As a college student, August is an important month. It’s my last chance to make money working full time, I’m wrapping up summer courses, and I’m preparing to move back into the dorm.
My bullet journal set-up focused on prioritizing tasks and taking an inventory before my life shifts quite a bit.
The Monthly Log
I used to draw cute little box calendar monthly logs. But when I read Ryder Carroll’s book about the Bullet Journal Method, I quickly moved back to his original system.
On the left-hand page is the calendar log.
In the far left column, I write the first letter of the day and then the date. I draw horizontal lines to separate the weeks from each other.
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m loyal to Google Calendar. I use technology a lot, and it just works for me to have my events on my computer and phone. So I use this page as more of an overview and log than anything else. I also list homework projects and notes on this page.
The Monthly Task List
On the right-hand page, I use Carroll’s running task list.
I leave two columns blank before writing each task. The first is for signifiers. In this case, I use “B” to denote a bullet journal spread I need to make, or an exclamation point for something important.
The second column is for either note dashes or text bullets.
I X off when I complete a task, and I use the > symbol if I migrated a task to my daily logs. Usually, I go back and turn these > into X’s, but if I see that > on my monthly log, my eyes can skip over it. It’s been taken care of, and I don’t have to look at it when accessing my responsibilities.
I also love using long brackets to lump together tasks or connect related tasks that have other tasks in between them.
This month is especially crazy, and having an overview of all my responsibilities keeps all that information from floating around in my brain.
Bullet Journal Basics
Do you want to read more about why I chose to move back to Bullet Journal Basics?
I have more information on this monthly post and more in this blog post.
The Weight Loss Tracker
I was diagnosed with PCOS this year. It’s a hormonal disorder that causes quite a few unpleasant symptoms. Most women who have PCOS are overweight or obese, and it’s extremely difficult to lose weight.
But I’ve been doing a diet specially created for PCOS, and it’s actually helped me lose a few pounds a week. Seeing this progress in linear form is so motivating for me.
The top portion is a graph. On the Y-axis, each grid space is two pounds. On the X-axis, each grid space is one week. I simply mark what my weight was at by the end of the week, and then use a ruler to connect the two dots.
Below, I have a table split into two halves. The first columns range from week 1 to week 25. The middle column is my actual weight. The right column is how much I lost each week.
Unfortuantely, I’m not in a place where I can share uncensored pictures of my weight. But if you’re a woman with PCOS, feel free to email me at greyzonepages@gmail.com. Having support has been instrumental in this process for me.
The Project Tracker
I’m not sure what else to call this eclectic page. I’ve never been good at habit tracking, so I keep a small-scale one on my weekly pages. But my overall August goals are weight loss, reading and writing, and establishing a consistent blog schedule.
So this “project tracker” covers the last two goals.
In the first column, I write how many words I wrote during the day. I keep track of this through Scrivener’s “writing history” feature. Want to know more about Scrivener? Here’s the website.
I’ve also created two Scrivener themes that are available for free in my resource library. Here’s the blush pink, and here’s the midnight blue.
I then use Bookly (iPhone app) to keep track of how many pages I read every day. If you know me at all, I love data, statistics, and graphs. So Bookly is my reading love language. I’m also on Goodreads if you want to keep up with me rereading Outlander for the 49th time. I do review every book I read because yes, I’m a glutton for punishment.
In the next columns, I just keep track of blog subscribers, when I post blog content, and Instagram followers. Of course, I’m in other places on the Internet, but these two are my focus for now.
The Weekly Dashboard
I’m going to write a more in-depth post about my weekly dashboard and running daily logs (hello, Bujo Basics!)
But for now, I set up this “dashboard” over the weekend in about fifteen minutes. Then, over the week, I do basic running daily logs just like Carroll.
The Blog Plan
I’m also going to write a more in-depth post about how I plan blog content. At the beginning of the month, I nail down what posts are “due” on what day, the steps I need to complete said posts, the free resource plan for the month, the newsletter plan for the month, and starting stats.
Confession time: I’ve never done a newsletter. I only open newsletters from my very favorite bullet journal blogs. But as I’m creating more content for the resource library, each new item won’t receive its own full post. So the newsletter will round up exactly what you gain as a subscriber each month.
On the right-hand side, I just have a running blog to-do. This can be anything from updating the sidebar menu to taking new Instagram pictures. Since it’s right beside my blog dashboard, it’s easy to see what needs done.
Welcome, August
I hope you have a healthy, productive, and creatively nourishing August. Stay tuned for more this month on my weekly dashboards, back-to-school spreads, Scrivener projects, and more.
You can always contact me at greyzonepages@gmail.com. I also respond to Instagram DMs as quickly as I can!
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