Bullet Journaling Intro & Easy Beginner Monthly Spread Idea
Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog/channel! If we’ve never met before, my name is Ebonie and this blog is all about productivity and wellness, with a spiritual spin! Today we’re talking about one of my favourite tools for productivity – the bullet journal.
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If you’ve never heard of bullet journaling before, let’s start with a quick run-down of what it is.
The way I see it, the bullet journal is a yearly journal or diary that you create yourself. The beauty of the bullet journal is that it is made to fit around what is most important to you. You can write as much or as little as you want. You can make it scrapbook style with photos, you can plan your goals or keep track of your habits, or you can just use it to keep up with events and things you need to do.
There are endless ways to create your bullet journal – it can be as detailed and artistic as you like, or you can keep it simple and minimalist, it’s totally up to you.
While travelling last year, my bullet journal was super simple. I didn’t want to travel with a huge pencil case, as we were backpacking with carry on luggage only! This year though, it’s a little more creative and pretty – though still very quick, easy and simple to do.
The bullet journal system makes my life so much easier, encourages me to write even just a little every day, and helps me to get stuff done. If you’re just getting started, I hope showing you the following simple monthly spread helps you see just how flexible and easy it can be!
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My Simple Monthly Bullet Journal Spread
1. Create The Header
Create your header for the month - either by writing it in, using stamps or a printout, it’s up to you! Leave enough space below to fit every day of the month vertically.
This year, I’ve been creating my monthly header using my stamps, beautiful gold paper and sparkly gold washi tape. I may have a slight obsession with gold! Links to all the things I use including my Bullet Journal are in the recommendations below.
I always use the first 3 or 4 letters of the month so that it fits nicely in the centre at the top of the page.
2. Add Dates & Days
Write in the dates of the month, followed by the first letter or first two letters of the days, i.e. M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, Su. This spread allows you one line per day, to write in what you did each day and/or plan for the month.
3. Add Habit Trackers
On the opposite page, write in any habits you’d like to track! Tasks/goals you want to complete every day, or most days. Then it’s just a matter of simply ticking them off when you do them! It’s a great way to stay motivated, hold yourself accountable and reflect on whether that task/goal/habit is working for you!
The habits I track are: F.A.M. (Fertility Awareness Method), Exercise, Read, Write, Post (to social media), Cacao, Journal (at least morning pages), Tarot (at least one a day), Smoothie and BuJo (Bullet Journaling - I tick this off when the day is complete with any gaps filled by photos or quotes).
Some more ideas you might want to track include meditation, yoga, walk/run/gym, clean… the options are endless!
Bonus Tips:
Draw a line at the end of each week on both sides of the layout, to make it easier to read.
If you have any space leftover, use it however you like! I usually fill it with a mixture of photos, quotes, monthly goals, tasks/events/birthdays or any other relevant information for that month.
This is just one idea for a monthly layout - feel free to change it up, try something new, add more artistic elements, whatever you like. Just have fun with it!
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I hope that gave you an idea of where to start if you’re feeling a tad overwhelmed by the idea of bullet journaling.
I also want to say – don’t feel as though you have to wait until the start of the year to begin your bullet journal. As you can see, this current journal is almost totally full already and we’re only half-way through the year, so I will be starting a new one in July if not sooner!
Another tip I have for you today, is to start with whatever notebook or journal you have. The dotted pages are brilliant, but as you can see, I started out with a regular moleskin notebook that I already had on hand, and while in Guatemala the only inexpensive notebooks I could find were these ones made for school kids! But it did the job and allowed me to continue writing every day so I can look back on those times – sometimes in detail, sometimes in brief summary depending on how much I felt like writing that day!
That’s the best part about bullet journaling – you are not restrained or limited by only a certain amount of space day to day. If you just want to write “today was a chill day, didn’t do much” that’s cool. If you want to write a descriptive journal entry for a particular day, no worries, the bullet journal will accommodate! You can spend five minutes on it a day, just writing down your to-do list, or you can spend an hour.
I usually look at and/or write in my bullet journal each morning and right before bed too, plus throughout the day as needed. It changes depending on what I need to get done and how busy I am.
It’s just a seamless part of my life now! And I have so much fun creating my layouts and so on. I love getting all crafty using stamps, sticking in photos and writing in quotes, usually while watching a movie or TV show!
If you’re planning on travelling too, it was honestly the best system while I was overseas – I can’t recommend it enough! Especially in Europe when we were moving around between countries and cities constantly for a couple of months. It helped me stay organised with where we were travelling to, how much I was spending, what needed to be booked and so on.
On the subject of budgeting too, there are so many ways Bullet Journaling can help you keep track of your spending! Let me know if you’d like me to talk more about budgeting, I’d be happy to make a video dedicated to that!
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Bullet Journaling is honestly a huge subject, so if you have any questions at all please do let me know! Do you think you’ll give bullet journaling a try? Do you already use a bullet journal? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! As always, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you so much for watching today, I hope that you found it helpful! I post a new video & accompanying blog post every Thursday at 2pm, so please consider subscribing to the YouTube channel if you haven’t already! It costs you nothing, but it’d mean the world to me! And if you’re feeling extra generous, give the video a like – it really does help!
Between posts, you can find me on all social media, especially Instagram @eboniehyland. I hope to see you there! Thanks so much, and I hope you’re having a wonderful day!
See you soon!
Ebonie xx
Resources & Recommendations
The Bullet Journal. Available from: Official Bullet Journal Website, Leuchtturm1917 Aus, Amazon*
Papercraft Clear Cling Uppercase ABC Stamps. Available from: Spotlight
‘How to Bullet Journal’ YouTube Video - from the creator of the Bullet Journal himself, Ryder Carroll
*Disclaimer: Please note that any recommended products may be affiliate links. If any purchases are made through these links, I may receive a small commission - at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!