits of information. It’s blank in the picture but soon to be filled!

Throughout the year I have always had a weekly spread followed by my dailies but as it’s the summer holidays I found that I don’t really have use for both and so I have experimented with two ideas this month so far. Both are below!

The first was to have actual dailies. As I don’t have as many things I ‘must’ do every day over the holidays I decided I didn’t need my usual time tracking bar. I decided to split my days into three sections: reading goals, blogging and to do for all the other bits and bobs in my life. I really liked how these looked and I liked my writing but I felt they would take up way too much room when in reality I was trying hard to think of things to put on the lists to justify them taking up so much space. This was when I decided I needed a change…

That was when I came up with the above spread and I have to admit that I really, really love it. I like how neat everything looks but also that on two pages I am able to include so much information. Rather than having to set up a new daily each night, there are boxes for each day’s to-do list and this is plenty of room for the holidays (I’m even considering if this will work when I’m back in work too…) and I liked the little headers and rainbow theme. I also brought over some ideas from my old weekly spread and monthly dashboard and added in the following areas: mini calendar, next week box, master to-do list, blogging schedule, box for a weekly highlight/memory, a small pile of books for my decided TBR and there was room for a little flower doodle too. So far this has proven to be such a functional and useful spread, as well as looking lovely in my journal too. I’ll definitely be sticking with this one for a while!

So there we have it, my August bullet journal set up! I love my journal and don’t know how I would function without it now. If you have any questions/comments I would absolutely love to hear them – please leave them in the comments! I’ll be back with another journal post at the end of the month so you can see how all these spreads turned out!

Do you keep a bullet journal? Or are you thinking of starting one? 

What spreads do you love using the most? I’m always looking for ideas and inspirations! 

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