how to monthly plan for productivity & success (+ journaling prompts!) | my monthly planning routine.

Back at the start of my blogging journey, I was REALLY into setting monthly goals. Did I achieve them? Not necessarily. Were they helpful in me getting my life on track? Most definitely! While I was in college, monthly goals fell by the wayside (and let’s be real, COVID didn’t help at all), but now that I’m out of college, I’ve been slowly planning how I used to, and it’s been so good for me!

Today, I’ll be walking through my monthly planning routines. I really like having a monthly plan, because it gives some structure about the overall trajectory of my month. It’s not as broad as a yearly goal, and not as confining as a weekly or daily goal. Knowing approximately where I want to end the month at works really well with my brain and my lifestyle, and I’ve really been enjoying setting my monthly goals again!

My monthly routine is a process that takes me a couple hours when I am taking my time. I don’t do each of these steps in depth every month, so it definitely doesn’t take that much time every month, but I do really like taking a weekend afternoon to just chill and plan out my upcoming month!

Check New Year’s Goals

One thing about me is that I WILL set New Year’s Resolutions. Setting new yearly goals at the start of a new year is truly one of my favorite times of the year, and I make it A Whole Deal.

The first thing I will do when I’m setting new monthly goals is to look back at the goals I set for the year overall, and pick out which goals I want to focus on for the month. Is there a quantitative number that I can try to hit (such as $ to make or # of instagram followers), or is there a goal I can try to take a step towards (such as updating my resume)? I break these goals down into a piece that is attainable in a month, and use that to guide my monthly goals.

Set Goals For the Month

Oftentimes, when I take goals from the yearly view, it is still broad and undefined, so I break it down. I also like breaking large scale goals down into daily tasks to achieve. For example, if one of my goals is to “sort through my email,” this is the step where I set my monthly goal to be “spend 30 minutes each day sorting emails.” If my goal is to “gain 100 instagram followers,” my goal will be “comment on 20 instagram posts a day and post 3 times a week”.

Assigning a quantifiable number to an otherwise vague goal makes it much easier to strive towards. I then make a list of all the habits/tasks I want to get done in a day, and write it down. I usually strive towards setting about 10-15 goals, ranging from small goals like “make bed everyday” to much larger ones like “reach out to 25 brands”.

Set Up Monthly Bullet Journal Spread and Notion Page

Once I have my monthly goals in hand, I set up my planners. Right now, I use a bullet journal and Notion to plan, so I make my monthly pages for them. Pretty straightforward, but very handy.

Outline Upcoming Dates in the Month and Split Into Weeks

Next, I look at the upcoming month and pick out any due dates, important dates, and events that I have planned, and put them into my calendar. If there are tasks that need to be done on certain weeks, I write them into my calendar. I basically just take the broader monthly goals and split it up into weeks, so that I’m not scrambling at the end of the month to accomplish all of them.

Wrap Up Previous Month

I also take some time to go through my planners from the previous month and check off any tasks that I didn’t check off, as well as migrate any tasks that I didn’t end up completing into the new monthly tasks. I also look through my bullet journal brain dump from the previous month and transfer that information as necessary. Overall, I just tie up any loose ends!

Monthly Journal Entry

Last, I do my internal processing. I usually use the prompts from this pinterest post, but there are a lot of Pinterest posts (and posts on other social media platforms) with monthly recap prompts. Some of my favorites are:

• What was the highlight of your past month? What was the worst part of your last month?
• How are you feeling about this upcoming month?
• What are you looking forwards to this month?
• In an ideal world, what will your life look like at the end of this month?

I like doing this step at the end because I’ll have gotten an idea of what I’m doing in the upcoming month and can properly parse the information.

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that’s my monthly planning routine! do you set monthly goals? what steps do you take that are like mine, and what do you do different? I would love to know!

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5 ways to establish routine more easily | minimalism and simple living.

Since I’ve moved home from college, I have been struggling to find structure to my daily life. No longer bound by the boundaries that school set, I was spending every day doing tasks as I felt like, only getting my day started at 11 am or 12 pm. Finally, I decided that I needed to sit down and set up routines for myself, and I did! It’s only been a few days, but having a dedicated morning and evening routine has been game changing.

Today, I’ll be sharing 5 ways to make establishing a routine easier. You can make all the best intentions in the world, but setting your routines up for success will not only make them more attainable, but also less mentally taxing to upkeep, which makes it easier for the routines and habits to stick.

Earlier this year, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is a book that many have recommended as a guide to implement habits that are attainable and sustainable. It gave me a lot of tools and techniques, and I learned a lot from it! The tips I’ll be sharing are from my own experience in building habits, but have techniques adapted from Atomic Habits as well.

1. Have an environment that makes it easier for you to cue yourself. This may mean preparing to do your morning routine the night before, laying out your workout equipment clothes before going to work, or thinking of meal ideas so that when you get groceries, you already know what you’re going to cook. Make your routine as easy to start as possible, to increase the likelihood of you starting it. As Atomic Habits says, Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life.
2. Create a way to track your habits. By seeing the buildup of the habits, it makes it seem more of an accomplishment when you do complete the routine. Checking off a task on a to-do list gives my brain the dopamine it craves, so being able to see a list of checkmarks pile up makes it less likely that I fail a routine. I have completed routines many times because I wanted to check it off, not because I wanted to do the habit itself. My app of choice is Routinery, but I also use a habit tracker in my bullet journal: both serve me well!
3. Relate your routines and habits to your long term goals. When you start eating healthy, are you “trying to eat healthier,” or are you “someone who eats healthy”? If you can identify yourself with your long term goals and the habits you need to reach that goal, it will make you more likely to do that goal!
   For example, one of my goals is to wake up earlier. Instead of saying “I’m going to be trying to wake up earlier,” I think of it as “I’m a morning person, and I’m someone that follows a morning routine.” When I’m building this habit, I’m becoming the kind of person that does follow a morning routine, and if I tell myself that that’s the kind of person I am, then I’ll be more likely to continue doing it.
   
4. Make your routines not require willpower. Oftentimes, when we think about building habits we think about how difficult it is, and how much work it will be, replying on our willpower to actually complete it. If you make the routine not dependent on spur of the moment decisions, you’ll be so much more likely to get started!
   For instance, you want to start going to the gym after work instead of chilling on the TV. What if you packed your gym supplies in the car with you? That ways, all you have to do to go to the gym is get in the car, rather than having to look for your gym clothes, get your food and water ready, get ready to leave, and go. Getting in the car is much less effort than doing all of the preparation, and it makes it less likely for you to default to just switching on the TV. You can even take it one step further and take the batteries out of the remote, so that turning on the TV is actually more difficult than getting in the car!
   Each habit has its own “willpower” state. If you can set up your routine such that it is just as easy to begin as the more appealing “default” option, you can rely on your willpower so much less, and you’ll succeed at it more!
   
5. Never miss twice. The biggest killer of a routine is missing it one day, and then simply never starting it again. I am guilty of an all-or-nothing mindset: “I missed X yesterday, so why wouldn’t I skip today either?” However, when a routine is missed twice in a row, MISSING the routine becomes the habit, rather than the routine itself! I try to never miss doing a routine two days in a row: even if I fail, the next day is there to pick it back up!

The routines that I have established have been absolutely life changing, and I am so glad I am back in a routine! I hope these tips helped inspire you to follow routines, and stick to them.

Do you keep routines? Do you prefer morning or night routines? What is one thing you want to do better in setting up routines, and what is one thing you do well? Leave a comment and let me know: I would love to chat!

my 2022 bullet journal setup // bullet journalling.

Hello friends! Today I’m sharing my 2022 bullet journal set up! I think this is my 6th year bullet journaling, which is pretty crazy to think about. Setting up my new bullet journal is my favorite part of each year, and I’m excited to be sharing my set up with you this year!

Previous bullet journal blog posts!

• My 2021 Bullet Journal Setup
• My 2020 Bullet Journal Setup
• My 2019 Bullet Journal Setup
• My 2017 Bullet Journal Setup
• My 2016 Bullet Journal Setup

All bullet journal blog posts: here

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To start off, the supplies that I used this year basically the same as the ones that I’ve used previously. I’m once again using the Michaels Dot Grid Notebook, this year in taupe, which I’m very excited about. I love the quality of these notebooks, especially at their price point. As usual, I’m also using the Pentel Energel 0.7 black pen, Zebra Mildliners, and the Neutral Portrait 10-Pack of Tombow Dual Brush Pens. I know there’s a Sharpie gel pen in these photos, but honestly I’m not a fan of them lol and would not recommend.

I used the first few pages for my bullet journal for the index, although the notebook came with a few pages of “index” that I didn’t like the style of.

Next up, I have a grid spacing chart (which I *finally* remembered to put on the left side instead of the right . . . on my seventh bullet journal), as well as my 2022 goals/resolutions. I really like dividing my goals into 5 categories, and using these boxes to denote that has worked really well for me (as in, it works better for me to visualize them, not necessarily achieve them . . . lol).

Instead of a future log, this year I’m doing a memories spread instead, which looks basically the same as the typical futurelog, but instead of using it to prepare for upcoming events, I’ll use it to write down memories from over the course of the month. This is a new spread for me, and I’m excited to see it working! I think it will be much more beneficial to me than a future log, which I don’t ever really use.

Next up, I have some social media and photo trackers. I’ve been taking a photo a day for multiple years in a row, and this tracker is always how I keep track of them! I also have some trackers for Instagram followers and YouTube subscribers (shameless plug: Instagram and YouTube!). On the right side of the spread, I have space to write in the blogposts I write and videos I make, so that I have a way to keep track of what I do over the course of the year.

Next up are my reading trackers. I always forget to fill in these bookshelves spread, so this year I only have one, to track my TBR (books that I want to read this year), as opposed to previous years, where I spent a long time making these bookshelves only to not use them. I also have few pages to write the titles of books that I read over the course of the year.

The spreads after that are for more overall life maintenance. First, I have a financial tracker, just because this is the year I’ll hopefully get a job and start having more money moving in and out. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll use this spread yet, but I’ll have it here so that I can use it if I need to.

Next is my letter/pen pal trackers: on the left side I have an “address book”, where I write in the addresses of my pen pals/people I send mail to the most, and on the right side, I have a tracker of when I have letters to respond to, as well as anything else that I need to remember for my pen pals.

I also have a spread for room renovations: I’ve been slowly redoing my bedroom at home, and this spread will be for all the little tasks that I need to do before my room is fully complete. I have the page split into three categories: decorations, things to buy, and tasks. Having all of the stuff I need to do in once place will really help me keep on top of what needs to be done!

Lastly, I have my first few January spreads. I like my monthly spreads to be functional, while still being cute, so this is the layout I have. There is a section for goals, important dates, habits, and books to read. On the back two pages, I am tracking my sleep and focus tasks, and for the first time, I also have a brain dump page, where I can just put notes and random tasks that I need to achieve over the course of the month.

The weekly spread is where I get the most mileage out of my bullet journal, so I usually keep it pretty basic. It’s basically just a to do list for each day, and what I want to get done over the course of the week. It’s easy but works well for me!

All in all, I’m really pleased with how it turned out and I’m excited to use it this year!

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Are you bullet journaling in 2022? What areas are you tracking? Which spread do you use the month: yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily? Leave a comment and let me know!

Introducing: The 40 Day Reset Project || getting ready to start off 2022

I am fully aware that I haven’t posted anything on this page in MONTHS but here I am. If you’re anything like me, your 2021 has gone . . . well, it has gone. To be honest I haven’t recovered from 2020 OR 2021 yet, but 2022 is peeking over the horizon, daring me to make plans and prepare for graduation and apply for a job, and all sorts of stuff that I’m not ready to tackle yet. My 2021 goals have fallen by the wayside, to the point where it feels like I haven’t done anything productive with my year.

Which is where this challenge comes in. Before the start of the next year, I just want to get my things in order, and you’re invited to join!

The 40 Day Reset Project

The challenge starts next Monday, November 22, 2021, and will run until the end of the year. It’s split into three phases, one starting the first day (November 22), one starting the 15th day (December 6), and one starting a month in (December 22). All three last until the end of the year.

Altogether, you will be able to finish the year out strong, be prepared for the new year, and set goals for 2022! I really hope that it works, and I’m excited to push through to the end of the year!

Phase 1: Finishing Strong (Day 1-40)

1. Look back at New Year’s Resolutions, if you set any
2. Pick/set goals that will be feasible to achieve by the end of the year: nothing too ambitious!
3. Figure out a plan to get them done! Make a calendar, a notion page, a trello board: whatever will allow you to get a good look at what you want to do

Phase 2: Preparing Early (Day 15-40)

1. Set your New Year’s Resolutions! The earlier you start thinking about them, the more you can think about your goals ahead of time, the more you can think about the feasibility of the goals and mentally prepare!
2. Start thinking about what habits you might want to build in the new year and in particular, think about if there are any preliminary steps you can take to get started on them now
   • I’m a huge fan of getting a head start on your habits before the time you plan to start: this gets you in the mindset of doing the habit. Unlike New Year’s Resolutions, if you miss a day, you can just start up again the next day without feeling like you’ve failed. || I’ve already spoken about this concept in my blog post How To Achieve All of Your 2020 New Years Resolutions, if you want to read more about my philosophy behind it
   • If you’re looking to improve on habits, I would highly recommend getting started with them before January 1st, so that you can incorporate it into your routine with lower stakes
   • Having a trial run would also be good to test out the feasibility of your goals and whether there are any modifications you need to make for the goals
3. Learn any skills/attain any materials you might need for next year’s goals: if you want to learn how to paint, maybe you could ask for painting supplies for Christmas!

Phase 3: Starting Anew (Day 30-40)

1. Set up any method you need to track your new goals for the next year: notion, a bullet journal, just a notebook, any and all of the above!
2. Preplan for success: journal about your intents for 2022, make a vision board, think about what your life will look like when you succeed in your goals. Having a clear idea of what your life will be like, and holding that vision in your head, will give you motivation to work on your goals!
3. I didn’t mean to announce it this early, but I’ll be hosting a read-along in January of Atomic Habits by James Clear. Buy a copy of it if you’re interested in joining: I’ve heard such good things about this book and I’m so excited to read it!

I’ve created a little worksheet to help you set up your goals, which you can print/download to use! It provides a visual overview of the challenge, without being too complicated, which I like a lot!

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The 40 Day Reset Project WorksheetDownload

I’m super excited for this challenge, and I hope you are too! Feel free to talk about your progress and your goals on social media: tag me @hanneasinhannah and use the hashtag #40DayResetProject: I would love to see! Remember, it’s not about perfection, it’s about progress! Any progress is good progress, and that’s what we’re striving for.

Are you joining me on this challenge? What are some things you want to achieve before the end of the year? Leave me a comment and let me know!

My 2021 Bullet Journal Setup || Bullet Journaling

Hello friends! It’s 2021, can you believe it! Welcome to my 2021 bullet journal set up! In this blogpost, I’ll be sharing with you a flip through of my completed bullet journal, but if  you would like to see the process of me setting it up, I filmed the whole process and there’s a video up on my YouTube channel now that you can go watch! I’ll link it at the end of this blogpost as well.

The supplies I used this month are very similar to the ones that I have used previously: the Michaels Dot Grid Notebook, the Pentel Energel 0.7 black pen, and the Zebra Mildliners, but this year, I’m also using the Neutral Portrait 10-Pack of Tombow Dual Brush Pens, which I got for Christmas and that I’m super excited about!

Some links are affiliate.

To start off, this is the bullet journal that I’ll be using: I’ve decorated it with some stickers from Redbubble and etsy such as this one (the rest are gifts so I’m not sure where they’re from).

The first couple spreads in my 2021 bullet journal are my index and grid spacing chart, exactly like the ones I made last year, so I’m not going to show them. The one after that is my 2021 future log: I’m super pleased with how it turned out, and while it’s super time consuming to make, it’s also my favorite spread every year.

After that, I have a couple of my yearly trackers, as well as my 2021 New Years Goals and Resolutions page. The left column of the yearly tracker is my photo-a-day tracker, which is a habit that I love keeping up, and the right column will be a very similar one, but one to track my reading instead. My goals and resolutions spread is the same as the one from last year: I felt it worked really well for me so I just duplicated it this year.

Next up are some spreads that are new, which I’ll be trying out this year! Instead of doing monthly habit trackers like I have been in the past, this year, I’m going to be trying out yearly habit trackers! It will save me the time of setting it up every month, and I think that being able to see habits tracked throughout the whole year will really motivate me and keep me on track with them!

They are structured like the photo-a-day one, with the months of the year written across the top and the days of the month going down the side. I’ll make a colored dot if I complete the habit that day, and I’m really looking forwards to seeing my habits tracked across a whole year!

Next up is my TBR and my 2021 favorites spread. 2020 wasn’t a great reading year for me, and so I really want to make an effort to read as much in 2021 as I can. On the left, I’ll be writing in books that I want to read, and on the right, I’ll be writing in books that I have read and enjoyed. I will also make another spread to track all the books that I’ve read this year, but it definitely won’t be as elaborate as this spread!

After that is my address book and happy mail tracker! In 2020 I really fell back in love with the art of pen-palling, and I wanted a place to track the addresses of the people I’m writing to, as well as when I wrote to them. On the left is my address book, where I’ll write the name of the person in the envelope “flap,” and their address in the envelope “body.” On the right is my happy mail tracker, with the columns “recipient,” “from,” “sent,” and “notes” to track the letters that I’ve received and sent out. I’m super excited to keep writing letters in the new year, and this spread will be perfect for organizing it!

After that is my social media growth tracker, as well as my blogpost tracker. Like last year, my Instagram growth tracker is in the shape of the notifications on Instagram, which I’ll color in as I hit milestones. My YouTube growth tracker is similar, except instead of Instagram notifications, I’ll be coloring in play buttons.

My goal for the year is to put out 24 blog posts and 12 videos, so the circles at the bottom of the YouTube tracker, as well as the entire spread on the right, is for tracking that. I’ll be able to mark whether I’ve put out a video, as well as write in the title of the blogposts that I publish.

Next up is my minimalism tracker. This is the least thought out spread I have, but on the left side, I’m tracking my decluttering process (the beginning of which I’ve been logging over on my Instagram) and on the right, I have a wishlist of things I want, so that I hopefully won’t impulse purchase as much.

The last spread that I’ll be sharing is my January monthly layout! I’m really pleased with how it turned out: now that I don’t have as many monthly habits to track, it’s much easier to make it pretty. At least, that’s what I think. This year, my goal is to focus on making my bullet journal more usable, and I definitely also want to make it prettier as well!

So that’s a flipthrough of the bullet journal I’ll be using for 2021! Like promised, here is the video of me setting it up:

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So that’s my bullet journal for 2021! What was your favorite spread? Are you trying out any new trackers in 2021? What is your favorite stationery product? Leave me a comment and let me know!

5 Peaceful Habits You NEED to Implement This Semester & My First Day In My Apartment || College Lifestyle

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written a productivity themed blogpost, and I’m super excited to be sharing one today! Today I’m here with 5 Peaceful Habits To Add To Your Day!

Since starting quarantine, I’ve done a lot of staring at screens, video calls, and not interacting with a ton of people, and it’s super easy to get caught up in the virtual world and forget to take care of yourself. At least, that’s how it’s been for me.

To help combat that, I’ve been experimenting on habits that I want to implement into my life to help me become a better person overall. I haven’t figured them all out yet, but I’ve been playing with them and I think they’re helping. Taking the time to slow down, step away from my screens, and practice some self care has been life saving to me and I hope these habits and tips help you out as well!

1. Journaling. If you go back in the archives of this blog, you’ll see that there are a BUNCH of posts where I set a goal to journal more. I started journaling at the end of last year, and I’ve been doing that this year as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still doing it on and off (at the time of writing this I haven’t journaled in 3 days #oops) but it has been a habit that keeps me grounded and sane. It also reminds me of the day to day, and I have never once regretted having done it. My friend Grace Anne was the one who really encouraged me to start journaling, and she has two posts on her blog that have really helped me start journaling. You can find them here and here.
   
2. Drinking tea/having a ritual drink. Pre-quarantine, I never really drank tea: it would get cold too fast, or it wasn’t a flavor that I liked, or I didn’t have time to make it, and the list goes on and on. Since quarantine started, though, I have begun making a cup of tea in the evenings (and sometimes during the day too!) and just enjoying the calming process of doing so. If tea isn’t your thing (& I get it, it wasn’t for 20 years of my life!), any drink works for this. Whether it be hot coffee in your french press, making an iced matcha, even a glass of cold lemon water, slowing down and making yourself a drink is such a relaxing thing that you can do to create a peaceful spot during your day.
3. Reading for pleasure. Since starting the semester back up again, I’ve been reading less and less. Textbook readings and recorded lectures have been my sink of free time, and I haven’t felt like picking up a book and just reading, like I used to do. Yesterday night, I finally sat down and finished the book that I was currently reading and it felt so. good. I know most of the people who follow me already read a lot, but if you haven’t in a while, here’s your reminder to go read a book, just for fun! You’ll love it, I promise.
4. Making your space somewhere you enjoy. This is very much tied to my having moved recently (which, haven’t updated the blog on that! but I did!) but I’ve decorated my space here at college, as well as redone my space at home (you might remember my floating shelves project over the summer) and it’s just been so so good for the soul. I still haven’t finished my room here at school, but once it’s done I’m excited to show you! (hint: read more of this post for a clue 😉 ). Having a space you like being in is SO important right now, when we’re all staring at the same walls all. day. long.
   Declutter your stuff, print some photos and put them up, buy some plants for your space, or even just rearrange the furniture already in your room! Making a change in your everyday workspace will make you feel more free in your space. If you don’t have the time to invest into switching up your space, then just commit to keeping it clean! Having a neat and tidy space will make it so much easier to work and give you more peace of mind.
5.  Take time to do something you love! Obviously, this can’t happen every day, but at least once a week, turn off your computer, put on some music, and do something that fills your spirit. Last weekend I sat down and wrote a bunch of letters, which has been my new favorite hobby. This week, I edited a video and will probably write more letters later on in the week. If you’ve been on my page, you know I’m a huuuuge proponent of doing the things that you love, and that is definitely a habit I recommend you work into your life.

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So there you have it! There are some of the ways that I’ve been keeping my life peaceful, and if not peaceful, at least sane. I hope they help you, or at the very least, inspire you into making your life something that you enjoy, rather than something that you go through.

To go along with this blogpost, I have a new video up! It’s a video of my first day in my new apartment! I moved in (just shy of a month ago at this point) to my college apartment, and I filmed the first day I was here. It was so much fun to film and edit, and it’s the best video I’ve made so far (at least, I think). I really love it and I’m really proud of it and i hope you check it out!

What is something you do to help you when you are stressed? What drink are you a fan of? What is your favorite hobby at the moment? Leave a comment and let me know!

August 2020 Plan With Me: Sunflower Theme || Bullet Journal

Hey everyone! Happy August (????!!!!!! Can you believe we’re so close to the end of 2020??? where has this year gone i can’t)!

Today I don’t have a blogpost idea, so I’m just popping on here to let you know I have a new video up! This is a video of me planning out my August bullet journal spread, with a sunflower theme, which I’m super excited for + have been loving using!

I got to try out some new spreads, such as a cover page and a brain dump page, which are both really cute: I’ve never made either of them in my 3+ years of bullet journaling! I also got to use some really adorable stickers from iEmCreativeCo, a really adorable Etsy shop! I hope you enjoy!

Also! Charley from The Miss Charley has me on her blog for her College Declassified series today! I am there to talk about community college! Find the post here and show it some love!

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Ok for real though where do you think we should be in this year? Is your brain all caught up to AUGUST yet? Subconsciously I think we should still be in April. Do you have any questions about bullet journalling that you want me to answer in future blog posts? Let me know!

How To Create a Functional Bullet Journal Spread in 5 Steps || July 2020 Plan With Me: Lavender Theme || Bullet Journal

Happy Friday, and happy Fourth of July weekend! It’s the start of the month, which means it’s time for me to set up my bullet journal again! The passage of time really do be like that.

Anyways, this month, I decided to share with you all the 5 questions I ask myself when I’m making a new tracker in my bullet journal. It’s super easy to keep making the same spreads over and over again, without really thinking about what they add to your life. Because of that, I’m always trying to be intentional in fixing spreads that don’t work for me, and making it more functional and practical, so I ask my self these questions to try to make my new spreads as useful as possible to me.

1. What purpose am I trying to make this spread fulfill? Not a surprise to anyone, but different spreads serve different purposes. The first, and most important step in designing a spread is to make it functional and able to track whatever you want it to do. Obviously this is different for every person, but think about what exactly you want that spread to track: don’t be too specific or too broad or filling it out will only confuse you
2. How long do I want this spread to last? If it’s a week-long or even month-long spread, then you have more flexibility with how it’s designed, and are more able to play around with different styles to find the one(s) that work best for you. If it’s going to be a long term spread (3 months to a year), then definitely put in more thought into the design, especially so that you will remember to use it. This leads to:
3. Is it in a style that I will remember to update and actually use? I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve made a spread where the spread itself is super pretty and aesthetic, but updating it is simply not easy enough that I would do it regularly. For example, this most often happens to me when I have a spread that I have to fill in with multiple pens. I end up almost never filling those spreads out because it’s simply too much effort to do it!
   
4. What kind of information will go on this spread? This might be more of a personal issue, but I often find myself not being motivated to fill out a spread because I’m not exactly sure what will go into it! Defining what will go into the spread removes my mental barrier for filling in that spread. This is kind of similar to question 1, but this is a little more concise.
5. What happened to my spread that I used for tracking this thing last time? This only applies to spreads that you’re making multiple times, and not brand new spreads that you’re trying to create. Pinpoint what exactly you want to improve on in your new spreads, which will help you figure out what you need to add or take away from in your new spread to make it more function

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I filmed myself setting up my monthly bullet journal again, and this is the first time I’ve done some sort of art/doodling theme in my bullet journal. It’s not the most aesthetic/professional theme, but it’s my first try and I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out!

If you want a more detailed explanation on what each of my monthly spreads are, check out my plan with me from June, where I go more into detail about each of the spreads I make.

Anyways, here’s the video! I hope you enjoy!

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Do you have a process when you’re figuring out what to include in a spread? What are some of the questions you ask yourself? What is your favorite length of time for a spread to last (i.e., one week, one month, 6 months, etc)? I think mine is roughly two weeks, haha! Leave a comment and let me know!