Bullet journal – End/beginning year set up!

I’ve had quite a few people say that they were waiting until the beginning of a new year to start their journals. I’m trying to get this one out a little bit early so that anyone considering starting fresh in the new year will have ideas of how to track and incorporate their reading and blogging into their journals.

There isn’t a whole lot of personal things that I want to track in a ‘yearly overview’ type layout. Most of that is weekly and monthly. But when it comes to books and blogging I LOVE seeing things together for the whole year! So most of this is books and blogging related. Here we go!

This was a fun layout to create but, as you can see, I struggled with how I was going to record the rating. First of all, since I was going to be writing a lot, I wanted to keep the layout simple. I record the number of books I’ve read, the title, page numbers, the date I finished it, and the rating. I started off filling in the squares for the rating on the left hand page and it looked awful! But I already started it that way so I decided to finish it. Later on I switched to dots and it looks SO much better!! There are 4 pages for this layout in total.

This one is all about the blog! I do a chart to visualize my views each month, and I also write down the views, visitors, and comments at the end of the month as well, but I really wanted to see the year as a whole. I find that the year totals give you more of a complete picture of the direction of your blog.

This page will be my lifesaver!! I always struggle with remembering release dates of ARCS and remembering if I emailed the publisher the review links. I’ve been sticking post it notes to the books themselves but when the post its fall off – it’s not helpful! This way I can keep track of everything all in one place and make sure I’m not constantly looking things up! By the way, the first book is supposed to be Gunslinger Girl – I realized as I was scheduling this post that I messed up – it happens to me a lot!!

These pages are SOO important! I originally started a bullet journal for these pages actually. I needed to have a space to write down all of my ideas in one place. The ideas are blocked out so that they remain a  surprise! I left squares to the left of the topics so that once I do them I can colour in the squares.

BULLET JOURNAL TIP! As your pages fill, it’s sometimes hard to find the pages you’re specifically looking for. Washi tape to the rescue! I put washi tape on the outside edges of the page, making sure that the tape was half on one side and half on the other. That way, when the book is closed, I will see the bright pattern on the edge of the page and know that my ideas are right there! I also don’t have to worry about using sticky notes and having them stick out or fall out.

At the very end of my journal I added these pages. I know that throughout the year I want to track the books I’ve read again, and I also want to track my Top 5 Tuesday topics. I put it at the end of the book so that it’s easy to get to and I’m not flipping pages. If you noticed there’s also a sneak peek to the first topic in 2018 🙂 My journal also won’t get me through the whole year unfortunately. I think I’ll run out of pages in this one in the end of summer. So these pages will need to be transferred to the new journal.

LAST ONE! This is the only personal layout I want to track for the whole year. I wanted to track my mood as a monthly thing but it won’t give me a really big picture. This way I can see the whole year and if I want to know why I felt that way I can always refer back to my daily spread and see what was happening. I just think that the year as a whole will tell me more. I hope I see a lot of bright pink and orange next year!

There’s a lot of things I’ve liked about this journal – but there’s also A LOT that I don’t like! Certain layouts look great while others I don’t even want to look at. I’ve also learned the ways that work for me for recording certain things, and even how I decorate. I know you’re probably not going to love every page, but your first journal will be a learning experience! Try out new things! Not everything works out the way you want but don’t do either of these things. 1- rip out the pages! 2 – don’t give up! Your first journal is where you will learn from your mistakes and find your style. I know I’m going to like (and have more patience with) my second journal so much more!

I didn’t talk about these spreads a whole lot as there’s already so much to take in. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I’m always open to helping people get more organized! Your stress levels will thank you!

Until next time, happy reading!