When it comes to your Bullet Journal layout, it’s easy to get in a rut. Elizabeth is sharing her tips for keeping your journaling fresh and motivational!
Why You Need To Change Your Bullet Journal Layout, Regularly
Hey! It’s Elizabeth from Jihi Elephant and I have been doing a lot of thinking about change lately and how important it is. Change is even important in Bullet Journaling, believe it or not. If you use a daily, weekly, or monthly layout, you need to consider making a change…and not just any change! You need to make change regularly. I started changing up my monthly, even weekly, layouts back in July and it has made a world of a difference!
Around June and July of this year, I was starting to become burnt out from Bullet Journaling. So I started brainstorming ways to make my Bullet Journal more interesting and fun to do. I decided to start monthly themes, and I opened myself up to a wider variety of journaling tools, such as stickers and washi tape. This was the best decision I have ever made. Changing your Bullet Journal layouts regularly is incredibly motivating, keeps your interest, and stimulates creativity.
Change is Motivating
The first reason you need to change up your Bullet Journal spreads regularly is because change is motivating. What I mean by this is that the less stagnate your layouts are, the more likely you will be to use them. So, changing your spreads often can motivate you to not only do everything on your lists or habit trackers, but it also motivates you to create these types of pages in the first place!
Keeping Yourself Interested
Another reason to change up your layouts often is to prevent Bullet Journal burnout and keep yourself interested. I became burned out because I used the same exact layout every single month with the same exact color scheme for every page. I was bored of it! You’re much less likely to grow tired of Bullet Journal if there is a new theme or color-scheme every few pages! Sure, keeping a general layout is fine, I know that there is a certain style of weekly spread that works best for me, and I don’t really stray from that. I simply spice it up with illustrations, washi tape, stickers, and colors.
Stimulates Creativity
And finally, regularly changing layouts stimulates creativity (a.k.a. makes it more fun)! I’ve become much more excited and creative since deciding to mix things up in my journal. Even if it’s a simple color scheme change, you’ll probably experience a boost of creativity!
How to Go About Regular Layout Changes
I know, I know: Why is this important if you aren’t sure how to make changes so regularly? I mean, isn’t it exhausting to have to be on the ball every month or week to come up with new ideas? It doesn’t have to be! You don’t have to come up with the ideas all by yourself, either. Sometimes all you need is some inspiration from other Bullet Journal-ers, great tools, and themes!
Get Inspired
Sometimes coming up with fresh ideas every week is hard! Some of the best places to find inspiration are Instagram and Pinterest. I follow so many great Bullet Journal profiles on Instagram (by the way, your should definitely follow my account and Megan’s official Page Flutter account!). They are always sharing different, beautiful page ideas. Same with Pinterest, check out my Bullet Journal Inspiration Board! Another way to get inspired is to join Bullet Journal Facebook groups like Bullet Journal Junkies or Bullet Journal Spreads.
Another way to get inspired is to be mindful and observe things around you and things that you enjoy! For example, my October spreads theme was inspired by my recent obsession with house plants and my new succulent stickers!
Use Stickers and Washi Tape
You can change up your spread easily with the use of varying stickers, washi tape designs, and other tools. Sometimes the format doesn’t need to change, but using a different washi tape or a new selection of stickers is exactly what your spread needs to get you inspired.
Use Different Themes Each Month
It’s not uncommon to switch up each month instead of each week. Many people may find it easies to switch themes when moving to a new monthly page. These themes could be color-based, holiday-based, seasonal, mood-based—the opportunities are endless. I like to change up my themes monthly, I think it keeps me interested in keeping up with my planning, it sparks my creativity, and I find it very relaxing. For example, for July, I used the color theme: red white and blue as well as an artistic, summery theme; for August I stuck to a classic theme; for September I wanted a very minimalistic look with no stickers or tape; and for October, as I mentioned before, my theme was houseplants.
As you can see, there are so many ways to mix up your monthly, weekly, or daily Bullet Journal spreads. Go ahead, try it out! Changing up your designs is so essential to stay motivated, interested, and it can spark creativity!
Your turn to share! Do you tweak decorations or overhaul the whole layout? What do you do to switch up your Bullet Journal layouts regularly?
