How I Set Up My Bullet Journal for a Productive Month: “Plan With Me” VIDEO

For over a year now, I’ve been using a bullet journal as my day planner, list keeper, and memory collector all-in-one. And it has been a game-changer for making me more productive, intentional, and motivated to seize the day. I realized it was high time to give you the inside scoop on why my bullet journal is my favorite planning tool.

So…I made you a video!

And I’d love for you to join me for my “plan with me video” where I walk you through how I set up my bullet journal spreads for a productive new month.

My hope is that you would walk away from it with practical ideas for how to make September a month where you…

• crush your most important goals
• keep track of tasks big and small
• implement new habits
• draw connections between your mood and wellness
• practice gratitude
• and most of all, have fun making plans!

What are you waiting for? Check out the video below and let the inspiration begin.

“Plan With Me” Video: Monthly Bullet Journal Set-Up

{If for some reason you have trouble viewing the video above, click HERE. And if you click the gear icon, you can change the default setting to H.D. for higher quality.}

This post is essentially a transcript of the video, so feel free to reference it for resources and supplies I mention.

The Magic of the Bullet Journal

A quick word before we start: if you’re brand new to bullet journaling, know that the magic of a bullet journal is that it is customized just for you because it is made by YOU! There’s no right or wrong way to bullet journal. As you watch my video today and check out the pages of other bullet journalers, I encourage you to pull out the ideas you’re excited about, abandon the rest, and have fun as you make your bullet journal work for you.

Cool? Cool.

So, let’s dive right in, shall we?

Supplies

I’m a big believer in using what you have. Don’t think you need to go out and buy a whole bunch of new fancy supplies in order to get started. All you really need is a writing notebook and a pen.

Here’s a list of the supplies I am using to set up this month’s spread:

• *Softcover Writing Notebook by Doubled Edged Notes: I found this guy on Amazon, and I’ve gotta say, I’m pleased with the paper quality, lay-flat binding, and page numbers; however, I find myself longing for dot grid pages rather than lined sometimes.
• FaberCastell PITT Artist Pens in Black: This comes in a four-pack, and I use them all the time now.
• Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers in Bright: you get a fine tip and brush tip with these bad boys, and they’re great for growing your brush lettering skills. They even come with a blending brush so you can achieve that sweet ombre effect.
• Crayola Supertips: you can get 100 colors for only $15. These have lasted me a decade.
• Crayola Broad-Line Markers: there are some pretty color options in this set.
• Crayola Twistables: my favorite colored pencils because they go onto the page so smoothly, and the tips never break or need sharpening. Just twist ’em!
• Derwent Eraser Pen: yep, this is an eraser you hold like a pen. And since I pre-draw out all my layouts in pencil first, this makes erasing so much easier. This is probably my favorite utensil because of how practical it is.
• Westcott Clear 6″ Ruler: I love how small and portable this lil’ ruler is; and the fact that it’s clear helps when drawing out charts.
• pencil

Theme

Anyone who loves travel or the great outdoors is going to be keen on my seven new bullet journal spreads for September because I’m using a camper adventure theme. It seemed most fitting since we have a road trip on the books for September, and while we don’t own a camper (yet), a girl can dream, right? This theme poses a lot of fun doodling possibilities: you’ve got mountains, trees, clouds, campfires, and of course, the ever-adorable travel camper itself where it’s always a party with a pennant banner.

Onto the layouts for this new month!

Monthly Log

I like to plot out my month in a classic calendar view, so I can get a sense of the big picture. I fill it in with events, appointments, get-togethers…anything that diverts from our typical daily routine.

I also like to use the blank space around the calendar edges to practice my hand-lettering, and draw out a motivational quote.

Quick Tip: An easy way to fake calligraphy is to simply thicken the downstrokes of your cursive lettering. It looks so profesh, and is really easy to do! You can use your pen to create a parallel line on the downstrokes, and then fill it in with your pen or with a fun color like I did.

This is one of my favorite motivational quotes: “The journey is the destination” by Dan Eldon. And is such a great reminder to me to enjoy the here and now rather than to always be looking ahead to where I’m going, saying, “Are we there yet?” #WorkInProgress

Monthly Task List

I really like having a two-page spread to serve as a running task list for the month that I can continually update. It’s the place I return to on those rare days when I have an extra pocket of unscheduled time. I can look back at this master to do list and find something to work on!

To help organize my tasks, I’ve broken them up into eight different categories:

• goals (2 – 3)
• important (to remember)
• to buy
• others
• biz (The Thinking Closet)
• BCL (my theatre directing job)
• personal
• next month

I like to tie in my theme somehow on each page, so I thought a few purple mountains majesty and clouds above them would make for a fun header.

Habit Tracker

Despite the fact that I’ve been using a bullet journal for well over a year now, this is going to be my first ever month using a habit tracker. I’m eager to see if it improves my consistency with implementing these habits into daily life. There’s a spot at the end of my chart to track the total number of days this month that I do each habit. I’ll be sure to report back and share how it goes!

On my list of habits this month are…

• quiet time
• exercise (3x / week)
• mindful lunch
• bullet journal
• instagram – @LaurensPlannerPages
• instagram – @ThinkingCloset
• no sweets
• inbox zero
• bed by 11

A flashlight is a must on camping adventures…so I thought a flashlight doodle could help shine some light on this new spread. {Yuk yuk.}

Mood Tracker

Another new spread I’m trying out for the first time is a mood tracker. I find that my mood and my habits are often closely connected, so it made sense to put these two side-by-side. That way, if I’m having a tough day, I can easily see if it’s tied to inconsistencies in some of my wellness habits.

Geometric drawings are all the rage these days, and after watching a few YouTube video tutorials, I decided to try my hand at a geometric campfire drawing. Y’all: it’s so much fun.

All you have to do is start out by drawing a recognizable silhouette of your object, and then use a ruler to fill it up with triangles. I pre-plotted mine out in pencil so I could be sure I had 30 triangles, one for every day of the month. And then I wrote in the numbers 1 through 30, so I can fill in one triangle for each day of the month with my overall “mood” color for that day.

I created a key at the bottom with four different colors for four different “moods:”

• yellow: jumping for joy
• orange: okey dokey
• light brown: tuckered out
• magenta: tough day

It’ll be interesting to see how this spread turns out–if I can keep up with it, as well as what I learn from it! Already, I’ve learned that I dig geometric drawings. I’ll be playing around with more of these in the future. No doubt about it!

Gratitude Log

Next up, I created a two-page spread for my gratitude log, which I titled as “Today’s Hoorays!” across a festive pennant banner like the one on my travel camper drawing. For each day of the month, I want to take some time to write out something I’m grateful for or even a small victory from that day.

When I’ve kept a daily gratitude log in the past, I found that while it takes no more than a minute to do, it can shift my entire perspective for the whole day. I highly recommend trying a gratitude log like this if you haven’t already. It’s a game-changer.

Weekly Log

That wraps up my month-specific spreads, but I thought I’d take some time to show you two more spreads that I keep up throughout the month. First, my weekly log.

This is something I like to set up on Sunday night or Monday morning at the start of a new week. It’s where I list my top five priorities for the week. And if I do nothing else but those five things, it’s a big win. Sometimes they are specific tasks or projects, and sometimes they’re intangibles, like “celebrate 8 years of marriage!” or “unplug from technology for one day”–whatever is most important to me and my family that week.

And then, I have space below for plotting out the tasks of that week. I often refer back to my monthly task list when completing this section.

On the right-hand side of the page, I draw a chart with each of the days of the week. Did you catch my date error there in the video? Nothing a little construction paper and some double-sided tape couldn’t fix.

This is where I can track the main events from appointments to phone dates to outings to parties. And this month, I’m going to try planning out my meals on this chart, too. I did a monthly meal plan last month, but I think planning out meals at the start of each week makes more sense for me. So, I’m going to try it out!

Since I drew a few evergreen trees on this spread, I was inspired to fill in the blank space at the bottom of my weekly chart with some favorite lines from the Robert Frost poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.”

Back when I taught freshman English, this was one of my favorite poems to analyze. It looks simple on the surface, but when you start to unpack it, you discover a whole world of creative interpretation.

Oh, Robert. You genius, you.

Daily Log

After my weekly log, comes my daily log. Some people just do one or the other, but lately, I’m loving both the weekly log and daily logs since they serve different purposes for me. Plus, my handwriting is rather large, so I like having more space for everything.

I don’t get to my dailies everyday…but when I do, I find it just skyrockets my productivity.

I’m continuing to use the Boho Berry method for dailies where I start out my day by planning my hours and color-coding them by how I want to spend them:

• blue: sleep
• yellow: family time
• pink: work time
• purple: friend time
• green: errands
• orange: exercise

The daily temperature and weather doodles aren’t just fun to draw, but they help me appreciate all the more the days without rainclouds.

I also like to customize my day and date icon to match the theme from my weekly log. So, the evergreen trees are back! I’m still brainstorming what I’ll incorporate for the rest of September, but I’m thinking a roasted marshmallow will make an appearance. Though that may cause me to stumble in my attempt not to eat sweets!

To Close

And that is it! That is how I set up my bullet journal for a productive month.

Looking back over my finished spreads, I have to say this gets me super pumped for the days ahead and the adventures they’ll hold. And I hope you’ve found some inspiration here today, too, my friend.

If you’d like to stay in the loop on future Bullet Journaling updates…

• you can follow me on Instagram @LaurensPlannerPages
• subscribe to my email newsletter
• and subscribe to my YouTube channel!

If you create any spreads in your bullet journal inspired by the ones in this post, be sure to tag me @LaurensPlannerPages on Instagram, so I can check ’em out! If you haven’t discovered this already, the bujo community is insanely supportive and collaborative, and I always enjoy meeting new friends, so be sure to say, “hi!”

Your Turn

Lastly, I’d love to know what you thought of this “Plan With Me” video, and if you’d like to see more in future months.

Also, if I were to do some follow-up posts related to my bullet journal, what are you hungry for?  Or what burning questions do you have? Do tell in the comments section below.

And I must give a shout-out to my girl Kalyn Brooke for introducing me to bullet journaling in the first place. She has a video post on How to Start a Bullet Journal I’ve watched more times than I can count. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re looking for a great 101 guide.

Also, Ryder Carroll is the creative mastermind behind the bullet journal system, and his video is a must-watch for anyone looking for an overview from the bujo guru himself.

Let your creativity splish, splash, and spill…in your bujo and beyond.

Until next time, planner pals!

 

 

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