monthly flip through: january 2021

gooooood morning! just kidding it’s 2:30pm:) I just got done cleaning my room and kitchen and I decided to do some planning and blog work. oOOOooo, I almost forgot,,,happy new year! I’m 15 days late hehe :O how is everyone doing? does the new year feel different or are you like me, living every day as the same? (T-T) Although I haven’t ~changed~ much, I have a slightly more confident attitude on life in that I don’t feel completely hopeless. If I’m feeling sad and anxious for what seems like an eternity, I know deep down I got my back and I’ll pull through. I’m my own buddie:’)

Since I’ve been gone, I’ve been thinking up some jOOsy ideas for blogposts and I’m super excited to get started on them. Today I’m starting this new series where I show you all a monthly flip through of my bullet journal. I feel like I never get to explain my process in detail on instagram stories so I think this is a better alternative!

I struggled a lot with deciding if I wanted to start a 2021 bullet journal because it seemed pointless and I thought it wouldn’t be useful. However, my irl best friend desperately explained that I didn’t always have to use my bullet journal for productive reasons and I could plan other things like hanging out with her (made me giggle), birthdays, or bts things. This past year, I got really self-conscious and guilty about productivity because it always seems like I don’t do anything all day every day. That is completely not true because there are lots of things I get done, but my brain doesn’t register it as “productive.” My brain is still trained to believe that work and school are the only things that deem me as a productive queen, but that can be a toxic mindset and it’s draining! Anyway, I’m kind of rambling (maybe I’ll make a post about the changes in how I use my bujo 0-0 ). My point is that I feel comfortable with my new weekly planner and different spreads and I’m excited to share ahhh!!

Here is the title page! This page is never the same and I always add different elements on the left page such as a spot for playlists, a reading list, or monthly goals. It all depends on the stationary collage, theme, or style I go with. Sometimes, I decide to disregard the left page all together and only make a mini calendar with the title of the month on the right page. I’m pleasantly surprised with the result of this theme and I did not expect to go with these colors or textures!

At first, I only wanted to work with the coral red marker and the brown paper bag but I couldn’t find the right brown marker. I experimented with a yellow marker and then found a scrap of mint green paper and added a mint green marker. My process is basically just me building off of different pens, markers, and scraps that I initially planned to use.

For some reason, these colors reminded me of a retro theme so I went with those doodles that were found on seats in diners or buses back in the day! The “happy new year” lettering was a big leap because I did not know what the heck I was gonna add to the collage of mint green, clear and paper bag scrap collage I made since I was going to write january on the right page. I’m happy with it even though I wish I alternated the color of the letters like I did with the january title :’). I went with this “new beginning” theme by adding lyrics from the song redemption interlude by zacari (it’s from the black panther album T-T). They say:

this time around, there’s time to turn it around

this time around, there’s still time to turn it around

this time around, there’s always time to turn it around

I present my favorite monthly spread to make in the whole entire world: monthly calendar/overview. I don’t know what it is but drawing out these boxes and filling it out with cute events, birthdays, or plans gives me a rush of serotonin!

My monthly calendar is almost always the same for every month except for some minor tweaks. This time I decided to add a notes and goals section on the sideline. I also decided to put it on the right page instead of the left page. I also also decided to not draw the left over boxes from the previous month and the future boxes from the next month. I don’t know if that makes lmaooo but I usually go for a 5×7 layout with 6×6 boxes and use a grey marker or washi tape to mark out the non-month dates (please tell me if that makes sense sfjdsjsfjg). Since, this is a completely new brand and style of journal (my first time using dot-grid!), I wanted to make sure I had enough room to add all of the elements I wanted (i think this journal is slightly smaller than the midori md, which is my go-to bujo).

These may not seem like they make a difference but they do to me!! ToT I like how I eliminated habit trackers for this month or a biiig note section which would go on the top of the right page. I feel like the biig note section is a little unnecessary and it would only make me stressed if it stays empty. I think I’ll continue to use habit trackers but for now I took them out:)

As for the design, I of course went with the same retro doodles and I decided to add these cute stickers ( i forget the brand but they are pretty popular characters from japan). I decided to go with stickers from multiple packets; i think they go perfectly with the color palette! pssst peep the three blobs sitting next to each other close to the top of the left page, they include my friends sab (@sabisreading ) and naz (@moodreader ) and me!!

Da da da!! Here are some new spreads I’m trying out this month! On the right page, I made a simple spread called ‘poem of the month” with some washi tape and the same retro doodles. On instagram, I made a really dramatic post about my complex with sharing and writing poetry. However, I am getting comfortable with posting my poems and I’m writing them frequently! I am so proud of myself so I am going to write out my favorite poem on this page to make myself feel even prouder!!

For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying the famous “brain dump” page and I am so surprised that I’ve been using it all the way to the edges of the page! O-O So naturally I had to continue with this slightly new spread. I always thought this page was useless since I had multiple spaces for random notes in my weekly spreads, had a separate journal for word vomit, and it was difficult to explain to beginner bullet journalers. BUUUT, it’s such a helpful page for me to spew ideas, projects, random thoughts/feelings all in one space. I think these burst of writing tell a lot about how my month went and it would be nice to look back on over time.

Ahh, the newest edition to my regular spreads in my bullet journal: a curated weekly/daily spread. I totally got this idea from Nina (@ohnonina) on Youtube!! (you should check out her calming and funny videos, she’s my favorite youtuber) This is a quadrant format in which the right box includes tasks, events, and thoughts of the day and the left box is for scheduling tasks/events or daily things you did that day! Down the middle of one quadrant are the hours from 8-12am, which is usually my typical day (my goal is to start my days at 7am at some point in the year, aghh i miss morning person saadia ALSO 8AM IS REALLY EARLY I JUST DON’T DO ANYTHING AND STAY IN BED, AWAKE AND MISERABLE, FOR HOURS SO MY POINT IS THAT I WANNA START ACTUALLY DOING THINGS ok caps lock off)

Back when I was still in school, my weekly spreads were bi-weekly spreads with notes sections and habit trackers and all that jazz. Like a full ass busy bee!! I find that those spreads are no longer well suited for my schedule and they make me feel dumb and useless since most of the time they stay empty:( I’m sure I’ll go back to those spreads some day because I loved making them T-T

For now, I love these daily boxes because I have the option to plan whatever day I want and I don’t have to go in order. For instance, I could plan day 17 and then the next quadrant could be day 25. The point is to plan the day of and it’s such a nice time to get creative and use markers or other stationary items (this time i went the simple route and only used markers). These spreads are so so helpful to me and give a purpose to my days even if the tasks are as simple as eating breakfast or tidying up my room! Thank you, Nina:’)

AND THAT’S EEEET!! Let me know if I should continue doing these monthly flip throughs or if it’s just boring and uglee and I should never blo– allllright end scene of dramatic saadia… Let me know any feedback, new things I should add to this series, or questions you have in the comments! thank you for reading this long ass posts and here’s your photo of bangtan: