Monthly and Weekly Spreads

[annofowlshire]

I've been Bujo-ing in various incarnations for a couple of years now, and while I'm great at the journaling and collections aspects of Bujo, the use of it as a planner I constantly fall down on. I make a spread for the week or the month and then completely forget about it. Oops.

I know there are a eleventy-billion examples of logs and spreads on the 'net, but I'm wondering which sorts of monthly/weekly spreads/logs have been most successful for the community in keeping you organized? Which ones haven't worked? Why? How much info do you put on it? Elaborate? Minimalist? How often do you refer to it? How do you keep it from getting lost and forgotten 30 pages later?

(I feel like this is a ridiculous question, but clearly I haven't found a good answer on my own.)

Comments

[lunabee34]

I have the same problem you do. I just can't figure out how to integrate journal and planner. Having everything just come a page at a time and be disorganized keeps me from using it the way I want to.

[annofowlshire]

At least it's not just me. I read something recently that points out that Bujo is a journal and a log and not a calendar and that made me feel better, but clearly it can also be a planner/calendar. They even have it on the official website!

[zippitgood]

I suck at it too. Cause I want the journal aspect as much of the planner and then I don't know how to organize it because I have no idea to allocate space for each aspect.

[annofowlshire]

I'm glad it's not just me. Maybe we'll find wisdom in this thread together!

[kayim]

I'm not creative at all, so my bujo is functional rather than attractive. My monthly spread is two months to a single page, and I literally just put things in any order in there (which isn't great for avoiding clashes, but it's worked so far). At the start of each month, I then copy everything across to a dated list (one line for each day of the month). Then first thing each day, I check the month schedule, copy across anything for that day, and then add my tasks etc.

I don't use a weekly spread - I tried it briefly but it just didn't work for me.

[annofowlshire]

Thanks for the input! I'm fairly minimalist with my Bujo, too. Are your lists more events-oriented? Or do they include deadlines, goals, etc.?

[kayim]

It's definitely event driven for me (and only personal stuff - I have a separate diary at work for work-related stuff).

I do have a section in the line-per-day section for things that need doing "at some point that month". So each morning when I do that day's tasks, I look at that list and see if there's anything I can do that day.

[annofowlshire]

Hm. I work for myself, and I tend to have a pretty poor separation between personal and professional... I wonder if maybe that's part of my problem XD Thank you for the insight!

[kayim]

I had a similar problem too, until I started separating things.

My work diary is literally just a diary - an A4 week-per-two-pages one. I don't do anything bujo like in that one.

[telophase]

I keep trying to work out something that works for me, and so far I've learned:

(1) yearly and monthly spreads are a waste of my time, since it needs to be all there on the same page

(2) while I tend to think of myself as the sort of person who doesn't do fancy decorated planners and such, the weeks I actually sit down with the planner and make the spread a bit more attractive are the weeks I actually manage to get stuff done

(3) I can't schedule more than one thing per day (I keep separate work and home journals--this is for the at-home one) because any more than that and I star resenting not having free time. I occasionally get more than one thing done, but that's down to having a list of tasks that are on my plate, doing the one that is scheduled, and then at that point deciding to do another one. (I then write it down and X it out so I can feel accomplished when I look at the page.)

(4) I have to make it a habit to look at the weekly spread and my task list every day, or I forget stuff that's on it. (thank you ADHD) If the task list is on another page, it's gone.

This is what's working for me right now. Next month it may be something totally different. I'm experimenting with a secondary task list of quick things that will take only a few minutes, so if I get bored or have a break when I don't know what to do, I can look at that and pick one. The utility of that list is currently up in the air.

ETA: Here's a picture of this week's spread. I've blurred things out that feel vaguely private, and the task lists because I do ebook covers for people and have their real names instead of pseudonyms written down, and I don't know if they care about having them connected or not.

[annofowlshire]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences, and adding the image! It's really helpful! I love your stickers and stamps.

Haha, I didn't even entertain the idea of a yearly spread XD Monthly... it's a nice thought, but I often feel that a even just a weekly spread is tempting the fates XD

I agree that adding a bit of decoration--but not going overboard--might help. How long do you spend setting up your layout? I've played around with some things on a spread I'm going to try for next week. Here's hoping...

[telophase]

I think I spent somewhere between half an hour and an hour doing that layout last Sunday, but I can't be sure because part of that was waiting for stamp ink to dry and partway through I stopped to eat dinner. :)

It's the third week I've done a layout like this and it's getting faster each week, so I expect to be able to put the basic spaces down in ten minutes or so, then fill it in. Also, a lot of the time is spent looking through the sticker book trying to find stickers that don't feel insufferably twee to me, and that actually fit. (I'm considering creating printable downloads that fit my naturally cynical disposition and putting them up on Etsy, since I couldn't find anybody else selling any.)

[annofowlshire]

I think half an hour or so is a good amount of time. It's also time contemplating what actually needs doing.

*chuckles about insufferably twee stickers and then realizes she just posted about finding tea cup stickers* *hides*

Actually, just before I saw your comment I was thinking that I had this book of "vintage" stickers that I had being really precious about and not using, and I should just slap some stickers where they fit. It's not like the world is going to run out of stickers XD

[telophase]

(There was also the one person who said I was a poor writer for overusing the word "had" in a sentence where it was being used as an auxiliary verb in the past perfect. Like, that's proper grammar, jackass.)

XD Don't mind me, I'm just your neighborhood cynic who feels the need to cry out "I'm only decorating my journal IRONICALLY!!" (And those tea stickers are actually rather nice!)

Most of the stickers in the pack I bought I'm not going to use because they're in curly fonts and say things like "You go, girl!" and "Get it done!!" or are full of little pink hearts or hashtag everything ("#busy") and I'm just "Where are my 'FUCK THIS TASK' and 'COUCH POTATO TIME' stickers?" It makes me feel that it's judging women for not being ON THE GO! and BUSY BUSY! and PRODUCTIVE! I'm sure there's people who have much different reactions to them

I got the pack because it had things I could use as trackers, but then I ended up getting the stamps instead, so the stickers are mostly being used for color now.

[laceblade]

Wahh, this is great and thanks for posting the picture!

The thought of yearly/monthly spreads just not working for you is a thing that I think I need to accept about myself, so ty for articulating that.

[telophase]

I tried for months to do a monthly spreads and finally realized that I never looked back at it, and I never added anything to it so it was out of sync with weekly task lists. Same with the yearly lists. If I kept track of people's birthdays and other non-moving events in the planner it might be different, but my husband puts all that on our shared phone calendar, and our friends and family who care about birthdays throw themselves parties so we don't really need to remember.

[annofowlshire]

Honestly, sometimes I feel like just wanting a weekly spread is like tempting the fates XD (Nevermind monthly or yearly...) Different lives function on different temporal constants.

[type_wild]

I keep my "offical" business in a separate planner (+my phone), and use my BJ mostly to keep track of personal projects and smaller tasks, and as a minimalist log of sorts.

My monthly spreads are single or double-paged, with a calendar and a to-do list. Weekly spreads are double-paged, with new days added as I go (
like so)

[annofowlshire]

That looks simple and great! Thank you for sharing!

[shopfront]

I have yearly + monthly spreads + collections for projects and big groups of tasks that I migrate to and from as needed. Then I have a three spread set up for each week, which feels like a lot now I think about it but works out as: one spread with a small calendar (for events and time specific to-do's) and various habit trackers/meal log/gratitude log, one spread which is actually a Dutch door in the middle of the first spread that is part more trackers but mostly scribble space (full to-do list for the week, shopping list, pantry list which is a short list of all the meals I know I have components for so I make sure nothing can go off before I cook it), and then a separate third spread that is my journalling area where I do a daily log in more traditional bujo style.

It's evolved a lot but this form has been in constant use for a little while now so I think I have it just about down. I absolutely had to separate journal and logging to keep things straight in my own head and avoid missing events and stuff, and I had to build in scribble spaces to keep things tidy (it also helps to be able to Dutch door my to-do lists away so I don't fret about everything I need to do in a busy week, tbh), and my myriad trackers help to keep what I need to actually log much much smaller which means if I need to check if/when something happened I can actually browse back through my logs relatively easily.

I think the key for me is the trackers though. My weekly spread isn't just a calendar so I can't forget about it because I'm going back to it during the day to tick off stuff I've done or check what else to add to my grocery order or what to do next off my to-do list or whatever. I think monthly/yearly only works for me because I've been a fairly solid habit that every Sunday I draw in next weeks spreads and review and migrate stuff, so I check them then even if never look at them otherwise. They're useful, but only for making for I don't forget stuff that needs to go in my next weekly and then I only look at my weekly/dailies until the next migration day,

[annofowlshire]

Thank you for sharing your experiences/system! That Dutch door idea looks really cool.

[swingandswirl]

I've only recently started a bullet journal, and I'm still figuring out what works for me, but this spread is my current go-to:

Left page: weekly calendar; all appointments and deadlines go here (no to-dos!)
Right page, top: to-do list for the week.
Right page, middle: varies, but. This week it's been a gratitude list and a what-I'm-reading list. Most weeks the gratitude list is a 101/1001 list instead.
Right page, bottom: trackers, both daily and weekly.

I'm pretty minimalist on the weekly pages, as that's just for a brain dump, but I try to do little doodles and things on the daily pages (which I use as combination planner/journal pages) - the Pulse anniversary got a candle, for instance, and my nephew's birthday got a cake. I'm trying to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect or even beautiful to be usable, and I'm getting there, slowly.

I don't really use the monthly spread except for birthdays and as a record; I imagine this will change once I move out of my mother's and actually have the time/spoons to do stuff. Right now it's pretty minimalist; line-a-day on the left, monthly memories on the right.

My major stumbling block is remembering to check the damn thing, but it's related to the fact that my schedule is deeply fucked on account that I'm currently not working full-time. I'm going to be better about this by a) keeping my Bujo in a more visible place, and b) setting an alarm (possibly multiple) on my phone.

[annofowlshire]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I find times of transition in life both the most difficult and most needful times to be able to keep track of things!

[rhoda]

(I know this is an old post, but I just started poking around here a while ago)

My monthly is like Ryder's, so it's just a list of the dates on one side and tasks for the month on the other. Instead of using it for planning, I fill it in like a log. So each day I'll write a short note about what happened. The brevity helps me keep things neutral. I know I'll remember stuff later but it doesn't have the added baggage of longform journaling, which makes reviewing quicker.

I don't use weekly (my schedule is in gcal) so the daily is where the bulk of my bullet journaling happens.

eta: Oh, and I keep it minimal because I want as low a threshold as possible.