Bullet Journal Spotlight: Monthly Pages

Hello everybody! You all seemed to really like my first Bullet Journal Spotlight post about mood mandalas, so here I am back with a second one! Today’s post is going to be all about how I create my monthly pages in my bullet journal. I’ll walk you through my June spread, including the planning, the elements, and of course the pretty stuff too! Let’s get started!

I always like to start with a blank spread because I think it just really signifies the start of a new month. Depending on how many different pages/trackers you want to include in the monthly, this could take anywhere from 1-6 pages or even more! Another important thing to note is that I generally plan everything out in pencil first on all the pages, and then ink when I’m sure everything is placed perfectly!

I like to have a theme for my monthly pages (even if I don’t stick with it throughout the rest of the month) just so I know that it’s all part of that month. For example, it could be a color scheme, a certain font or style used for the titles, or a doodle you use on each page. For June and summer coming up, I decided to go with a tropical leaves theme this month (which you’ll see in more detail coming up!)

 

TITLE PAGE

The first thing I do is draw my title page. This page is completely optional and it doesn’t really have a function except that it looks pretty! And mine also has a mini calendar for this month, but you can always move that alongside your other trackers on the next pages.

Here’s where the theme I mentioned earlier really comes into play. The title page for me is where I really get into the theme! You can see here I’ve done a bunch of tropical leaves around the border and used greens and pinks for the color scheme.

 

DASHBOARD

The next thing I include is my “dashboard” page. This is just a quick glance at some important things for the month all in one place. On my page, I included a goals list, bills I have to pay and their due dates, future dates, and new this month: a monthly mantra!

Here’s my original messy pencil sketch of everything:

Some other things I have included in the past: general to-do lists, a monthly playlist, important dates, and challenges I’m participating in. You can pretty much include anything that suits your fancy on this page.

Here’s what my March monthly dashboard looked like: (I had a much larger bullet journal then, so everything pretty much fit on one page!)

I’m getting started on my March pages (finally.) Filled with greenery for Spring and St. Patrick’s Day.

A post shared by Lauren (@laurensnotebook) on Feb 25, 2017 at 9:25am PST

 

Memories 

I recently started including a memories page for little things that happened that I want to remember. So far I’ve loved it! A lot of people use a whole separate page for memories, but it just depends on how much space you’ll use and if you’re making a list or actually drawing out doodles and stuff.

I kind of use a combination of doodles, lettering and just writing, depending on the event and what I have to say about it. Here’s my memory page from April:

I really want to include more color and doodles on my page for June!

Habit Tracker

The next thing that’s very popular to include with monthly pages is a habit tracker. This is a place where you can track how often you’re completing certain tasks or “habits” such as going to the gym or going to bed on time. When it’s all filled in it looks super pretty and it’s definitely helpful to see what things you need to work on.

To make a habit tracker, you simply write a list of the habits you want to track along the side, and write each day of the month across the top. This way, you have one square for every habit on every day.

Here’s a quick tip I learned after months of doing habit trackers! It’s much easier to visualize your habits if your goal for the day is to have every box filled in. So if you’re trying not to eat any fast food, your habit should be “no fast food” so you can fill in the box when you’ve accomplished the goal, rather than filling in the box when you’ve done the bad thing. Maybe this seems very obvious to everyone else, but I used to have my habit tracker really a mess, with some habits being good and some bad. It was hard to see how I was doing with my habits when my system wasn’t streamlined.

I used to do monthly habit trackers a lot but I switched to putting mini trackers on my weekly pages instead. I found that it was much easier for me to remember to fill it out when I was looking at it often as I looked at my daily to-do lists. This month I think I’m ready to try doing one monthly tracker again. I’m excited to see what it will look like with everything all filled in together. PS- notice how I’m incorporating my theme throughout all these pages!

Mood Mandala

If you read my previous bullet journal spotlight post, you’ll know that this is one of my new favorite pages in my bullet journal. The mandalas look gorgeous, and double as a place to keep track of how you’re feeling during the month.

 

It also doubles as a sort of therapeutic coloring book right in your bullet journal! Drawing the mandala and coloring it every day is so relaxing for me. I’ve seen tons of other variations of mood tracking besides mandalas. As it is with everything, find what works for you!

Bonus: Drawing Tutorial!

I thought I would include how I draw my tropical leaves, just in case anyone is inspired to use this as their theme as well!

Step 1: Draw shape of a leaf with pencil

Step 2: Create the shape of the tip: a sort of rounded diamond shape

Step 3: Draw the individual leaves: rounded rectangles staying in line with the leaf shape

Step 4: Add details: imperfections in leaf shapes, line in the center

Step 5: Ink, erase pencil, and color in!

And that’s about it for the monthly pages! After these pages, I jump right into creating my weekly spreads. Setting up my pages is one of my favorite parts of bullet journaling. It seems kind of silly to do this much planning for a planner….but it’s how I stay organized!

Let me know what logs you include in your monthly pages, or if you’re going to try something new for June!

 

LET’S BE FRIENDS:

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