It’s almost a new year (it’s about time!). Here are some options for your annual planning page/s.

See this post for a list of tasks to add to your annual planning pages (or elsewhere in your planner for next year).

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you click one of these links and make a purchase I’ll receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) in exchange for referring you. 

1. Dates at a glance with goals

it took about 15 minutes to set up this spread, probably should invest in one of those dates calendar stamps if you want to do this one… or use a fine tip pen. I did the whole thing using a 0.7mm Frixion erasable and then ink tip was too fat.

2. By Quarter

I used a dates at a glance washi tape. The printing is a bit crooked but it’s quicker to use a washi tape (and takes up less space) than writing all the dates out by pen.

Ink By Jeng also has a dates at a glance washi tape. If you like blue, this one is another option.

3. Stickers

For boxes, I like the Happy Planner sticker books: colorful boxes (605) and colorful boxes (594)

4. Brush pens

Brush pens are useful for headers / titles. While it’s not good for the brush tips to be regularly using them on paper in bullet journals all the time (you should be using special paper like the Rhodia), a quick background behind the title should be ok. I cannot do hand lettering so don’t care if the brush tips go a bit blunt as I basically use them as highlighters because they come in more color options.

5. Stencils

These PA Essentials Roman alphabet stencils (there are other fonts available) are cheap and, while plastic, are actually quite sturdy. If you’re worried about a stencil slipping you can hold it in place with washi tape but I just use a Frixion erasable pen so I can erase any excess if it slips.

I also have the PA brush script alpha stencil (if you can’t do calligraphy this one is perfect for faking it), the weekdays and months stencil, bubble alpha and the adventure alpha stencil (thin letters).

6. Highlighters

Minimalist.. but with a bit of color.

If you want to use a different colors for each month, some brands that come in 12+ colors are:

• Zebra Mildliner
• DONG-A Twinliner SOFT
• Milkliner

Related post: 4 Similar (and cheaper) alternatives to the Zebra Mildliner Dual Tip Highlighters

This is one of the few times I ever recommend using a 0.3mm pen tip (i.e. very fine) – for writing the dates for the calendars.

I used the 0.38 point Uniball Signo Gel Pen and the Staedtler Pastel highlighters

You could use just the stencil outline but… I think it looks better shaded in.

If you’re doing a dates at a glance page, depending on what page size you’re using, if you have some extra space at the top or bottom you can fill it with:

• Washi tape
• Things you want to do but aren’t sure what month they’re going to happen e.g. a vacation
• Any monthly tasks overflow
• Monthly review e.g. highlights and a score out of 10 for the month
• Birthdays
• Often forgotten tasks such as cleaning your A/C filters

Related post: Setting up a new planner: 70 Tasks to add 

If you don’t want to hand-write out the dates, or use one of those calendar stamps that require you to peel them off, use an acrylic block and ink pad and then clean them afterwards (too time consuming for me), you could use the Poooliprint like I did for this month’s spread.

I made the mini dates at a glance calendar in Microsoft Excel, saved as a JPG, cropped the calendar then sent it to the Poooliprint app and printed on label paper to make a sticker.

Tutorial on how the Poooliprint works is in this post.

7. 2 Columns

You could do 2 columns with 12 month of the year like in the example below but I find this is too small to fit much in.

Using 2 pages with 2 columns on each page is another option and one that might seem obvious but adding a simple line to keep everything separate will make your planner much neater and easier to follow, especially if you’re not going to color code.

8. 2 Page spread

I prefer to plan horizontal instead of vertically. You could do 2 pages with all 12 months of the year. Or use 2 pages for each 6 month block if you need more space.

These are Recollections flag stickers (the sticker book doesn’t have a name on it and it’s probably no longer available for me to add the link here). I’d never used Recollections stickers before and these, well I peeled them off and re-stuck them down 3 times and they were still sticky. Good quality!

For this spread I used stickers from the MAMBI journaling sticker book. I could’ve left it plain like this but…

I couldn’t resist adding some color

9. Gantt chart style / task based annual planning

You’ve probably seen something like this before for bill tracking. I would use this layout if:

• You have projects that you know are going to extend over multiple months of the year
• Tasks that are stopping and starting often
• Tasks you do every other month e.g. seasonal cleaning tasks

I used some alphabet stickers from Kmart, black dot grid classic Happy Planner size refill pages from Happy Planner (doesn’t seem to be available anymore) and gold stripe washi from this collection in my sister’s shop.

Related post: My Favorite thin washi tape for planning

10. Boxes

This is one of the quickest layouts to do on this list. You could color in the black boxes and use a white pen for the letters for the months of the year.

Related post: The best white pens for writing on black paper

if you don’t want a plain / minimalist style like this but still want to keep it functional, use different colors for the borders (dual tip highlighters with a pen like end such as the DONG-A Twinliner are idea for this).

Make them as big or as small as you like. Some configurations:

• 6 boxes per page (2 columns with 3 boxes in each column)
• 12 boxes per page (I only recommend doing this if you have a large page size)
• 6 boxes horizontally
• 3 boxes horizontally

11. By Category

If you don’t want to allocate tasks to a month, use a categories layout for goal planning instead.

These are the Carpe Diem stickers (love these icons and the colors!)

12. Use a printable

Because it takes a long time to write out all of the dates, an annual planning page is the perfect time to use a printable.

I would’ve printed and resized a printable to show you, but my favorite printer I’d been using for 5 years recently broke 🙁 and I’m waiting for a new one to arrive in the mail (most shops are still having supply chain issues – thanks COVID). Anyway, if you want an annual planning printable there are some in my shop.

Tutorial for resizing any printable to any page size bullet journal is in this post.

The page can be added to your bullet journal using some washi tape.

You can find this set in my online store and my Etsy shop.

More bullet journal layouts

• 20 Bullet Journal Weekly Spread Ideas (One Page Layouts)
• 10 Quick and Simple Bullet Journal Daily Layouts
• 26 Non-typical 2 page weekly spreads to try
• 25 Ideas for your Bullet Journal To Do List Spreads

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