Setting up my bullet journal for the new school year

Bullet journaling has definitely been more than just a passing trend to try for a month or two for me. Ever since I first discovered what it was on @amadarachlee's YouTube channel two years ago, I've been creating spreads almost every week, letting them evolve and change with time to fit my purpose and lifestyle. It certainly has helped me to be more productive, but more than that, I've loved taking a few hours to be creative, doodle and draw every week, which is something I definitely would not be doing otherwise.

Today, as I know many of us will be going back to school at some point next week, I wanted my post to have a #backtoschool theme so I thought showing you my bullet journal organisation could be interesting and might give you some inspiration.

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Since last year, I've been starting my journal in September instead of January; as I use it most during the school year and to organise school-related things, this format allows me to organise my whole year clearly. I always keep the style of those beginning pages minimalistic as they are all about practicality and things that are going to be relevant throughout the whole year.

This year, I'm using a journal from a brand called The Little Journal Company that I got off Amazon. The quality is amazing: it's got a lovely pu leather hardback cover and cream-coloured pages with a price far below that of the classic Leuchtturm 1917 so it's definitely worth having a look at if you're looking for a new journal!

Like every other year, my first page after the all important key is a simple calendar that I can reference easily throughout the year to get a clear overview of dates. This year, the number of weeks in a few months spreads over six lines, which means I couldn't quite fit all twelve on one page. I had to go onto a second page which I then embellished with a quote.

Don't count the days, let the days count

Right after my calendar is my future log which is by far the most simple and boring spread of the whole year but a really useful one! Each month is clearly divided and this is where I write events coming up in later months so I don't forget about them. When they become relevant to the current month, I can then transfer these to my monthly calendar. Again, I spread this over two pages so I could have plenty of space for noting things down.

Next up is my goals page. I was very close to not doing this page but I then realised it could be a real source of motivation when stress and tiredness make it easy to lose sight of what you're working towards and why all your hard work and energy is worth it. So far it's blank apart from a block title but I plan to write up to ten aims for the year, concerning school but also anything I want to change or improve about my life.

A new spread that I've added to my bullet journal this year is a timetable. I previously always used the one given to us by the school until I'd memorised it but this year, because I'm going to have free periods and a less structured day, I thought it might be useful to have one in my bullet journal too for when I'm organising the next day in the evening. I've drawn a column for each day divided into seven boxes, each one corresponding to a period, leaving a small gap to show break and lunch times. I also created a coloured key at the bottom with the four subjects I'm studying this year and once I've received my timetable, I'll colour in the boxes accordingly. Obviously, this layout is very specific to my schedule and school but it's easy to adapt so that it reflects your own daily life.

Having tested other spreads and formats in previous years, I've come to the conclusion that these four spreads are enough for me to stay organised over a whole year and I'm also sure that I'll be using all of them throughout the year. Anything more detailed and specific belongs in my monthly spreads.

This year, I've decided to slightly alter my monthly spreads. Previously, I would choose a theme and a colour scheme for each month in the style of @amandarachlee. I never actually copied any of her themes but loved how she was able stick to one throughout a whole month, always coming up with beautiful designs. The problem is that I simply cannot find different ideas to encapsulate a theme for a whole month without it becoming boring. So this year, I've simply decided to do whatever I want for each page, not trying to stick to any colour or theme and I think it's gonna work much better. For September's title page, I've simply drawn a hot air balloon and written the title in swirly calligraphy which is a minimalist look that I love.

On the next double page is my monthly overview which is made up of a large calendar to write all the events of the month, a habit tracker, a blog growth tracker and a box where I can make notes for next month. Previously, I had a whole page dedicated to trackers but I've decided to switch things up a bit this year by reducing the number of habits I want to track each month. Instead, I've chosen the most important ones: yoga, meditation and reading. I do not aim to do all three at the same frequency but want to be consistent with my habits and so I hope marking a completed habit with a small coloured dot will ensure that I am. My blog growth tracker is actually a tracker for the number of Instagram followers I have on my account. Each month, I'll write the number of followers I had on the first and last day of that month as a simple way to track growth.

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I'm really looking forward to trying this new bullet journal set-up this year and really hope it's going to encourage me to be as productive as I can. I've only shown you my broad overview spreads and not the weekly spreads where I write my daily to-do lists as I wanted to keep this quite general and weekly spreads are much more specific to each person. I really hope this post might have given you inspiration for your own bullet journal if you have one or maybe even made you want to start your own if you don't!

Thanks for reading!