I started this year with a fully made bullet journal. If you’ve been following my blog for a number of years now, you know that I created one to use in 2019. It was a good start, and I really enjoyed it. However, around May or June, I fell off of using it. A big reason for that was that I was unmotivated to create the next month’s set of pages to use. Because it was unfinished in design, it never got used again.

I loved using my bullet journal when I was consistent with it. With that thought in mind, I wanted to give it another shot. However, I wanted one that would be fully completed and designed before the new year started. This way, I wouldn’t have to be motivated to create. I was hopeful to be more consistent if I didn’t have to worry about motivation.

I started in July, and I worked hard. But I did it! I have a completely planned out and created bullet journal to use in 2024! I want to divide the rest of this post into 2 parts. The first is going to be my process, and the second will be page examples and what it looks like.

The Process

Planning

There was so much planning involved in this whole endeavor. There were many days where I wasn’t getting anything actively written down because I was so busy planning. Things I had to plan out included:

• Goals for the year
• Trackers for those goals
• Other trackers that aren’t goal-related (cleaning, birthdays, emotions)
• Pages for each month
• End of month/year reflections
• Book bracket
• Reflections of my goals
• Space for projects/ideas
• Goals for 2025

How I wanted to organize and plan out the whole journal took a lot of work. I often tackled just a few pages at a time. Even before I designed the pages, I would leave notes of what that page was going to have so that it was easier to find later on.

Design

Planning it out was great and wonderful, but then came the design portion. I had to create the designs I wanted to see. Here are some of the design elements I incorporated into my bullet journal this year:

• Font consistency- This is a huge one for me all throughout the journal this year. My yearly goals page has the same font as my mid-year check-in of my goals. My reading tracker has the same font as my book brackets. On and on it goes. Any of my reflection space for specific goals has the same font as the tracker in the front of the journal.
• Theme consistency- I decided that each month was going to have the same theme. I felt it would make it more cohesive and unified. I also kept the font consistency in the monthly pages. Each month has one font for all the pages in there.
• End of year reflection spaces- I like the idea of not only tracking the goals I want to maintain, but also journaling about them. It’s great that I spent time outside, but how did it change or impact my life? Why was that a good goal to have? I think having that space will help me make more mindful decisions for the future.
• Thirty-day exercises printed out and included in my habit tracker- Trying to maintain and create good habits is important to me. As such, I also found twelve different 30-day workouts for each month. More than anything else, they are to help me be consistent about exercise and burning calories. They change each month so that I’m not always stuck doing the same thing.

The Journal

Now that you know what all went into this journal, I want to give you my index of included pages, as well as picture examples!

• Calendar of the Year
• Yearly Goals- walking, weight, reading, board games, spending time outside
• Birthdays
• Cleaning
• Mood Tracker
• Monthly Pages- Each month includes a title page, calendar, weekly focus, habit trackers, reading, daily highlights, monthly memories, meditation/course notes, and month in review
• Mid-year check between June and July
• Year in Review- Monthly reflections (three pages for each month to reflect on the month, what I learned in the self-improvement course, and just any other thoughts and feelings), best book bracket, worst book bracket, goal/tracker reflections (walking, weight, board games, recipe, outside time), cleaning reflection, emotion reflection, project and ideas, notes and mantras, year reflection, and goals for 2025

I love the way my bullet journal turned out! it was a labor of time, love, planning, and design. And at the halfway point of the first month of the new year, I can safely say that there is a lot less stress on my shoulders knowing that the whole year is planned and created. Now all I have to do is fill it in. I will say though, it’s a little weird in a sense. Three weeks ago, I was working on designing November and December. Now, I’m in January filling in the journal itself. I’m so excited to see where this year takes me and being able to record it in my journal. I hope this maybe inspires or encourages you even if you don’t use a bullet journal. Make your goals visible for you and go after them. You got this! I believe in you and all the things you’re going to accomplish this year!