I’ve been bullet journalling since early 2013 (before I even knew there was a name for it!) and over the years, I have definitely discovered ways that work for me and many (many) ways that don’t. I’ve come to realise that as much as I love art and drawing, I want my bullet journal to be as minimalistic and simple as possible – I have almost no doodles and my spreads require only 2 pens! This means that I can set up my spreads in a matter of minutes and they always look neat.
My weekly spreads form the backbone of my bullet journal – they are the ones I spend the most time looking at and the ones that ensure I’m as productive as I can be. I’ve developed an easy, clean layout that I wanted to share in the hopes that it might inspire you to try it out if you’re looking for a quick spread that includes space for everything you want!
For my weekly spreads, I use two pages in the journal and split each page into 4 equal sections, which gives me a total of 8 boxes. The first one (top left) is titled with the calendar week e.g. Week 24 and the month in brackets following this. I use this box to list my top three goals for the week, habits I’m tracking and any general tasks/notes I have for that given week. The other 7 boxes are for each day of the week (Monday to Sunday), although I do sometimes combine the weekend boxes into one and have an extra notes box. In each of these daily boxes I fill in my tasks at the top and put my to do list for that day below it. I use a black fountain pen for the titles and any black ballpoint pen for any other writing. There’s not much more to it!
Here’s an spread before I’ve started filling in all my events/tasks:
But, you may be wondering why I choose to use a bullet journal rather than a planner with the same spread? Simply, because I love the flexibility of having an entirely black journal to fill however I need. If I am on holiday, I don’t make a spread because I know I won’t be planning anything and in a planner this would be left as a blank spread. Some weeks, I have fewer events and so I prefer to have a giant to do list! I can also include different spreads between each week that are easier to reference than flipping to the end of a planner!
ALLIE DUNIN 