Wow, it’s been such a long tie since I did the last post on bullet journaling! It’s almost been a whole year and I’ve finally found my style and am ready to share some awesome layouts, updated tips and tricks! So grab your snacks and drinks and

ENJOY!

YOU WILL NEED (or the necessary ingredients of bullet journaling):

• A notebook (a dotted A5 works best for me, but an A4 notebook, dotted or plain or squared works too!)
• A pen (any kind!)
• A pencil (mechanical or traditional)
• Ideas!

This is all you need to begin with but if you want to get fancy then I would recommend…

• Markers (I love Crayola Supertips for their affordability and quality but a great alternative is Zebra MildLiners)

My Crayola Supertips – great quality for a low price!

• A calligraphy pen (Tombow Fudenosuke Hard/Soft Tip Brush Pens for small lettering or the Tombow Dual Brush Pens for larger lettering but you can always do faux calligraphy)
• Washi tape! Oh my goodness, I simply adore washi tape – it just brings colour and fun into any bullet journal!

Just a few of my washi tapes

Really pretty and restick super easily!

SETTING UP YOUR BULLET JOURNAL:

Once you have all of your supplies ready and at-hand, you can start setting up your bullet journal. If you have a notebook with prepared index and page numbers (like my Leuchtturm 1917 model) then you can skip this step. But, if not, then I would start by preparing these.

Next, you could begin by adding a key. This is a necessity for your organisation system – you can stay traditional with Ryder Carroll’s key style, or you can use your own. Then, prepare your future log, or yearly-at-a-glance. Depending on where you’re starting your bullet journal from, you will need a box for each month. This is just so you can add birthdays, pre-planned events, holidays and anniversaries to be there like a diary.

I just started a new bullet journal so here is my (half) yearly-at-a-glance

The next step is to fill your bullet journal with personal collections, like a “stuff to check out” page, a world map travel spread, pen swatches, washi tape swatches, a birthday collection, a “books to read” spread and “movies/TV shows to watch” list. You can make these as plain or as decorative as you would like, after all, it’s your journal.

My “pen swatches” spread

IDEAS FOR MONTHLY SPREADS:

What is a monthly spread? Well, it’s a series of spreads and collections for each month as they go by, stereotypically with a theme.

I always start off my monthlies with a cover double spread- the month name surrounded by doodles associated with the month’s theme and on the other page, a quote or collage associated with the theme. For example, my July theme this year is books…

My theme for July is books (I’m a huge book fan!) so here is my cover page

I then create a monthly log, an overview of the month where I can jot down any holidays, birthdays or events specific to that month slightly in advance. With this spread, I include a monthly focus or goal – this could be general (to read more) or a more personal goal such as going to the gym three days a week every week for that month.

My July monthly log

Next, are my mood and habit trackers. A mood tracker is basically a number of doodles relating to that month, one for each day, and you colour them in a specific colour or shade depending on what your general or overall mood is for that day. These can look really colourful and fun at the end of the month!

My July mood tracker (not completely filled up, obviously)

A habit tracker is where you can track a number of personal habits or goals (mine are: reading, making my bed, bullet journaling and being on Instagram for less than an hour. You basically do a coloured dot every day you succeed in doing that habit. I only recently began my habit tracker and have been finding it really useful.

My July habit tracker (again, not completely filled up)

Finally, one of my favourite spreads to include is a Favourites spread! I choose eight categories to put down( photos, days out, washi tapes, songs, books, clothes, quotes and memories), but you can do as many as you please, and include swatches or sentences during the month of what each one is.

My “favourites” spread

WEEKLY SPREADS:

Finally, I have my weekly spreads. This is where I note down my classes for the week, any last-minute events, appointments or tasks to complete. Some ideas of layouts are as follows:

Example of a horizontal weekly layout

An example of a vertical weekly layout

An example of a boxed weekly layout

SOME OTHER IDEAS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR BULLET JOURNAL:

• A quotes page – this could be for each month, or an overall one for each year

My July quotes spread

• A holiday/seasonal bucket list – a bucket list for everything you want to do in the holidays or for each season

My summer bucket list for 2019

• A wishlist spread – for birthdays, Christmas or just in general
• Holiday spreads and packing lists – if you go on holiday, I recommend creating a packing list and holiday memories spread or spreads to look back on later in the year.

My packing list and “holiday memories” spread for Boston

WHERE TO GO FOR INSPIRATION:

1. YouTube. YouTube is probably the best place for inspiration – you can watch tips and tricks videos or step by step setups. A YouTuber I highly recommend is AmandaRachLee (she is also active on Instagram and Pinterest). She is an incredible artist, bullet journalist and a very excitable BTS fan for any lovers of BTS out there!
2. Pinterest. This is the best site for links to blogs and websites with tips and tricks galore for beginners and experts alike.
3. Instagram – there are so many accounts out there for bullet journaling – I would recommend Ryder Carroll’s account (@bulletjournal) and @mygianthandwriting for more advanced bullet journalists.

And that’s everything I have to share with you all today. I hope you learnt something or at least enjoyed my post! Make sure to comment down below if you start your own bujo and as always, thanks for reading!

(Please note: all photos and opinions are my own. I am not credited with the original ideas of bullet journaling- those to go the wonderful Ryder Carroll.)