2023 Bullet Journal Enhancements and Joy!

Starting the new year means starting a new Bullet Journal. This will be my 6th year of using a bullet journal for organizing my daily and weekly list of deadlines, meetings, projects, and tasks. 

Over the year's, my weekly spread has evolved to fit my organizational needs. For the first few years, I split the pages up into 8 boxes with one box for each day and the eighth box for weekly tasks. A few months ago, I ditched the 8 boxes and instead, created a weekly to-do list with 4-5 main categories for the various aspects of my life: creative/art/play, business/teaching, SAQA, personal, etc. Each night I would highlight the next day's priorities and see if there were other areas where I could get ahead as time permitted. It wasn't pretty but it was efficient.

This year, I decided to spruce up my weekly spread a bit with a few new fun and functional enhancements:

• Colorful Washi Tape headings: Play, Business/Teach, SAQA, and Personal. 
• Add the weekly date range (top right) so I have a record of what I did from week to week.
• And add a bit of stamping for daily/weekly tasks!

The top stamp is for tracking activities on a daily basis and currently includes yoga, walking, creative play, watch videos for inspiration, journaling (new for 2023), and cleaning (not very glamorous, but it's gotta get done!) Over time these daily tasks may change but this seems like a balanced mix to start the year.

The bottom stamp is a new block print that I will use as a placeholder and double as a potential background for creating 3 layered collages each week using fodder gathered during the week. I loved creating a my first set of 6 mini compositions in response to watching two amazing FREE classes: 

• Collage Kickstart with Catherine Rains 
• Grid Journal Mini Course with Kellee Wynne of Color Crush Creative

I just finished my first trio of mini compositions for 2023 and wanted to share my materials and process!

First, I raided our recycling bin for interesting bits of color, text, and print. 

The bits selected for their text and/or colors included:

• A grocery store flyer
• Fitness Gym advertisement
• Envelope from Bills

Not until I started to cut into them did I realize the connection to common New Year's Resolutions:

• Healthy eating
• Exercise
• Financial health

Here are some of the bits initially glued into their respective boxes...

My final step was to embelish them with a Uniball Signo Gold Pen for a bit of bling!

I always love adding these little whimsical details...like dots

Dashes and more dots...

And plus signs for all the fun I hope to add into each week's bullet journal!

This year I want to create more joy! And so adding these small collaged compositions to my Bullet Journal will certainly add some fun to my otherwise very functional bullet journal! Stay tuned as I create more weekly trios of collaged compositions!