Bullet Journal: My May Set Up
April is almost finished and with May just around the corner comes a new monthly set up in my bullet journal. Super excited for May not only because it is my birthday this month, but also because there are some new exciting things already planned that I can't wait to share with you! ;)
At the end of each month I like to see what I've accomplished, how many of my goals and to-do's have been ticked off and where I am now. Then, I can go on and plan my next steps for next month that will bring me closer to my goals. I also like to see what worked with my previous layout in my bullet journal, and to make any necessary changes, add things or keep what has worked. So let's begin.
Last month I decided to create two monthly views - one personal and one for my blog - just to separate the two. (For April's set up click here). And it worked really well, so I knew I had to do the same this month. However, there are a few changes, so the setup in both monthly views is slightly different.
Before I go on and talk about my personal monthly view, I'd like to talk about my trackers. I got really disheartened when at the end of the month my trackers looked like this. It seemed that some of the things I wanted to be doing this month, I just could not even start! And that made me think that maybe I am asking too much of myself. Since I want to create some new habits, the best way is to start slowly and take 2-3 things that I want to change and focus on them. Sandra from @wundertastischdesign talked about something similar on Instagram and Rosalie (one of her followers) mentioned a thing called 'implementation intentions'.
'The idea is that you take something out of your daily routine that you do anyway and you use that as a trigger to do something else aka create a new habit. So for example if you've done your morning pages, you start yoga right after that. Make sure it's directly linked and you do it right after. You make an "if-then" goal for yourself.'
Taking all the above into consideration, I've decided this month to narrow my trackers down to only 3. I included something that I'm already doing almost every day (meditation) and two other things that I really want to create a habit and be more consistent (exercise and visualisation). And the key is that I have to do them one after the other. That's why in my personal monthly view I now have only 3 trackers.
The month of May spreads along 6 weeks, so I changed the layout with the days shown vertically so that it all fits nicely. Then I added my to-do's, my goals and any notes I might need to take.
My blog monthly view is almost exactly the same. I've just took off the trackers completely, since I have pages dedicated for each thing I was tracking. I also took off one of the boxes at the bottom, because I didn't need it this month.
Some of the spreads worked perfectly last month like my Blog Post Ideas, Brain Dump, Instagram Ideas, Insta-Plan and of course my Gratitude Log, so I kept them exactly as they were.
Last month I was really ambitious and wanted to take part in 3 challenges! And out of the three I took part in one of the them ONCE! Clearly, I don't have time for all these challenges, so again I decided to take it easy and take part only in one - #DoodleWithUsInMay! Yes, I've created a challenge with the lovely Alexandra and I can't wait to see what everyone will create. For more information about the challenge check this post.
Lastly, I've created a May Memories spread for this month, which doesn't look like anything special right now, but hopefully by the end of the month it will be full of amazing memories and lots of doodles. I really liked the idea when I saw Kara from BohoBerry.com doing it and so, this month I'll do it too!
So, there you have it. That's my set up for the month of May. What changes have you made in yours?
