And so begins the final month of 2020 - an important year in all our lives. Even though this year has brought us a lot of tough times, I am thankful for the lessons it taught me and for all the growth I've seen.
Bullet journalling has helped me a lot to come to a mindset where I can look at hard times as lessons and try to find joy even in my darkest hours.
December 2020 marks my 2 year anniversary of keeping a bullet journal! A habit that has stuck consistently and has thankfully improved with time.
Without much ado, let's dive into my setup for this month.
The theme for the month:
I had a very pretty gift wrapping paper left over from a gift I received recently and it was breaking my heart to throw it out. Since I had tore it open, it wasn't even in a resuable condition. So, I decided to get a little resourceful and incorporate it into my December setup. Very aptly, this wrapping paper contains the Christmas colours and makes everything fall right into place!
Starting with the coverpage:
I kept the overall spread very simple. A little strip of the themed paper for the header, a cute font for the title and the best part - I used my own calendar for the coverpage.
I send out these calendars I design in my monthly newsletters. If you're interested sign up by clicking on the link below!
Monthly bucket list:
Since the monthly calender I designed has space for monthly goals and monthly mindsets, I decided to dedicate a spread for making a monthly bucket list. I've been doing it for a couple of months now and it lets me add opportunities to make meaningful memories throughout the month. It is a good way to get intentionally adventurous with your life.
Making plans with friends and family, planning out themed nights for yourself, planning self care days ahead of time are some things you can add to your monthly bucket list!
Gratitude log:
My gratitude log has found a permanent place in my bullet journal ever since the pandemic happened. I cannot state how much of a mindset shift it has brought to my life. It's effects may not be visible right from the beginning but after a few months, it's impact has been tremendous.
It sets the tone of my day to a very bright and optimistic one. And it's especially good on the down days.
The habit and health trackers!
I always try and list out the habits I'm tracking, in case any of you are looking for any ideas. Since I wanted to have fun with my spreads this month, I used a black sheet of paper for m habit tracking spread, I'll be filling in the circles with a white pen.
For the health tracking spread, I used a regular black pen to draw out the boxes.
Habits I'm tracking for December:
Reading
Working out
Journalling
Meditation
Architectural updates - it's a good idea to read up and catch up about the latest events and updates about the industry you're working/ interested in. However this may not come very naturally to some of us (including me); so including it in the habit tracker catapults the intention.
Writing - This is a skill I want to inculcate and like everything else, regular practice is the way to go. Hence it has secured a place in my habit tracker for this month.
Waking up early
Going outdoors
Laundry
Updating my calendar
Health aspects I'm tracking for December:
Overall health that day
Metabolism
Stretching twice a day
Taking my medicines
Any notes/ remarks about that day
There are more aspects like skincare, hair wash days, tracking your weight or pulse, step count or such other things that you can definitely add to your health tracker. But personally, I don't find the need to track a lot of things when it comes to my health.
But this spread can be customised to accomodate all the aspects you may want to track for yourself.
A secret monthly progress log!
I'm working on a project related to Save Ourselves which might take me the full month of December. Until all things fall into place, I don't want to reveal what it exactly is.
However the point of including this spread is to keep a daily log of the progress on this project.
This type of a spread can be used for any kind of projects in your life such as writing a paper, exam preparation - basically working on any multi-step or multi-faceted projects in your worklife.
The 2021 planner brainstorm:
While I have definitely gone out of my comfort zone with my bullet journal in 2020, there are still a lot of spreads and ideas I can explore to make this system even more enjoyable and functional for myself. So I included a blank spread to jot down/ sketch any kind of ideas for my 2021 bullet journal. It's a great way to store all my thoughts in one place.
If you're planning to start some kind of productivity and planning system for 2021, starting with this spread is a great way to condense your ideas to form your own system.
Plus, planning about planning is one of the most fun things to do!
The first weekly spread of the last month!
Since it's a new month, I decided to try out a different layout. Here it is:
This includes a section for making a running list of tasks for the week. This comes in handy when you know the things you have to get done that week but don't exactly when to tackle them.
This list can then be delegated to specific days of the week under their own to-do list sections.
I finished off the spread with a quote that says
Not too fast, not too slow; living life one day a time.
Since I loved the quote, I incorporated into the December phone wallpaper that I'll send out with my December newsletter. If you're interested, sign up here!
I hope that you found a few ideas and inspiration through my December 2020 bullet journal setup. See you here next week!