How to Set up your Bullet Journal for the New Year

A bullet journal for the new year can be filled with organization, inspiration, motivation, and contemplation. But before filling a bullet journal up, we need to set up a bullet journal. Setting up a bullet journal for the new year will require a journal and an idea.

Journals have long been a way for people to get personal thoughts out and relieve a bit of stress. Now, a bullet journal relieves stress as well, but in a slightly different way. As we head into a new year, now is the perfect time to discover just how beneficial a bullet journal can be.

Having a bullet journal for the new year can help us stay organized so we can reach our goals and New Year’s resolutions. Bullet journals come in many different shapes and genres. There are tracking bullet journals and finance-tracking bullet journals.

There are study bullet journals and planning bullet journals. No matter what type of bullet journal you want, the setup will be similar. Get those bullet journal pens ready, grab those bullet journal stencils, and get organized.

We like to add in some washi tape for fun! As we head into the new year, many of us are looking for ways to stay on track for our New Year’s resolution, and a bullet journal for the new year may be the answer.

The first thing you need to do, though, is set up your bullet journal so that you can get the most from it.

How to Set up your Bullet Journal for the New Year

The first part of a bullet journal setup is the index. The index will help you keep track of everything in your journal so you can easily find it later. Most bullet journals will have different spreads in them, maybe a schedule spread and a diet spread for a fitness bullet journal.

You’ll want to be able to easily access each spread so that you can add to them as you go. When you set up the index of your bullet journal, be sure to make it a few pages long, copying the build of the first page on each page.

This will make sure you have space for every part bullet journal as you go through the new year.

Key

The key to a good bullet journal is the key itself. The key is where you will keep track of the different symbols for each aspect of your bullet journal. How it works is simple: each type of task will have a different symbol so they can be easily spotted in your journal.

Say you have a calendar in your journal, and you have different tasks that fall on one day. If you have an appointment, deadline, and an event all in one day, you can put symbols by them: a filled-in circle by events, a clock for deadlines, and a star for important things.

Now, you can easily spot them when you look at your calendar and plan your day around each task.

Calendex

A calendex is a mix between a calendar and an index. Draw up a calendar and make it easy to follow. Everyone has different styles, and there is no one way to draw up a calendex. The important thing is that it works for you.

Once you have the calendex drawn up, fill it in with important dates that come every year. Using specific colors, just mark a dot on each day that an event falls on and keep track of the colors in the key.

For example, birthdays are blue, bills are green, and holidays are yellow. Then, on every birthday, put a blue dot and a page number for which more detailed information can be found.

Yearly Goals

The yearly goals page is one of the easiest pages to put together in your bullet journal. Simply write out the title of the page at the top and then separate the rest of the page into four sections. Each section represents a different quarter of the year.

Fill in the quarters with goals you want to achieve throughout the year and be reasonable. For example, say you want to save a certain amount of money over the year. Divide that amount into quarterly possibilities and add it to each section.

It’s easier to save up 25% of the total yearly savings each quarter than it will be to constantly see it as an overall total. Your goals don’t need to be to save money; they can be whatever you want, and there can even be more than just one goal for the year.

Mni Vision Board

A great idea for your bullet journal for the new year is to set up a mini vision board. Decorate these two pages as you like; make it loud and colorful or elegant and simple. The most important aspect of your mini vision board will be the images you tape or glue on top.

If you want to travel more put images of the places you want to travel if you want to be more conservative with your spending add pictures of money. No matter what your vision for yourself in the new year, let it be represented here.

The Collection

A collection is a set of thoughts, goals, and tasks that all revolve around a specific theme. These themes, once again, are all up to you and will help you monitor smaller goals or ideas.

A couple of ideas for themes would be bands you want to see in concert or books you want to read. Set up a collection and write up the things you want to get done with that collection.

You can also leave space or set up a grid so that you can mark down the days you completed each task and give it a rating if it deserves one. Collections can be vast and should represent your likes and dislikes.

Even if you don’t think you’ll make it to that concert or have time to read that book, add it to the list and shoot for the stars.

Trackers

A tracker is a great way to have an overview of your year at the end of the year. A couple of good additions to your mood tracker in your bullet journal for the new year include a mood tracker. You can also add a diet tracker or savings tracker.

Here, you’ll set up smaller grid calendars with small keys next to them. For example, a mood tracker will have a color for each mood. You’ll fill in each day with a mood color for how you felt that day.

By the end of the year, you’ll be able to see just how good of a year you’ve had based on the most prevalent color in this tracker.

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