Today I’m ready to give you a walkthrough on what’s inside my simple and minimalist bullet journal for 2018.
In case you are new to my blog, I’m Izza and I’ve been using the bullet journal system for the past three years.
The bullet journal system is a note-taking technique devised for rapid logging. It was created by Ryder Caroll and since then became one of the helpful tools for productivity.
My planning system for 2018 is new. To start with, I’m using multiple notebooks this year.
1. I have a bullet journal for yearly planning.
2. Another dedicated planner for blog and business.
3. A Stradmore A6 notebook for weekly planning and braindump
4. And a Belle De Jour Planner for daily planning and creative journaling.
You can read the difference of each and the other tools I use in my 2018 planner supplies post.
Today’s post will focus on my bullet journal.
How I Bullet Journal – Everything You Need To Know
In the past two years since I started bullet journaling, I keep a bullet journal for everything.
This means I only have one planner to keep everything from my yearly plans down to my daily adventures.
I have loved this set up.
But, when I received a BDJ Power Planner for my birthday everything changed. I wanted to use the planner since it was a gift from my favorite cousin.
So for 2018 I kept a simple and minimal approach on my bullet journal. I use it mainly for long-term planning. It holds records of important dates for the year, my monthly and weekly routines as well as any other year-long collections I have.
I only open my bullet journal weekly.
- To update the habit tracker.
- To track the goals or things to do I have done for the week.
- To track the books I read or movies/Kdrama I watched.
I also do seat down and review my month in this notebook. Part of my resolution for 2018 is to celebrate my successes and not just focus on what I missed or failed to accomplish.
What I don’t use my bullet journal for?
- I don’t use it as a diary or journal.
- I don’t use it to plan. I just use it to record long-term commitments.
How I Bullet Journal this 2018 is pretty simple. I stopped focusing on the decoration and tried to maximize each page I have.
Word of the Year
Word of the Year is a familiar inclusion in the bullet journal community. The idea is to select a word that best describes your intention for the New Year to come.
Mine was “routines”.
I thought long on what word is suitable for my 2018 mantra and I realized how my I crave for systems, processes and routines in every aspect of my life.
I really wanted to structure my year, my month, my week and specially my day for excellence.
I am not looking for perfection. It’s just that I want to ensure I’ll be ending this year with a better perspective on time and project management.
A routine is a sequence of actions regularly followed. A procedure, a patter, a regimen, a schedule, a method and more.
Isn’t it wonderful if this year I get to adapt routines that can leverage my life, my blog and my business? That’s the reason why I picked “routines”.
Yearly Calendar
The Yearly Calendar holds all the birthdays and special dates for 2018. Not that I’m the worst when it comes to remembering birthdays but it is nice to have a spread to remind and prepare gifts if necessary.
What’s good is I can also jot down dates of my travel like my recently concluded Easter Samar trip and any other planned vacation I have.
Me and My Big Goals for 2018
On to the next page I got my goals for 2018.
In the past I will write too many entries in this page. Like more than a dozen things to accomplish for the year ahead.
But for 2018 I focused on just a single goal for each areas of my life. Then I have narrowed down to multiple projects to do for each goal.
Needs and Wants
At the bottom of my 2018 Goals I added a Needs and Wants entry.
I super love this page because it gives me motivation to save. I differentiate the items that I needed versus items I want to own.
My goal is to focus more on those I needed which will help me improve the quality of my life, my blog and my business. The wants, on the other hand, could wait. They are items I can buy if and only if I have the extra money to do so.
2018 Routines
And because this year is all about routines I added one full spread to document the routines I want to adapt in my life.
I created this to ensure that I stay reminded on what I should be doing on what time. These pages serve as guide for me.
Morning Routine – This part holds the activities I should be doing upon waking up on a work day.
Evening Routine – This part holds the activities I should be doing as soon as I get home.
Weekly Routine – This part holds the specific to do list for each day of the week. Like every Saturday I should be taking photos for blog and my Instagram. Or every Tuesday I should be attending the church service and Victory Group.
Monthly Routine – This part holds the specific to do list for each week of the month. Like every second week of the month I should be paying for my phone bills and adding fund on my investments.
Books to Read, Movies to Watch
The next spread is my yearly collection of books to read and movies to watch. This is a good inclusion for any bullet journal especially if you enjoy reading books and watching new movies and television shows.
You can also check my Goodreads account to check out the books I’m currently reading and what’s in my read and to read shelves.
Habit Tracker
I also maintain a habit tracker for the month. This is important since I am focused in establishing routines in my life.
As mentioned earlier I only update this page on a weekly basis since I have my Belle de Jour Power Planner to record the habits I did for the day.
Monthly Review
Last on my simple and minimalist bullet journal for 2018 is my monthly review.
I use a full spread for this. On the left I have the review for the month that ended followed by the goals and focus for the coming month.
For the previous month I write down a list of my successes, areas to work on, what to do or chance and what hindered me to perform my best.
For the coming month I create a small calendar, a list of things to focus on and projects to get done as well as my running to do list.
That’s it for my simple and minimalist bullet journal for 2018.
What do you think of my simple and minimalist bullet journal?
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