BULLET JOURNALING

Scotland and Flowers, Gingham and Christmas

Sharing designs, and how the way I manage my bullet journal keeps evolving

Where I normally shared my bullet journal creations every two months, I didn’t do it when October ended. The main reason was that every two months I experimented with organizing my journal differently.

Let me explain…

Creativity in 2022

When I started out, I drew a front page for the month, and then I drew the diary for the week — sometimes a single page, sometimes double. All designs for a specific month answered to one theme, and the next month I changed my theme.

Each month also had a mood tracker drawn directly after the front page for the month. In between the diary pages, I also added others, such as keeping track of books I have read, jotting down memories of special moments, or ideas for future themes.

Nine months into bullet journaling — this was September 2022 — I started jotting down things that happened on the day into the box I had drawn on the diary page. I also added a ‘flashback’ page at the end of the month for my reflections. I kept up with this until the end of 2022, but still felt something should change.

Changes and experimenting in 2023

The only thing that really remained the same was choosing a theme and drawing a front page for the month. I added a monthly overview of my appointments, drew my weekly diary on one page and in between those diaries, I journaled. Sometimes I wrote only a few lines, other days an entire page.

During the year, I experimented with scrapbooking techniques, where some months I drew nothing, but searched the internet for pictures that fitted my theme. I experimented with adding to-do lists to the weekly diaries, and I started doing journal challenges, which are a series of questions — one for each day of the month.

Then came September 2023, and I made another big change, which I continued until the end of the year. That change was to stop drawing weekly spreads, which also means less arty stuff to share.

Themes and front pages — September to December 2023

Since I had a trip planned to Scotland in September, I chose Edinburgh as the theme for this month, and reverted to a scrapbooking month. In the Scottish capital, we visited the botanic gardens, which inspired the flower theme for October.

I came across gingham patterns on Pinterest and instantly chose that as the theme for November. And for December? Well, of course it’s Christmas!

The first time in the twenty-four months of bullet journaling I have re-used a theme is December, because how can you not choose Christmas for this month?!

Monthly pages — September to December 2023

One thing that works for me are these monthly pages, where I can see all my appointments, office and work-from-home days in one glance.

In October I added a to-do list to the monthly view, and in November I used a pop-out to-do list. This means I used a loose piece of paper, stuck it next to the monthly calendar with washi tape and could pop it out while busy in my journal. I barely did. For December, I ditched the to-do list entirely.

I can jot down a list of things I want to do in a month, but I barely look at it. In November and December, when I prepared the heading for the next day (month and date), I made a list of the things I absolutely had to do the next day. This worked better.

Journal challenges — September to December 2023

Once I had discovered these challenges, I knew I would add them to my journal every month. In 2023, I took inspiration from Instagram, from Pinterest and sometimes just from the Internet, but I have other plans for 2024.

Years ago, I saved a list of 366 questions, one for each day of a leap year. Since 2024 is a leap year, it’s the perfect moment to use that list.

Weekly spreads — September and October 2023

September was all about Edinburgh and what a joy it was to find pictures for this month. Just the act of that already heightened my excitement at travelling to Scotland. I haven’t nearly seen all I wanted to see but loved recognizing spots I already had in my journal.

Then of course, there was October, which was all about flowers. Just like in September, I only drew the calendar and not a weekly diary page.

My inspiration for the second week of October came from the daughter of Soohyun Ahn 🫧after reading the six-year-old wants to be an artist and seeing her amazing art!

Drawings in November and December 2023

After doing only a front page, month page and the pages with the journal challenge for November and December, the idea was to decorate pages through the month with the theme I had chosen.

That didn’t happen for November, except for one page, but throughout December I drew several Christmas gnomes. On some of the photos below you can see snippets of my writing, either for my daily journal or for the journal challenge (the big word ‘family’ was an answer to one of the questions).

When we started out journaling, my daughter always made her drawings in pencil, then colored it and only then did the black lines. I always drew first, did the black lines and then colored it. December was the first month where I did it the same way my daughter had always done.

How to continue?

I looked back on the articles I have written about my journals, and doing a weekly agenda suddenly appealed to me again. However, if I draw it again, I will use it differently than before. That’s the beauty of bullet journaling. There’s no right or wrong about it!

Will you be (bullet) journaling in 2024? Tell me about it…

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