I actually began the month by looking back at February. I started off looking down my February month planner and then my habit tracker, writing down a little review of the things that happened last month. As with January, I used a traffic light system to highlight the good, the not-so-good, and the bad. I like the fact that if I'm having a bad day I can scan over the review page and see immediately that February was a pretty good month; I'm fairly certain that March will look pretty similar.
When I'm writing something in red, I always try and follow it up
with something in orange as a potential positive for the month ahead as well. I
also do it the other way if there's something I've written in green but I have a
less positive comment to make about it; like my food log.
March saw the start of the grid lined section of my notebook. I've
been looking forward to getting to this bit because it makes lining things up
much easier and neater than in the straightforward lined section. The grid lines
are also much narrower than the lines so I can fit a whole month onto one
page.
This month I used the original format for my month overview:
But I'm planning on changing it next month.
This format worked well for me during January and February when
things were fairly quiet and I had maybe one or two things to keep track of for
a day. This month the social calendar has picked up a bit and also my schedule
at work has changed as well (technically it changed last month, but I've finally
started plotting it out ahead in my BuJo to make planning appointments
easier).
Next month I'm planning on doing something across two pages with
columns separating it into different areas. I'm not totally settled on exactly
what the columns will be but I suspect it'll be along the lines of work, AM, PM,
and notes (or possibly goals for the month since I missed those out this month).
I've seen others do this and I think that now I'm on the grid paper it might be
slightly more practical.
Of course, I could be posting in a month's time to say it's a
complete disaster but that's the beauty of the Bullet Journal. If in a month's
time it's not working for me, I can change it. Hell, if it's not working in a
week's time there's nothing stopping me from relocating it to the next available
page and starting afresh. It's easily my favourite thing about my planner.
The change in paper format also allowed for a change in Tracker
layout. A benefit of moving my month overview to a double page spread will be
that I'll also have a double page spread for my tracker. I like my current
format on the grid paper but I'm missing having my month's goals beside it as a
reminder:
As you can see, I'm adopting a rainbow theme at the moment. I'm
hoping that 2016 will be the Year of the Rainbow for is, so I
decided to start as I meant to go on. I love the effect that this colour scheme
has given the page, but some of my targets are a little bit vague. I have
discovered that I need a reminder of my target (e.g. 'groom Tara every three
days' would probably be a lot more effective for me than just 'groom Tara' is
being). If I move this to a double page, I'll have space to list my goals as
well as the tracker. I think I'll keep the rainbow though, it's so pretty.
I'm still using my Food Log:
This is another one I'm thinking I might change. Back when I was
using lined pages a list like this seemed like the most practical option but on
the grid I'm not so impressed with it. I'm thinking I might make a month
overview page next month and then do it as a single page for each week. It'll
mean some overlap between the beginning and end of the month but it'll give me a
little more space and will probably look better too. I just haven't yet decided
the form that the month overview should take (perhaps something like my habit
tracker but with a traffic light system for how good I think I've been).
One thing I will keep is the colour coding system I use for when
I've eaten; black is home (or homelike places, e.g. my in-laws', my Mum's), blue
is work (where I eat most of my snacks so have forbidden my husband to put any
chocolate in my lunchbox in an attempt to cut down), green is out and about
(that can mean lunch in a cafe, dinner in a restaurant, of a meal at a
non-family member's house), and I use red to highlight when there have been no
snacks (with a smiley face) or a missed meal (with a sad face, skipping meals is
bad). It works well for me and as much as anything is about making me more aware
of what I'm eating.
This month I've still not bothered with weeklies. While my month
overview schedule can look pretty hectic, my weekly overview is rarely alarming.
I tend to have the same things on the same days (Mr Click is out on this day, I
call my Mum, I finish work early, we're at my in-laws' house) so I don't feel
the need to add them to a weekly overview.
I have worked to pretty up my dailies a little though. During
January I had a subtle blue theme, February was pinks and reds, and for March
I've gone with the rather generic 'Easter colours' theme. And that's where this
notebook lets the side down slightly; the grid pages are blue and pastel colours
don't show up so well. It'll all look much better when I move into April and
everything goes green.
I'm still tracking my fluid intake, but I've been a bit lax in it
since mid-February, I suspect this may wind up on my April tracker to help me
get back into the habit. I like to write a little review of my day. In the past
it's just been a line or two, but as the lines are more closely spaced so
sometimes I'm writing a mini essay.
I'm also using it a little like a scrapbook. While I was in Wales
I got into the habit of sticking in tickets from the places I had been, it's
something I've continued to do now I'm home:
It's just a nice thing to look back on and remind me of what I've
been up to (and it saves me collecting random bits of paper in my purse or phone
case for purely sentimental reasons).
As I mentioned yesterday, I made a spread for when I went to the
hospital. I think I'll do this again for future hospital appointments. I'm
also trying to come up with a layout for keeping track of all my IVF stuff. I
might end up doing it all on separate pages but making an FET index which helps
to tie it all together.
The final page I'll share here is one which has been seeing a fair
bit of use recently and is way back in the middle of January, but it's cool
seeing how it's changing as we watch the episodes in the series; my House
tracker:
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