My 2021 Journal Set-Up

#benefitsofjournaling #jounalingtips #journaling #journalingpages #journalingtemplates Jan 21, 2021

As promised a short blog post about how I have set up my journal for 2021. Let me start with the lessons I learnt from my 2020 journaling experience.

As per usual my January journal was spectacular – a visual masterpiece (based on limited artistic skills) with regular daily entries, February wasn’t too bad, March had some bits and the rest of the year was fairly hodge podge without any real system.

The problem was I never seemed to find the time to set up the month in advance and once the month had started I didn’t really see the point.

So, the lessons learnt were as follows:

I like a monthly double page spread for each month – these need to be set up ahead of time.
I make better and more regular use of a weekly spread rather than a daily spread (note my journal is used purely for personal use, not for my day job)
I prefer to track weekly rather than daily or monthly
I needed a journal with thicker pages

So how have I set up my journal for 2021

Last year I was using a Leuchtturm1917 journal, and whilst there are many things I love about it, the page thickness was limiting some of the more artistic things I wanted to do in my journal. This year I have purchased an Archer and Olive journal and I must say I am loving the paper quality.

This year I spent some time setting up my journal for the entire year. Therefore, I don’t have to worry about having time to set up for the month, it’s already done. It doesn’t look pretty, yet, but the pages are set up so I can write in them regardless and I have left plenty of space to add some artistry if time permits.

First page is my Title Page

Welcome to 2021. I like to have a quote. My quote this year “She turned her can’ts into cans and her dreams into plans” just resonated with me, so I went with it. I have been following @me_and_my_happydesk on Instagram and love her vintage style, so thought I have a go myself on my title page. I’m happy with how it turned out.

Index Page

I then created an Index Page. One of the main things I do miss with my Leuchtturm journal is the page numbering. The Archer and Olive journal does not have page numbers and given my handwriting is not the best and numbering 196 pages can get a little tedious it’s something I would look for when ordering my next journal.

I was inspired by Yana from @onejournalmanyplans – she shared her September Title Page pictured below and I loved the tile theme. So, I started doodling tiles on scraps of paper while I was watching TV. I quite like how they turned out so have decided to use them throughout my journal this year.

Title page and to-do

So, at the beginning of each month I have title page and a to-do page. Below is a picture of January’s (more tiles!). This gives me a chance to be creative and decorate how I like. February’s at this stage just has the word February written in pencil.

Monthly Spread

I love having a monthly spread – this is my non-negotiable. I like being able to see the month as a whole. I like it to go over a double page so the boxes are big enough for me to write a couple of things in.

I have set up the entire year’s worth of monthly pages already. See February above – as you can see the future ones don’t look pretty yet, but they are set up. This eliminates my need for a future log page, as I can just go straight to the date and put it in the Calendar. I do still have a future log page, but it is for 2022.

Weekly Spread

In my 2020 Journal I did a page per day, however there just ended up being too much blank space. If I missed a day or a couple I rarely went back and filled it in. So this year I have set it up to have double page weekly spread.

It has a couple of sections, that are important to me.

Quote of the week
Daily Grateful for
Yearly Goals
Tracker
Notes section

So far this is working for me. I simply write a few sentences and what I am grateful for everyday (tend to do this morning after) and if I need to do some more journaling to work on my thoughts or just want to free write, I can turn to the back of my journal.

What I have learnt about this system already

I am loving the fact that each of my months are set up and to date I have been able to maintain my daily journaling (we are only up to week 4). The small daily section does not seem too overwhelming.

However, I have the A5 192 page Archer & Olive journal and once I had set out 12 months and 52 weeks it did not leave me many pages to add my other pages. So, I may have to start another journal for other things, such as quotes, inspiration, study notes etc. Darn, looks like I’ll have to go shopping for another journal. (Husband: don’t you have several empty journals already? Me: Head shake – you will never understand). So, if at the end of the year, I am still happy with this system, I may buy two new journals for 2022 and do six months in one and six in the other.

It’s all about experimenting and finding what works for you. I have been journaling on and off for several years now and am still trying to find the perfect system. As life changes, so do your needs and as a result so will your journal. The main point is to keep journaling!

I’ll keep you posted with how I go.

Let me know what your favourite set up is and why it works for you.