Heyo!
I have been doing bullet journals on and off since 2015 but in October 2022, I started to pick it up again. Bullet journaling gave me another creative outlet other than just drawing illustrations. Although, on the not-so-bright side, it has fueled my addiction and obsession with papers, masking tapes, stickers, stamps, and everything stationery. Even before discovering bullet journals, I have been collecting fancy papers and good pens (actually using them in a story for another day).
Last year, when I started doing bullet journal again, I keep it minimalistic. Meaning, that there were no fancy drawings, no fancy colored pens, no stickers. Just a dot grid notebook, a black pen, and some highlighters. Sure, it half did the work of keeping my schedule organized and my thoughts in one place. But after several months of doing so, it became bland and I'm starting to drift away from doing bullet journaling again. My BuJo needed a little oomph to keep the spark going.
So since January of this year, I make it a point to use my stationeries that have been piling up dust in the corner. I also tried to decide on a monthly theme and colors. Here are my monthly covers from January to May
As you can see, there's a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK) incorporated in my monthly covers. JJK has been my obsession for the past couple of years. I don't see this obsession going down soon so you might see JJK and more anime stuff in my BuJo setup and design.
With that being said though, in June's setup, I tried to dial down on the anime stuff and focus on themes. I decided that June's theme be "Bubbles". My inspiration for this theme is this beautiful shot of Gojo Satoru from the JJK 0 movie. In addition to bubbles, I also decided to use teal (main), yellow, and pink as the theme colors. I chose these colors because it is the colors you see in a bubble.
Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Movie. Image is from Jujutsu Kaisen Anime official Twitter page.
Monthly Spread
There are usually 5-6 items that I incorporate in my monthly spread. Goals, Tasks, Next Month, Reflection, Merch Purchases and, if I don't forget, Gratitude.
Goals, Tasks, and Gratitude are self-explanatory but what I include in my monthly spread that I have not seen in other people that do BuJo is the "Next Month" and "Reflection" sections.
Next Month. It started as "For next week" in my weekly spreads to remind myself what I should include or note for the next week. Since there isn't much things that needs to be noted everyweek, I realize it would make more sense to make it part of the monthly spread. What I note here are birthdays that are not in my Future Log, anime merch drop dates, appointments and practically anything in the table for next month.
Reflection. That's basically it. A short reflection of what happened that month. I like to keep it short because I am not really used to actual journaling. It helps me move on to the next month. Look back to the past month, drop the baggage and face the next month. It also helps me ground myself, feel human, accept it and stop myself from self-loathing and self-cringing.
Merch Purchases. This is a section I decided to included starting from this month. Lately, I came out from being a closet otaku and embrace this side of me. For years, I have refrained from buying any anime merch and convinced myself that is cringy. So now, I allowed myself to buy merch in a considerate amount. That is why I included this to keep track of the amount I spend so I don't overspend and the delivery dates, as well.
Japanese Calendar. Old Japan has a different way of calling each month and in some cases, they are still used today. For June, it is called "水無月"(Minatsuki), which means "month of no water". Minatsuki, which is actually July in the current era, is the time when rainy season had just ended and summer and drought is approaching. I like to include this in my BuJo since it adds a nice touch
Weekly Spread
So, you've seen the beauty that is my monthly spread. Now, allow me to showcase the mess that is my weekly spread.
Mess in the sense that I'm always undecided with the setup I want to use. Sometimes, I use a horizontal setup, such as the weekly spread image above and sometimes, I like to switch it up with the vertical setup. Also, since I always almost forget to setup the weekly spread, my design is rushed and just that - a mess.
However, what I make a point to include in my weekly spread, even if my design is a mess, are the tracker, the mini calendar and a little space to write some notes in.
9 months of continued use of my BuJo, I'm still making it work for me. Actually, it is kind of working for me, creativity wise. Also, I do some anime journals which I truly enjoy. For me, I love using the BuJo system overall. As I said in the beginning, it gave me another outlet to express myself, help keep me organized, fuel my love for stationery and generally, create a paper version of my brain.
That's it for now.
Remember, creativity is contagious. Pass it on.
Let's be nice to each other.
See you at the next one.
Images are mine unless stated otherwise.
Lead image is made in Canva
I'm crimsonowl, a random otaku in the blockchain, creator of ArtPark CryptoArt Community, an artist-in-progress trying to make a living out of art, an NFT artist-creator, a crypto blogger talking about anime, art, and everything in between.
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