Recently, I told you about how I started my Bullet Journal, and some of my reasons for starting it. I can not wait to do more posts about my journal, from the equipment I use and the different spreads I have tried out. But for today I thought I would let you know about my pattern of what I have in my current journal for each month.

Each month is started with a monthly overview page, that just consists of a list of events, birthday and any important information that I feel is relevant for the upcoming month. Alongside this I also have a ‘Highlights’ page, which I just update throughout the month with any super special things that happen in the month.

The only ‘trackers’ as such that I have in my journal now, are one for my books and one for the blog. On the book pages I just have a list of challenges, the books I plan on reading for the month, and then throughout the month I have a section where I write the books that I actually end up reading. Within the four pages I have for my blog, I have a mini calendar of the dates that I am planning on posting new blog posts, and a little ‘Brain Dump Area’ where I just note down any different blog post ideas that I may have. The other three blog pages are just left blank for me to record what I have worked on with the blog, so I can see what I have scheduled and can leave notes for myself if I need to make any edits.

Just for fun I then have a section of questions for fun. I use the 365 Questions that you can find on Pinterest; there are loads on there of all different varieties. I just like having this as its something fun to do each day, and some of the questions really do get me thinking at the start of the day. When I write the questions out, I sometimes tweak them a little just to make them more fitting for me personally- again that’s the beauty of bullet journal.

Then we get to my weeklys. Weeklys are a common spread in bullet journals as it is just a few pages where you plan out your week in terms of any appointments as well as all the things you want to get done that week. On my weeklys I have a weekly calendar so I can draw out and see what I am up to that week, which I find then helps me to plan out when I’m going to manage to get my study done for that week. Opposite this I have three sections, Notes, To Do Tasks and Key Memories. Its as simple as it sounds, I write any notes for the week in the notes, the things I want to get done in the ‘To Do Tasks’, and then through out the week I put any happy moments that have happened during the week in the ‘Key Memories’ section. I love to just have a note of happy moments in life in my journal as I find them nice to read back over when I am having a tough day.

Then the final pages I have each month in my journal are my ‘Daily Tasks’, again another very typical bullet journal page. I don’t feel like I need to explain this too much as it really is what it sounds like, it is just an area for me to write my to-do list each day to help me keep my days focused. I will admit, I am always over ambitious with it, giving myself loads of things to do that I will never be able to do all of.

Do you have a bullet journal? What do you include in yours?

Normally I don’t really go into each year with any real plans for what will happen. Yes I may have goals of things I want to integrate into my daily routine or an overall thing I want to work harder on, but this year I am going in to it confident that this is going to be the year of some pretty big changes. And for once changes for the better at that.

2018 was the year I have met the man I am confident I will spend the rest of my life with (I know, you’re probably going to think I’m a naïve girl, but its the truth), and we are set for setting up our life together this year. Our first big plan, which hopefully will move forward some point this month, is that we are going to be moving out and getting ourselves a home. The plan is to rent somewhere local to his work, but certainly looking for a home that we can call our own for the next few years. I know I moan a lot about moving, but this time around I am honestly more excited than I am anything else. This is my next step to independence and its going to be with someone that I know will be there to help me when I am limited.

It has been a long time coming but I am also planning to finish Level 1 of my degree. I am once again contemplating switching up what the degree is actually in, but after 3 years, it is about time that I finally get around finishing off what it essentially my first year of university. Well as you’ll probably of picked up, I am actually not really very up to date with my university work, and am actually running a bit behind schedule; but some dedication and hard work will get me all caught up in the end.

The only other big plan for the year is a wonderful, luxurious holiday with my man and his family. We have really gotten so lucky in that his parents have paid us, and his entire family to go away for a week at the end of March. I have not had a relaxing holiday in what feels like forever, yes I’ve been away, but I haven’t been away to sit and rest. A week in the sun, all inclusive food and drinks, my man, and two of my favourite mini humans. I am seriously so excited, although I don’t know if I’ll get any reading done as such, but just to sit in the sun, with a nice cold drink sounds ideal to me.

Those are my plans for the year this early on, and I am really looking forward to this year. What are your early plans for 2019?

Well 2018 has been a bit of a rollercoaster but the overall feeling from it is definitely positive. Yet another house move, more injuries, and lots of being ill; but I have met some amazing people, got my new best friend, and generally got my life back on track.

2018 has been a year of moving forward, with many different aspects of my life. If you have ever experienced life with disability then you will know that to some degree any movement forward always goes hand and hand with an element of pause and shift backwards; its never as straight forward as just moving ahead with the situation as there will always be a new thing come about that causes you step back. But that being said, I have had such an amazing year on the whole, met one of the most wonderful people I have ever met and gotten to start building a life with him, I adopted my new best friend and crazy little helper, and finally I can see a future that I want to experience.So as for my goals for the year and how I did with them, you can read the post where I outlined them here. Well overall I would say I probably completely and utterly flopped with almost all of them. The only goal that I feel that I even got close to achieving was getting myself out there and meeting new people. Okay, so I may not overly of gotten myself out there, and I may not of met that many new people; but I have met a new man, and am building what is looking to be a very exciting future. Along with that, Ive met a lot of people through him, I have made friends, family, and just a generally lovely bunch of people.

My goal to increase my level of activity this year has been very hit and miss. At times, I have been really succeeding with it, but on the whole I would say I failed. This year has been a rough one in terms of disability especially in the aspect of my mobility, which left me unable to walk and often wheelchair bound for the best part 6 months. That being said, during that time was when I became the most focused on really wanting to get my yoga routine sorted. You can read about that in this previous post.

Like wise with my University, its been one rocky year. I ended up stopping my module that I was working on at the time of my goals post last year, but I have since picked it back up. It started off so well, I had a really nice proper routine in place where I was getting all the work done and the extra that I like to do. But since about December this has completely flopped and I am now sitting at about 5 weeks behind. I actually really miss studying and I do want to do it, but as you would of noticed last year with the blog, I am just struggling to find productive hours in a day around all I need to do for my health.

Lastly, and easily my biggest fail of the year, is with wanting to get back to volunteering. With all the ups and downs with my health this year, and then with yet another house move, I never even got around to looking for a volunteer work position. To be fair, I don’t think my lifestyle with dealing with severe pain, fatigue and my drop falls, would actually allow for it now; hopefully in the future I will get the opportunities again.

This year has really proved to me that you can have the worst of years in terms of achieving what you wanted to achieve, but it can still be an overall positive year. I have loved so many experiences, and opportunities that I have had this year, and there is nothing I would change as it wouldn’t then put me in the position I’m in now, planning my future.

How was your 2018? Did you achieve everything you wanted to?

Back in January, I made the decision to start using a bullet journal. I’ve always used study planners and for several years I had had a Filofax. Never did I manage to actually stick with one for more than a few months as I always found that I would give up with them because they never quite ticked all the boxes of what I needed. I don’t even want to think about the amount of money I have likely wasted trying to find the perfect planner for me to use for University, Blogging, as well as my day to day life.

For a little while, I had been seeing the idea of Bullet Journaling on YouTube and Instagram, and although at first I thought it all sounded like way too much work, I very quickly saw that it would be a great hobby that I could get creative with. So just Christmas, I ordered myself a journal, and starting watching loads of bullet journaling YouTube videos to get my head around what I wanted to do.

So I have now been journaling for just under a full year, and I must say that what I journal about, as well as my favourite way of decorating have quite widely changed. But I truly think that that is all just part of the process of Bullet Journaling. Its the beauty of the method, you can make it what ever you want it to be, you can do what ever you want to do with it. It is completely individual, and unique to you and just you.

Now I have found a good routine, I have got a constant pattern of what I do each month and I just switch up the colours every now and again. I know that some people work with different styles and designs each month, but I much prefer to have a consistent theme throughout my journal; partly because I have found a way that works for me and I’m not all that confident with being creative from scratch.

I have found that I have been a lot more productive this year since starting using the bullet journal method, just in my daily life. It has also really helped me to be more reflective of my life, spotting what I do that makes me happy and what stresses me out. If you haven’t guessed I am so thankful for starting my bullet journal and am excited to share more of it with you.

Do you use a planner or journal? What do you find works for you?