my bullet journal setup for 2017

I’m still a relative newbie in the bullet journaling world, but I thought it would be nice to share my setup, since I’m a rebel at heart and have already broken some rules.

Since I made my own handmade bullet journal, it’s all blank pages and I decided not to write in page numbers or include the contents or future log. This is from my personal experience in using the system, since I never check for things in that manner, I don’t feel the need to include them. To each his own! The point of bullet journaling is that through use, you’ll likely come up with a personalize “system” that works for you.

I’ve blogged about being a newbie and my recent update – and ultimately the most important lesson of planning is to actually spend the time to plan. Duh! I’m not saying you have to decorate and spend hours “working” on your planner pages. I simply mean that the point is to spend the time required to reflect on what you have done, so that you can plan for what you need to do and move forward. It’s sort of like exercise… I mean, there are many sports, activities, gyms, programs, etc that you can try out. But the important thing is to actually exercise and get your butt moving, otherwise, nothing will ever change!

bullet journal setup - cover page

I’m treating my bullet journal like a more organized daily art journal – which is something I’ve always had and used before. The difference is that there is a bit more organization to a bullet journal. For this brand new journal that I have started for 2017, I created an opening title/motivator page. Just something nice to look at when I open my journal up. This is the same reason why people like specific planner or notebook colors/designs – because hey, you gotta have something you sort of like to keep around you!

bullet journal setup - calendar

The next spread of my bullet journal is the 2017 calendar. I opted for a weird, non-traditional format. The days of the week are on top and it just goes through all the days of the year, row by row. Because this year has quite a few months that take up more lines in the traditional calendar format, month-by-month – I decided to just squish it all together. I don’t like it when people use the diagonal slash to split up a box for two days of the month… yeah, I’m just weird.

bullet journal setup - reflections

The next spread is a general reflection of 2016. Obviously I couldn’t remember the details of an entire year, but just wanted to write down my initial thoughts as I reflected on the past year. It helps to ground oneself of the past and where you stand, in order to plan for the future..

bullet journal setup - dreams

Then it goes without saying that the next page is about goals for the future. I haven’t finished this page yet, just jotted a few thoughts for now about the general feeling I would like to work towards.

After these pages, I have my various collection pages. These are just groups of information that I want to keep together, to be added to over time. This helps to keep certain types of content in the same place and I know that newbies might be wondering, but how would I know what to document? Well, over time you will have your own types of collections that work for you or are important to you.

bullet journal setup - reading list

I have included many that are pretty common, but also some that are probably personal – like my wishlist for the USA, because I visit family there once a year and I want to keep a list of things I want to buy/do, as I go throughout the year.

bullet journal setup - social media stats

Here’s a listing of the various collection pages I have setup:

  • USA wishlist
  • reading list
  • creative learning (e-classes I’m enrolled in)
  • business stats
  • social media stats
  • biz ideas
  • my personal wishlist
  • waiting on delivery
  • challenges

bullet journal setup - challenges

The challenges page is actually quite useful, because I print out the snapshots of the instagram challenges and stick them in my bullet journal, stacked up with washi tape. I can refer to them daily/weekly and I can either keep them or replace them over time.

bullet journal setup - monthly

Finally, I have my first monthly overview page where I can keep track of major events and happenings. On the back of this page I also include my monthly snail mail log and finances log. There’s a clip there holding papers which are things I have to take care of for the month.

bullet journal setup - daily

Then I move into my daily pages, which are a mix of tasks, notes and logging my food intake. I create these as I go along and just see how much space it will involve. So far, it’s only been a few days in, so I’m not yet sure if I love the free-form daily page or if I might want to create more collections for certain challenges, to keep them together. I haven’t completely decided yet!

Thanks for checking out my bullet journal setup and I hope by sharing, it might have given you some ideas for your bullet journal. Not to mention the fact that you don’t have to “follow the rules” – really, it’s whatever works for you. You can find me on instagram if you want to follow my bullet journaling and creative adventures.