This is the second instalment of my Bullet Journal Series. This article will discuss some basic pages that I use in my monthly bullet journal layouts.
General Page Ideas for Your Bullet Journal
Mood Tracker
One of the most important pages that I have in my monthly layout is my mood tracker. I struggle with low moods and stress so I use my mood tracker to show me the days when I was happy and when I was not. This helps me find patterns in my mood and allows me to learn my own behaviours. This means that I can work on reducing the number of days that I feel low. I change my design every month to motivate myself to keep tracking my mood.
I tend to go for drawings that mean something to me and colour them in day by day. For example last year for my November mood tracker I drew a woman surrounded by trees wearing a long scarf with 30 stripes, which I filled in with colours corresponding to my mental state.
Of course you can tailor this page to your own style as you can with all of your bullet journal pages. Some people prefer to keep it simple and have tally charts or box fills.
Whatever you choose to use it is important that it motivates you to fill it out and will help you understand yourself better.
Habit Tracker
There are many habits that I have which help me in my daily life, such as my skin care routine and my morning coffee. However, there are also things in my life that I would like to become habits which require more thought. This is why I use a habit tracker.
At the beginning of each month when I am setting out the layout for my bullet journal, I decide what habits I want to cultivate. Many stay the same from month to month such as walking 10,000 steps a day and getting 8 hours sleep a night. Some change for example weight loss goals and how many hours a day I want to work.
When I know what habits I want in that month’s spread I organise them into rows with boxes for each day of that month that I can colour in as I go if I completed that habit. This helps me stay motivated with the habits and also helps me identify unhelpful patterns, such as a reduced step count on days when I work more. With this information I can make a conscious effort to improve myself, in this case make sure that I make time to walk more on the days I work.
Habit trackers are perfect pages to have in your bullet journal as they can be tailored entirely to your routine and your goals. Habit trackers help you become a more aware and efficient person.
Financial Tracker
I have difficulty with monitoring and staying on top of my finances as I am sure many people do. It is a tedious job with confusing spreadsheets and hours of pouring over numbers. While I still have my spreadsheets, I find that recording my budgets, purchases and bills in my bullet journal helps me stay productive with my finances.
I am able to keep my finances in the same place as my weekly plans and habit tracker. This way I am able to notice patterns and hopefully control my spending more easily.
This is one of the more important aspects of my bullet journal so I will revisit this in a later instalment of this series.
Final Thoughts
The most important thing to remember when creating your bullet journal is that it must work for you. These page ideas are merely suggestions. Tailor your bullet journal to your needs with your personal style.
If you are looking for design inspiration, Pinterest is the perfect place to start. Just type in any one of these page names and thousands of suggestions will come up with design ideas.
