2023 Bullet Journal Tour

After a bit of a delay, I finally had a chance to put together a little tour/flipthrough of my bullet journal! This is the first year I’m using one as my main planner, which has been a bit of an adjustment since I’ve been using planners for over ten years!

Just a note: This isn’t a sponsored post or anything—just me sharing about the journal I’m using and some of the stationery I use with it.

The Journal

I’m using an Archer & Olive journal in the Traveler’s Notebook size. The cover is blue cloth with a bit of gold foil decoration on the front cover. This journal has two ribbon bookmarks, a pen loop, a pocket on the inner back cover, and an elastic loop to keep the journal closed.

This is the first journal I’ve bought from Archer & Olive but I really like it! I’d not seen much of the TN style notebooks, but for the most part, this size has been great.

 Yearly Pages

Initially, I was going to put a lot more in this section, but after some thought, decided I wanted to keep the setup pretty simple. (Things like my movie/TV show watchlist are kept in my mood/wellness journal instead of here, since it already had spaces for things like that.)

The 2023 calendar pages are pretty simple. I repurposed the yearly calendar squares from another planner and glued them on a two-page spread in the journal. I’ve also added a sticky note to write down any potential vacation days and such.

 

The next spread is the “goals” section. I have my main goals for the year in three categories (personal, financial, and writing), and added a list of twenty-three things I’d like to do in 2023 (these are smaller goals geared more toward trying new things, stepping out of my comfort zone, and getting back to some old hobbies). 

I made this flip-out section with a page from a different notebook. I trimmed it, glued the folded part to the page, and added washi tape as a closure.

 

Next up, I have a tracker for quarterly tasks, such as seasonal housekeeping tasks, vehicle maintenance, and things like that. It’s just four boxes with numbers beside them, so a really easy page to set up!

 

I also have a period tracker page. It’s similar to the one I’ve made for my previous planners, with a color-coded key for different symptoms. This one was a little time consuming to sketch out, but works pretty well. The months’ initials are across the top of the grid, and then the days are marked vertically.

Monthly Pages

So far I’ve kept the same layout for the months, just because it works really well for me at the moment! Each month has a title page, where I put a calendar (usually on the left). Sometimes I’ll add a quote to this page, and sometimes it’s just decorated with stickers or paper. On the opposite page, I note major tasks and goals for the month, as well as important days such as birthdays or appointments.

Weekly Pages

I’ve tried a couple different layouts for the weekly pages. Each week gets two pages; usually, the left page contains Monday through Thursday, while the right page contains Friday through Saturday. In January and February, the right page also had a space for weekly tasks. I used a horizontal layout for January and February. I really liked it and found it usually had plenty of space for writing things.

In March, I used a vertical box layout. I didn’t include a weekly task box, and opted instead to use the space for more decoration.

For April, I’m going to use the vertical box layout again. This time, I’ve added a task box on the right page, since I missed having one in March. The dimensions of the boxes are the same as March, but I’ve placed them closer together to leave room for decoration or quotes on the bottom of the pages.

Supplies

I already had a lot of stationery prior to starting this journal, so I’ve tried not to buy too much more for it. I did, however, buy some scrapbook paper for the yearly overview pages and some new pens.

For decoration, I really like using stickers! I’ve also used scrapbook paper, washi tape, and stamps.

My favorite tools are fineliner marker pens in varying sizes (various brands), markers/highlighters, white gel pens (I really like the Gelly Roll pens since they come in different sizes, and the Uni-ball Signo pen), paper clips, and correction tape. For sketching out the weekly spreads, I use a pencil and ruler, and set up the entire month at one time (I don’t always decorate all of the weeks at once, but it helps to already have them ready in one go!). I would also recommend paper clips and sticky notes.

And that’s my bullet journal! What are your favorite planner/bullet journal supplies? What are your favorite spreads and pages to include?