Organizing Your Bullet Journal for the New Year

When organizing your bullet journal for the new year, it may be difficult to figure out what you want to put in it. What layouts work best for you, and what trackers and collections do you want to use? In what order do you want your layouts and tracker or collections to go in? There is so much to do. Let us help you figure it all out. 

Choosing a Bullet Journal

So, the first step is to find a bullet journal that fits you. Do size bullet journal would you like to use? Do you want something easily portable like an A6 (4 X 6 inch), one of the middle sizes such as an A5 (6 x 8.25 inch) or a B5 (7 x 10 Inch), or a large notebook size such as an A4 (8.25 X 11.75 inches)? I personally like using the B5 or the A4. I’m always carrying a backpack for college and that works well for my work, home, and college life. I also use Travelers notebooks. There is still one I have not used and that is the Square bullet journal SQ 8X8. There are so many shapes and sizes to choose from. 

Layouts, Trackers, and Collections

After you choose your bullet journal it’s time to think of what you want to keep track of. Do you want a calendar, future log, or weekly layouts? Do you want a habit tracker, weight loss tracker, or budget tracker? How about a collection that keeps track of the books you’ve read, video games played, or Craft projects you have completed? Do you want to keep track of these for the whole year on one spread or do you want to make a monthly spread for each collection? Do you want layouts for business, work, home, or school? See what I mean? There is a lot to choose from. Although some people have done the hard work for you.  Pinterest has a plethora of ideas on themes, layouts, trackers, and collections that you can choose from and implement and put into your own journal. 

Organizing your Layouts

Now when you got your list of what you would like to put in your journal, now you have to decide in what order you would like to put them. I have my theme, calendar, and weekly layouts next to each other with my monthly trackers and collections after that. I don’t do yearly trackers or collections because I have yet to find a bullet journal big enough to use for a full year. Putting three to six months of trackers and collections in one book and then starting another one to have to come back to the previous one to fill out my yearly trackers is hard. I wouldn’t stick with it, so I make all my layouts go along with whichever month it is. So my reading log will only be the books I have read within the month I’m in. 

If you would prefer to have all your weekly layouts for the year in the front of your bullet journal and all of your collections in the back. If that is what you choose, then do that. That’s the great thing about bullet journals, you get to decide where and in what order everything goes. You also get to decorate and design your bullet journal however you like. If you are really creative and have the time, Draw everything out yourself, add stamps, stickers, washi tape, or whatever else you want to use. If you are a minimalist, there are layouts for that too. It’s all up to you and what fits your lifestyle. 

Here is a list of Bullet Journal layouts to get you started.

Basics in a Bullet Journal

• Index
• Key
• Future Layout
• Monthly Layout
• Weekly Layout 

The Home:

• Cleaning list
• Bills List
• Meal planning 
• Grocery list
• Home Maintance
• Emergency Medical Information
• Chore Tracker

For Work:

• Yearly overview
• Goals Tracker
• Brian dump
• Time block or weekly schedule
• Pomodoro tracker
• Monthly review

For School:

• Packing list (if you are going away to college)
• Semester Log
• Class Schedule
• Course Tracker
• Study Tracker / Planner
• Things to do before class begins
• Study motivation list
• Study Notes
• Assignment Calendar
• Attendance Tracker
• Exam Preparation / Tracker
• Productivity Tracker
• Expenses or Loan Payment Tracker

These are just some of the layouts you can use in your bullet journal. The main thing to do is to set it up so everything is easily accessible and easy to find, but it’s all up to you how you want to lay them out. If you don’t have time to draw everything out. some amazing people have created free printables just for you. 

If this is your first time starting a bullet journal and doesn’t know where to start. Here is a great blog post series on starting a bullet journal for the first time.