If you’ve been here for a while, you know how much I L O V E organization. Planners, to-do lists, notebooks- anything I can use to make my life less chaotic.

I’ve used a bullet journal on and off for years now, but I recently started using it more consistently. I knew that it was something I wanted to continue to use in 2020, and I designed it in a way that I really love and that I think will suit my needs very well.

Today I wanted to show you what that looks like! I went for a very minimalistic theme- I’m sticking to black, white, and grey. Eventually, I want to incorporate some gold, but I need to buy a gold pen first.

Anyways, let’s move on to my key and cover page!

2020

The key is a fairly plain page- I drew a key on it just for that play on words, and I kept the actual symbols I use very simple. I use a square for tasks, a circle for events, and a bullet point for notes. I also have an index but it is very basic and not very interesting, so I did not include a picture. Basically, it just has the name of the page plus the page number next to it.

Then, for my cover page, I just printed out a little graphic I made that says “Hello 2020” and I wrote a quote at the top that says “Let this be the year you go after courage.” I am not entirely happy with this page, but I’m glad I made some mistakes right from the start, so now I don’t have to worry about keeping the journal perfect.

From there, I have my year-at-a-glance pages which I just use to keep track of holidays and birthdays. It’s also helpful to refer back to when I’m creating my monthly spreads. I’m really happy with the way this came out!

The next page is one I absolutely needed to include- it’s my goals for the year page! I divided it up into personal and professional goals (professional being school and blog related; personal being everything else). I talked more in-depth about my reading goals here, and I will have a post dedicated to my personal goals up soon!

I also have a stats page because I think it’s fun to look back at my growth for the year. I don’t want to focus on the numbers in 2020, but I do like to have some sort of record, just so I can see what I should be working harder on, what I need to change, etc.

Next up we have some reading related pages! Last year I kept track of the books I purchased, and I wanted to do that again this year- especially since my goal is to limit my buying to 10 books or less. I also created a list of the top 15 books I absolutely want to get to this year. I have a huge backlist of books to read, but these are the ones I’m most excited about.

Next up is my ARCs list- I have a ton of backlist ARCs, but I decided to only list 2020 ARCs on here because those are ones I want to make sure I get to! After that is a page where I can write down blog post ideas as they come to me!

From there we have my wish list page, which is just a place where I can keep track of all of the things I want to buy if I have the spare money. I’m trying to save more money this year, so I wanted to include this page to keep track of things I would like to get rather than buying them on impulse as I tend to do.

The last page before we get to January is a brain dump page. Basically, this is just a spot where I can jot down random things that come to mind or that I want to remember. Rather than having a ton of sticky notes lying around (as I usually do), I can keep them stored here!

January

Here are the main spreads I did for January! Of course, the first page includes my goals as well as a TBR for the month. I am big on monthly goals, and I try to align my monthly goals with my yearly goals so that I am constantly working on them. The other side of the spread has a calendar that I use mainly to plan out my blog posts and the occasional birthday or big event. I have a separate school planner that I use to keep track of assignments and social activities, so this one is more business-related.

Then, I have a page to track some habits. I’m not sure how I feel about this layout for it yet; I usually do one big table that I think I like better from a practical standpoint. Though, the aesthetic of this one makes up for it a bit.

The following page is for tracking my expenses. I am slowly getting into budgeting, so this is something that I always try to incorporate in my monthly trackers.

This is how I decided to set up my weekly spreads in my BuJo this month! I don’t love the way it is looks, but it’s quick and simple, which is what I care about the most. The practicality of the journal is more important to me than the looks, which is why I don’t do elaborate spreads (even though I think they are gorgeous).

Finally, I have a very simple wrap-up page where I am just going to write down the books I read plus what rating I gave them!

On the page next to that, I glued in a list of the American Film Institute’s “Top 100 Best Movies.” One of my goals for 2020 is to watch all of them (about 2 per week). I inserted the list in my bullet journal so I can track my progress.

That is it for how my bullet journal looks! If you use a bullet journal, definitely let me know what other spreads you use, so maybe I can incorporate them in future months!

Thanks for reading, see you soon!