At the beginning of the year, I decided to try to bullet journal again. In the past, I would buy s new dotted journal with the hopes that I could make it look aesthetically pleasing like the bujo spread you see online. However, I would often compare myself or talk myself out of doing too much in my journal because I never thought I was good enough like my lines weren’t perfect enough, I didn’t have all the fancy pens, or my stickers weren’t pretty. This year, I decided that I DO NOT CARE! I do not care if my journal is as neat as others because the job of my journal isn’t to look aesthetically pleasing, it’s to help keep my life organized, remember moments from this year, and track what I want to accomplish this year. It’s also for me and my eyes only! However, for the sake of content, I wanted to share some of the pages in my 2024 journal that I haven’t filled in yet with you all, in case you need inspiration for your journals.
I would describe my journal as a Kawaii creative art bullet journal because there is a little bit of everything going on here. I draw a lot of my pages but I do go wild with the decorations and stickers! I got a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and bujo accounts I follow on Instagram so if a certain design looks familiar it’s probably because it is! Let me know if you would like to see more of my pages from my journal this year.
The journal I’m using this year is the URSUNSHINE dotted journal in Raspberry. I originally was going to get the Paperage journal in coral because my journal from last year was a Paperage and I loved the quality of the notebook and wanted to repurchase another one. I wanted a peach color for my 2024 journal because Pantone’s 2024 color of the year was Peach Frizz and I wanted to match my notebook with the color of the year. However, I couldn’t find a peach or coral-colored journal that I was crazy about so after doing a deep dive I found this bright hot pink journal and after sleeping on it for a few days I bought the journal instead because I love bright intense colors! haha
This is my 2024 goals pages. As you can tell I have a lot of goals for this year but this is a mix of big-term and small-term goals. I also left some space in case I want to add more goals to my lists.
This is my book tracker page. The shelves contain 90 books even though my goal is to only read 36 books, which is the amount of books in the first two rows. Last year I went well beyond my reading challenge goal so I decided to leave a lot of extra room just in case I read more than I plan to this year.
This is an example of my weekly spread. On the left, I keep a mini calendar so I can keep track of what week in the month we’re at. Underneath, I have a little notes section with my ‘goals for the week’ that I want to accomplish in the week. The rest of the spread is a horizontal style weekly layout. I used to prefer vertical-style planners because it’s easy for a to-do list style planning style but after using the Witches’ Datebook for a few years I’ve become accustomed to a horizontal style layout.
I listen to a lot of new music in a month so I made a January playlist so I can fill in my favorite songs and albums throughout the month. On one side, I drew in boxes for the album art, and on the other half, I didn’t. I’m not sure if I want to attempt to draw or print out the cover art of the songs, we’ll see what I prefer at the end of the month.
On the right side, I have a page dedicated to the books I read in the month and a place where I can rate each book. I know I have Goodreads where I can do this but I wanted a physical copy so that when I’m doing my monthly favorites I can easily refer to this page.
What journal are you keeping this year?
I’m really glad you’ve decided not to worry about what your journal looks like and to just to do it for you ???? If I ever decide not to be so work (as in, blog and social media) addicted and just create for FUN, I really want to get back into scrapbooking/art journaling.
I think bullet journals are *gorgeous*, but I don’t have goals or a routine that can be tracked, I just want to do whatever comes to mind and stick it to paper – I just don’t know what to put down, really!
I have some ideas for my first few pages; I have some old cards and letters from old PR packages in a box that I’d like to keep as mementos forever, so they’ll definitely be going in there, but after that, not sure where to go ???? Guess I’ll figure it out!
I have so many stationery items that I haven’t used because I’m scared to “ruin” them which doesn’t make sense so I’m just saying f*** it and not worry about things looking perfect. Especially, if it’s for my eyes only. haha
I recommend going on Pinterest! Search for some bujo inspiration, and see what spreads you like. Maybe you could dedicate a page to a day in your life with a to-list, favorite thing you did that day, and a gratitude list.♥
Your bullet journal is so cute and colourful, I love it!
My own bujo, this year, is super minimal and I’m enjoying it. I pretty much have a sticker-decorated title page, then a book tracker and spending planner, and then I go into black-and-white rolling dailies. Perhaps I should share an update of mine in a few weeks! I LOVE your Gudetama stickers and playlist spread – so sweet!
Thank you!
I would love to see some of your updated bujo pages. I love getting inspiration from other journals. ♥
I love how creative and beautiful your notebook came out! I used to try to do really elaborate spreads back when I started, and unfortunately I don’t really prioritize the time to make elaborate spreads anymore. Maybe one of these days, I’ll take the time and do something more fun! I used to really love sitting down and taking the time to do something creative. xx
Thank you! I take some time a few times a week while listening to some music or podcast and it’s been a joy to do. Hopefully, you can make some time to journal again. ♥