Is it just me or did March just FLY BY? I am stunned at how I’m already here, thinking about how I want to approach another month in my bullet journal.
You’ll hear me say that the key to bullet journaling is to reflect consistently on your evolving needs, and how your planner can change to meet them. That means every month I consider how to make the next month even better. Based on my set up for March, I have learned a few things.
So without further ado, check out the flip through of my March to see how things actually turned out, and introducing my April!
Things that I reference and feature in this video: Some of these may be affiliate links which means if you happen to purchase something, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you
To start my new bullet journal insert I copied my goals for 2016 at the forefront to align my weekly and monthly actions and keep making strides toward them // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
I’m starting a bigger insert than I have used in the past few months for my weekly planning, so I wanted to ground myself in my goals. These are the 16 for 2016 I set last December and I want to keep them accessible throughout the next few months. Each time I set up a monthly or weekly I will use these big goals to help create the smaller steps to help reach them.
To start my new bullet journal insert I copied my goals for 2016 at the forefront to align my weekly and monthly actions and keep making strides toward them // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
Yet another experiment in my monthly! I’m thinking this list format I used last month isn’t how my brain wants to organize information, so I’m just going to have to use it this way for basic notes and not active planning. So, I’m going to keep it simple by having a place to corral my ongoing monthly tasks, errands, and main goals. I set my April intentions by using the goal breakdown I highlighted in January, which broke my 2016 goals down into smaller milestones. By incorporating them into my monthly I’m hoping to continue making traction on them.
Underneath I’ve left space for my monthly tasks, things I need to buy, and the tasks I’m doing relating to others – connection is one of my top 3 values and want to incorporate that into the structures of my life. This can be the bells and whistles of a birthday, phone calls, pen pals (jumped down that rabbit hole!!), and more – as long as it furthers my connection.
To start my new bullet journal insert I copied my goals for 2016 at the forefront to align my weekly and monthly actions and keep making strides toward them // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
Obviously I’ll fill these in soon… once we post them! But this is one of my most referenced spreads as Instagram challenges have been embedded into my life. I use these to help plan out my social media plan for the week/month and give me nuggets of inspiration – sometimes I don’t have energy to choose a quote, so this helps spark my imagination. This month I’m doing the #PlanWithMeChallenge (hosted by me, Kara, and Kim), #RockYourHandwriting Challenge (hosted by me, Dee, Kara, Kim), the #BrushLetterPracticeChallenge with @RandomOlive, and a PLETHORA of other lettering challenges including #LetterArchive, #togetherweletter by @lissletters, #InspiredbyInDetail and whatever else I feel called to do.
To start my new bullet journal insert I copied my goals for 2016 at the forefront to align my weekly and monthly actions and keep making strides toward them // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
My tried and true 5-day weekly layout – a lifesaver. A weekly means much less time migrating and ability to build on tasks across the week for what FEELS like cohesion to me. This month I’m adding more rows – one for expenses. This definitely means I’ll be needing to take a page out of Kim’s book and write MUCH smaller to fit everything in but I think it will work for me.
To start my new bullet journal insert I copied my goals for 2016 at the forefront to align my weekly and monthly actions and keep making strides toward them // http://www.prettyprintsandpaper.com
This 2-day spread for the weekend gives me so much more room for planning, instead of shortchanging the weekends (whyyyyy!). This other page will become whatever I want it to be – as I am in heavy launch-mode for the shop, I will be probably use this for my Blog/Shop task list and plan for the upcoming week to keep everything straight!
My bujo aside, the main thing I want to work on is working smarter, not harder. So there are a few strategies that I want to employ:
What are you trying this month?
Yours,
Jessica
14 Comments
I love the 16 in 2016, I will give that one a try! It is never too late!
I also feel you on the under utilized monthly spread. I often have to play catch up with anything I was trying to track there.
All in all, great set up. Looking forward yo your reveiw of how it worked out.
Just found your blog – very good and interesting.
I’m glad you like it Judith! 🙂 Hope to see you again!
Thanks for sharing! I am so glad I am not the only one who does not utilize the index. Love the People section- I have one, too. I love sending a card “just because”. My people section helps me keep track of who is my “person of the week” I will focus on. 🙂
Oh that is a LOVELY idea – I think I shall put a list of 3-4 people on there a month to make sure I intentionally give a phone call, or letter to 🙂
Love this! I’m always looking at different ways to layout my weeks/ months just to find what works for me!
It’s a never ending quest – and I am not sad about that at all 🙂 What are you doing for your weekly these days?
So I just seen your reply! eek! I have been going back and forth between a set up like yours and Kara’s. I just can’t decide which fits me better.
Bite the bullet (haha see what I did there?) and just do one! You’ll know after a week or two what will work 🙂 I’ve changed my layouts radically before, and it’s always improved it somehow.
I Love your weekly layout! I am in the process of simplifying and finding what really works in my bullet journal and have found a lot of inspiration in your April setup!
So happy to hear that Sierra!! I love that you’re going back to basics this month 🙂
[…] see what I did for October, October experiments, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July as examples of how I adjusted the layout to work better for me in that […]
[…] more setup posts? Check out my July setup, or older throwbacks like April, March, or […]
[…] Breakdown: I added this Main Thing section as a way to make progress toward my “16 for 2016” goals – I picked a few and broke them down into manageable goals for the month to focus on. Read more about this set up here. […]