Bullet journal spreads to organise your life in a fun and creative way. Find new inspiration for beautiful spreads to fill your bujo pages in 2024!
Creative Bullet Journal Spreads For Better Organisation and Increased Productivity
As we enter 2024 you may be starting to think about bullet journaling spreads for the new year.
Perhaps you’ll be starting a new journal (though this isn’t necessary in the bullet journal system!), or you may just be looking for inspiration so you can begin to organise your bullet journal setup for 2024 ahead of time.
The only limit is your imagination!
Either way, and especially if you’re fairly new into bullet journaling, it can be a daunting process if you’re unsure where to begin.
The great news is that wherever you are in your bujo journey, and however you plan to use your journal, regardless of its specific purpose, there is a lot of scope for you.
Bullet journaling can help you to stay on top of:
- Life admin
- Work
- Mental health
- Relationships
- Goals
The only limit is your imagination!
With that in mind, this post is designed to help you figure out which areas you want to focus on in your bullet journal.
The answer can be all of them or any combination – and then get inspired to start creating your bullet journal collections and spreads.
Personalise every spread you create to maximise the joy and productivity it adds to your life!
With monthly, weekly, and daily layouts, I’ll walk you through lots of bujo spread ideas to help you plan and organise your bullet journal for the entire year.
What is a Bullet Journal Spread?
A bullet journal spread usually refers to a double page spread in your bullet journal.
It might be on any topic and cover any time range, according to your needs and the topic assigned to the spread.
And – of course – you can customise and personalise every spread you create to maximise the joy and productivity it adds to your life!
How to Select the Best Bullet Journal Spreads For Your Bujo
When it comes to choosing what spreads to include in your bullet journal, there are no rules. Which is great in theory… But can leave you feeling a little bit overwhelmed!
Set yourself up for success!
To find some direction and help you to narrow down the huge variety of options to just the ones that will best suit your lifestyle, try asking yourself a few questions:
- What am I trying to achieve with bullet journal?
- Which areas of my life could be better organised?
- What key information / reminders would be useful to have in front of me at a glance?
- How much time am I able / willing to spend on my bullet journal?
And:
- What habits would it benefit me to form (or break!)?
- How much of bullet journal do I want to focus on organisation vs mental health?
- How creative / artistic do I want to be?
Taking the time to consider these questions will help you as you move through the next steps of planning out your bujo spreads.
Be honest though! Because there’s no point promising yourself you’ll journal every day if that’s simply not feasible in your current circumstances.
Far better to under-commit and over-deliver – set yourself up for success!
Tips For Creating Your Bullet Journaling Spreads!
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you plan out your spreads for the next few months – or even for the entire year if you’re super organised…
- If you start a spread and decide it doesn’t work for you, that’s fine!
This is the beauty of bullet journaling. You can either drop it next month, or tailor it in a way that makes better sense for your lifestyle.
- Anticipate and allow for change.
Expect that as you grow and learn and go through new phases of life, your journal will evolve with you. What works this week or month may not down the line – also fine!
- Don’t compare to others.
Your bullet journal is supposed to be a reflection of you and your life; make it a perfect fit for you, and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing.
- Experiment.
If you already know what you love, that’s cool. If not – play with different styles!
Whether you love a simple minimalist bullet journal spread or something more elaborate, change it up regularly, or at least until you settle on your signature bujo theme.
- Practice makes progress!
I’ve been inspired by some gorgeous bujo header fonts, but trust me when I say it takes time to learn how to recreate these and make them look professional!
That’s okay – the important thing is to enjoy the process, and don’t worry about making everything perfect. Or…cheat!
- Go easy.
Don’t attempt to do everything because that’s a sure way to become overwhelmed and burned out, which would be a crying shame.
The ideas here are just that – ideas from which you can handpick the elements which best align with your lifestyle and needs.
Bullet Journal Spread Ideas
Following you will find a selection of bullet journal spreads for different timescales and tasks, so you can get a feel for the versatility of the bullet journaling system, and discover which ones are best suited to your lifestyle and needs.
Remember that these ideas can be used exactly as they are, or to spark inspiration for something that better meets your needs.
Once you’ve decided which spreads you’re going to include in your new bujo, it’s time to get to the fun part – you can start thinking about styles, themes and designs too!
Starting a New Journal?
If you’re starting a brand new journal, the very first pages you’ll want to create include…
Bullet Journal Key
Your bullet journal key is essentially a legend for the rest of your journal. It enables you to quickly ascribe meaning to your notes via rapid logging, and – crucially – easily update your entries, too.
Using this clever system you can interpret your entries at a glance.
Grid Guide
If you want to keep your journal looking as beautiful as possible, a grid guide is invaluable.
Referring to this handy spread each time you’re planning out a new spread helps you to lay your pages out with perfect symmetry.
Future Log
Your future log is where entries pertaining the future live, like a calendar for the entire year.
It can contain all your super important dates, as well as anything that isn’t tied to a specific date but is going to be important at some point.
Future log entries may include such items as:
- Birthdays
- Anniversaries
- Bank holidays
- Appointments
- School term dates
- Meetings
- Holidays
Depending on what you’re using your future log for, will determine how you set it up.
So if you’re using it for birthdays, each entry will obviously be dated. But another option for your future log would be to write entries undated, beneath a month heading.
Bullet Journal Pages For Organisation and Time Management
One of the very best aspects of the bullet journaling system is that it provides a great way to stay on top of your organisation – it’s a powerful tool for structuring and cataloguing your life admin.
You can create standalone or monthly checklists, and customise them to your needs.
That might mean writing out a single checklist down the page with a grid beside it so you can tick off each day of the week (for a monthly page), or each day of the month (for a yearly spread).
Alternatively, you might not need to mark anything off (birthdays, for example), in which case you might have a single spread in your planner, without any grid at all.
If you are using the exact same list regularly, don’t be afraid to create it as printout which can be duplicated and stuck inside your planner each week or month as required.
Of course, if you prefer to simply write it out each time, that’s fine too!
Here are some suggestions and inspiration for the kinds of bullet journal spreads that fall under the category of organisation and time management…
- Master Lists
If you have regular ongoing lists, a master list can help you keep track of all of the information across several weeks or months, in a single place.
- Daily Tasks
This could be anything from a reminder to feed your fish, to a reminder for when you need to put the bins out each week.
- Shopping List
…Because who doesn’t need a shopping list to keep on top of the groceries and toiletries?
- Household Chores
A great idea for scheduling in fortnightly or monthly chores that may otherwise be forgotten.
- Important Dates
If you’re anything like me, this calendar for pertinent dates will be a lifesaver when it comes to birthdays.
While I’m great at being able to recite the date of a birthday, I’m terrible at realising when they’re approaching and planning accordingly!
For me, having a list of upcoming birthdays to refer to means I’m able to stay organised and avoid inadvertently letting loved ones down!
- Meal Planners
Perfect for organising weekly meals – especially when you have fussy eaters like I do!
Bujo Spreads For Work
- Project Planner
This is perfect for if you’re working on a big project and need space to scribble down thoughts, ideas, tasks, or progress.
- Work Schedule
This is vital in my business and is likely valuable for anyone self-employed, but it won’t be necessary for everyone.
- Business Goals
Have you heard of SMART goals? Well, its new and improved cousin is in town: HARD goals, which are defined as Heartfelt, Animated, Required and Difficult.
Animated refers to strong visualisation, which your bullet journal is ideal for helping you to achieve.
You can write, illustrate, or otherwise adorn your business goals page in any way you choose, knowing that the more decorative you make it and the stronger connection you make to the goal, the more likely you are to successfully pull it off.
- Deadlines
While having a list of tasks is useful for home and work, personally I find a list of finish dates can be more productive for me!
It helps to focus my energies in the most important places right now, so that I don’t get lost in projects I’m working on and miss important deadlines!
- Client Meetings
Vital to remember, these VIP appointments deserve their very own page.
- Business Plan
This is your space for brainstorming the ways in which you want to grow your business or develop a side hustle.
- Sick days / Holidays
It’s always useful to have a reference for the days you’ve not worked, whether you’re employed (so you can keep track of your leave allowance), or self-employed (so you can be sure you are taking enough of a break, but not too much).
- Monthly To-do
In my job I have specific tasks that I need to remember to carry out semi-regularly; a monthly to-do is the perfect reminder.
- Income / Expenses
For anyone self-employed, this data is essential to keep track of. It’s a great addition to your bullet journal if you don’t keep a separate spreadsheet for this elsewhere – and perhaps even if you do!
- Leads to follow up
If you’re in discussions with a client and the project is delayed, it can be easy to forget about them which is never a great idea! Keeping a record to follow up helps you to keep on track of this potential business.
- Monthly Stats
Having an idea of how your business is performing month to month helps to keep you accountable and set goals for the following period.
It’s also incredibly satisfying to see those numbers creeping up and know it’s as a direct result of your hard work!
Having statistics available to reference to prospective clients is also beneficial.
- Business Contacts
Keeping your contacts in one easy to find place is super useful so you don’t have to search through old emails.
Bullet Journaling Spreads For Mental Health
My love of bullet journaling comes from the fusion of both concepts.
In addition to the undeniable administrative benefits of bullet journaling, they have an arguably even more valuable element for your personal life: looking after your mental health and wellbeing.
While this is where my heart lies, not everybody will choose to use bullet journaling for this purpose and, as ever, that’s okay.
Some people will focus on productivity, some will base their spreads around these more traditional journaling aspects. Personally my love of bullet journaling comes from the flawless fusion of both concepts in a single place.
Here are some of the mental health spreads you might like to try:
- Habit Tracker Ideas
Want to track a new habit/s so you can nail it down, or perhaps work on breaking an unhealthy one? Habit trackers are perfect for this.
- Brain Dump
A simple way to empty a busy head, by putting pen to paper and purging all your thoughts.
- Daily Gratitude Log
Possibly my most favourite journaling technique of all, gratitude logs are an incredibly powerful technique to increase your sense of wellbeing.
- Self-Care Ideas
I personally find that even when I can grab ten minutes to myself, it can be difficult to know what to do if I’ve not planned something in!
Keeping a list of 10, 20, or 30 minute ideas, and another for an hour or half a day, means that I have something to refer to quickly for inspiration!
- Mood tracker
A specific type of habit tracker to monitor your moods over a given timeframe. Follow the link to learn about why they’re so effective.
- Journal prompts
If you’re in the mood for some traditional journaling practice but unsure what to write about, journaling prompts are ideal to give you some inspiration.
- Year in Pixels
Similar to above, except across an entire year to give you a picture, at a glance, of how happy you’ve been over the last twelve months.
- Bucket List
We’re far more likely to do something if we write it down. This applies to all goals, including the ones that are purely for pleasure!
Since bucket list ideas tend to be outside of our comfort zone or take some effort to achieve, writing them down is a great motivational tool.
- Level 10 Life
This one is a snapshot of your happiness at a given point in time, which you can refer back to for comparison at a later date. The idea is that you use the level 10 life spread to grade different areas of your life, and then commit to goals to improve in each category.
- Reviews
This might be a yearly or monthly review, where you can appraise your progress in various areas, and update goals for the months ahead.
Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily Spreads
Now that we’ve looked at the different categories of bullet journal pages you can include in your spreads, let’s take a look at which ones typically make it into various timeframes, and get some inspiration!
Inspiration For Bullet Journal Layouts and Theme Ideas
Here are some gorgeous spreads for you to feast your eyes on and get inspired by!
The following spreads are essentially like at-a-glance pages, covering an entire year, month, week, or day. You can have any combination that suits you, and set them up in any way that pleases you.
Yearly Bujo Spreads
Annual spreads typically include:
- Title page
- Year at a glance (calendar)
- Grid guide
- Future log
- Plan for the year
- Yearly goals
- Birthday capsule
- Year in pixels
Monthly Spreads For Your Bullet Journal
These spreads might include:
- Title page
- Monthly calendar
- Monthly goals
- Habit trackers for things like spending and fitness trackers
- Mood tracker
- Tasks
Do these all need to be on the same page? No! (But they can be if you can fit them and want them to be!)
Bullet Journal Weekly or Daily Layout
If you find weekly pages useful, then you’ll likely want to create a new one for each week of the month.
Depending on how busy your days are, you may prefer a daily spread as an alternative, which will enable you to fit more detail on the page/s.
These spreads typically include:
- Title page
- Tasks
- Trackers
- Gratitude lists
As you see, there’s a lot of crossover between monthly, weekly, and daily pages.
That’s because it’s really about personal preference in terms of your productivity and how you want to utilise these pages in your own bullet journal.
Any of the above bullet journal ideas can easily be adapted for use as a daily log, weekly layout, or monthly spread.
Bullet Journal Supplies
Now we’ve gone through the different kinds of bullet journal spreads and layouts you may want to include in your own journal, let’s take a quick look at some of the equipment available to get you started…
The great thing thing about any kind of journaling is that you don’t really need too much in the way of accessories.
Of course, as you become more charmed by bullet journaling you’ll likely add to your supplies, but these are the basics you’ll need to begin:
Bullet Journal
Any journal with a dot grid is absolutely fine; this is the one I’m currently using:
Pens
You don’t need tons of pens if you’re just getting started, but I highly recommend a black Fude pen, as well as a few colours. These basics are brilliant to be going on with, and you can always add more of the best journaling pens to your collection as you go.
Washi Tape
I love these tapes as they can transform a page with so little effort!
Happy journaling!
Sarah Caunter
Monday 11th of July 2022
Subscribe please 😃
Kate Tunstall
Tuesday 12th of July 2022
Hi Sarah,
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Thanks for your support, Kate