So I’ve jumped on the bullet journal bandwagon.
I’ve said before that I was never going to use one but I trialed it for a month back in July and actually enjoyed it. It’s not something I could stick to doing each week but is was good to try something different.
Since there are so many possible (i.e endless!) combinations of weekly layouts I wanted to try out a few ideas first. I ended up with quite a few!
Creating neat bullet journal spreads:
- I use the Minimalism Art notebook as my ‘draft’ to sketch up potential weekly spreads. This keeps my actual bullet journal neat
- Erasable pens are a must have (my favorite are the Frixion erasable pens)
- Poppin ruler (heavy so don’t bump easily when you’re drawing lines, plus the numbers on the ruler are in big easy to read font)
I know a key element of bullet journaling is the index, but I still like to use sticky notes to plan what I’m going to put where (I like to cluster things together in my planners)
Related: Monthly blog post planning using sticky notes (my 6 step process)
Bullet journal weekly spread ideas
Horizontal
If you prefer lines, highlighters are ideal (and also add some color!)
Related post: 10 Quick and Simple Bullet Journal Daily Layouts
1 Page Horizontal + Notes or Checklist
After trying dozens of different ways to plan the week, I can say with 100% certainty that this is my favorite type of layout: days of the week in horizontal format on 1 page and checklist or notes space on the other page.
Bullet journaling in the Leuchtturm dot grid notebook
This is why I leave a page between each spread – otherwise you can see ghosting from other spreads:
Vertical
Related post: 10 Bullet Journal weekly layouts if you want to keep work and personal in the same spread
Multiple sections per day
This type of planner is good for clustering tasks for each area of your life, or as a family planner with a separate column for each family member.
Colorful
I made this using Tombow Brights Dual Brush Tip Pens. Definitely need to periodically wipe off your ruler with a tissue otherwise the colors will run like they did when I was ruling the lines 🙁
Related: Tombow Brush Pen Testing in 8 Different Bullet Journals
If you haven’t tried planning with sticky notes you definitely should! They’re perfect for meal planning, recurring tasks and things you need to do but haven’t locked down a date on which to do them yet. Save a ‘bank’ of them somewhere in your bullet journal.
Bullet journaling with washi tape in the Scrivwell Dot Grid Notebook
Bullet journaling in the Rhodia Goalbook
Landscape Page Orientation
If you need just a bit more space to write tasks rather than trying to cram them into a vertical weekly layout, turn your page on it’s side instead:
List Layouts
I’m someone that doesn’t really stick to doing things on the day I plan to do them, so sometimes just use checklist pages to plan the week
Reviews of the notebooks used for the spreads in this post
- Scribbles That Matter Notebook
- Minimalism Art Dot Grid Notebook for Bullet Journaling
- Rhodia Goalbook for Bullet Journaling Review
- Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Notebook A5
More bullet journal spread ideas
- 30 Minimalist Bullet Journal Weekly Spreads (set up the week in 10 minutes or less)
- 10 Bullet Journal Landscape Page Orientation Weekly Spreads
- 15 Quick and Simple Vertical Bullet Journal Weekly Spreads
Planning tips
- How to choose the right planner pens: what to look for when buying planner pens
- 6 Ways to color code your planner to increase productivity
- Silhouette Studio Software versus Photoshop: Which is better for making planner stickers?
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LuAnn says
It took a couple of tries but I finally got this pinned to my new board “All Things BuJo” . Wonderful ideas. I just did my first weekly spread, and it looks pretty good, but it’s not going to work in the long run, not enough space. It’s going to be hard waiting till the weekend to start working on the layout for next week!
Kay Cole says
Great variety – and some weeks I like color, sometimes I don’t want to bother, so I love the options!
Just an FYI on the Frixion pens – if you leave your journal in a hot car, every Frixion line will disappear. Use real ink pen for important notes and dates (I learned that the hard way!!). And putting in a freezer does not bring them back 😉