BuJo - July Monthly Setup

 I am kind of new to Bullet Journalling.

I've been doing it since May. For me it's a combination of giving myself a place to be regularly creative, putting all the things I need to remember to do in one place, having space to journal if I want to but not feeling the pressure to do it when I don't feel like it, and generally having a planner that's flexible and has the amount of space I need.

I also find that creative layouts are more likely to motivate me. Some people think the time taken to draw up spreads is counter to the time-saving method of bullet journalling, but honestly, creativity inspires me to get stuff done.

For July I wanted a theme that was summery and ocean-based without being green and blue, which is a colour scheme I tend to default to.

 So I went for this coral reef theme with pinks, peaches and light blue.

Last month I used a list layout for the monthly spread, and I really didn't find it that helpful. So this month it's back to a grid layout. As the 1st is a sunday, I tagged that onto the end of last month, so I could start this calendar on Monday the 2nd.

I have a small goals/monthly to-do section, and a quote from Isaiah.

 I've really enjoyed using a habit tracker for the last couple of months. This month I'm tracking things that I don't necessarily want to do daily, but do want to see how often I do them and inspire myself to do more often. Some of these might seem basic - taking a shower, or eating 3 meals - but because of my physical and mental health, sometimes I really have to self-motivate to get these things done, and I can end up skipping them when feeling bad.

I've kept the mood tracker open and flexible this month as I sometimes find it difficult to categorise how I feel.

On a similar note, I also track my pain and symptoms. I started this tracker off with a few of the main things I've been struggling with lately, but there's space to add more when I need to include other stuff. And I have my cycle at the top as that tends to influence pain and mood.

 I keep a prayer list each month so I remember who and what I'm praying for, and this month I cleaned up the list into categories.

And then I also have an expenses tracker. I try to make a note of things that I'm buying that are not scheduled direct debits/bills. So grocery shops, meals out and takeaways, clothes, entertainment etc. I have a budget at the start of my bujo and at the end of each month, I compare my expenditure to my budget. This is something I have always done, since before I started bullet journalling, and it's handy to have it in my bullet journal.

 I've experimented with a few different styles of weekly/daily logs, from 2 page spreads, dutch door spreads to loose dailies... and what I've ended up settling on is a 4 page 'spread' for each week. The first 2 pages includes 3 days and a weekly tasks area, along with some space to draw and/or put a quote. Then the next 2 pages contain the other 4 days, and space for decorations.
The weekly task area is for tasks that aren't necessarily linked to a certain day of the week, but need to be done before the end of the week.

I haven't added any decorations to this second half of the week yet, but when I get around to it, I can put some drawings and/or a quote across the top or on the sides.

I divide each day into 2 sections, one (on the left) contains my tasks and events for the day. On the right of each day I put the weather, my food diary, caffeine (and alcohol if relevant) intake and fruit/veg intake.

Here you can see a set of dailies from last month that's been filled in. The weather is at the top, then food listed by time, then at the bottom I have little icons for coffee, tea, caffeinated soft drinks and alcoholic drinks, and little green dots to signify a portion of fruit or veg.

this particular week hasn't been too great for food (although saturday is missing a few green dots I forgot to add), which usually happens when I'm stressed or ill. if there's a reason I haven't eaten (ie. feeling ill) then I'll note that.

So that's my July setup - hopefully it will inspire me to have a great start to the month and get stuff done. :)

-Cas