Planning for the New Year in your Bullet Journal

Setting Up Your New Bullet Journal

If you’re looking to set up a bullet journal for the new year, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re switching over to a bullet journal anytime during the year, you’ve come to the right place, too. Lucky you!

Not sure where to start? A new bullet journal means limitless possibilities for planning, but that’s no reason to feel overwhelmed. Check out the different ways to organize your journal below.

Planning Ahead

One of the best feature of bullet journals is your ability to tailor your future planning. You can use the all of the elements below, one of them, or any combination; whatever works for you!

YEAR AT A GLANCE

The Year at a Glance serves as your own personal calendar all in one spot. From colorful to simple, this is your reference for dates and days of the week.

On a related not, I have an entire post on future planning and how to do it. If you’re interested, check out the post here.

Start the New Year Right with these 40 Brilliant Bullet Journal Hacks — @kobieta_z_pasja

I love the Staedtler pens and Leuchtturm 1917 journals.

Find Tombow brush pens and tombow fudenosuke

Get these Stabilo pens

Tombow dual brush pens and Faber Castell pens

@bujoncoffee

Love this neon green Leuchtturm1917 dotted notebook

@little_coffee_fox

FUTURE LOG

My favorite of the future planning options – the future log. It takes a bit to set up. But it’s an easy way to keep track of important dates and appointments throughout the year. Check out my future planning post here.

And these Prismacolor colored pencils

@isabelhoops

Find this beautiful purple Leuchtturm1917 journal

@planningwithkay

MONTHLY LOG

The monthly log is similar to the future log. You simply list the days of the month and write down your important events and appointments. Done!

If you’d like to see some of my favorite monthly spreads here, check out this post .

@allthingsbujo

Tombow brush pens and Muji pens

BIRTHDAYS/HOLIDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES

Some bullet journalers dedicate one page to important events. This is also called a perpetual calendar. These events can be recorded linearly or in a type of calendar wheel.

@bujo.snowberry

@bujo_blossoms

@flyingpaperwords

CALENDEX

The Calendex method is a little more complicated way to keep track of all your important dates.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens

@bohoberry

CLEANING SCHEDULE

@bonjournal_

Uni Pin Fine Point Pen

@abulletandsomelines

HELLO 2018

Are you into adding a little creative element to your bullet journal? How about a hello 2018 page?

Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Uni Pin Drawing Pens

@bujonomy

Get yourself some Tombow Twin Tones

@planningmindfully

@isabelhoops

Looking for polka dot washi tape? Find some here and here

Sharpie Pen Fine Points

@can_of_pop

HELLO January

Similar to a Hello 2018 page, add a hello January page to your bullet journal. They an be simple or a gorgeous illustration.

Gorgeous Zebra Mildliners

@nohnoh.studies

Tracking The Present

New years come with resolutions to be smarter, faster stronger. Or at least, more organized and happier. Try setting up trackers to hold yourself accountable in the area of money, mental health, and things to read and watch.

BOOKS/MOVIES

If you’re in need of some more Book Tracker inspiration, you can read more about it here.

I’ve read the entire Game of Thrones box set. Totally recommend it!

@bujo.memories

@bujo_blossoms

@my_blue_sky_design

MOOD TRACKER

Many people use mood trackers to track their mental and physical health. If you’d like more information about using all sorts of trackers, check out this post.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens are a total must-have. No, seriously.

@rainbowbulletjournal

Sakura Pigma Professional Brush Pen and Sakura Micron pens

@thestudiesphase

HABIT TRACKER

I’ll be honest, habit tracking has never been my strong suit. But lots of planners love to track everything: from exercise to water intake to date night. If you’d like more bullet journal tracker inspiration, check out the post here.

@madnessandmastery

BILL TRACKER

Pretty straight forward, create a spot to keep track of your bills and write in the amount or simply check them off each month. Quite satisfying.

Prismacolor color pencils

@plan_in_color

Stabilo pens and PaperMate Flair pens

@planner_eyecandy

GRATITUDE LOG

The gratitude log is something that I’m going to try this year in my own bullet journal. It’s so easy to get caught up with the problems in our lives. A gratitude log is such a simple way to celebrate what is going well. You could add an entry every day or even once a week.

@journalinghues

@my_blue_sky_design

GOAL SETTING

Pretty straight forward. Writing things down make them more real. Try it!

@rachelmay46

Crayola Twistable color pencils

@rainbowbulletjournal

WORD OF THE YEAR

This element is all over the planner world. The idea is that you choose one word on which to focus for the year.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens

@brittanyluiz

Pentel Touch pens and Tombow Dual Brush pens

@frk_vorre

Looking Back

END OF THE YEAR REVIEW

One element that seems to be really popular this 2017 is the Year In Review. It’s a great way to reflect on the last 12 months and celebrate your victories, large and small.