And here it is! 2017 has finally come and a whole new year is right in front of us full of possibilities!

I hope you've had a wonderful festive season and that the new year has been treating you well so far. :) I spent my two weeks off relaxing, eating far too much chocolate for me to admit, hanging around with the people I love, watching the best fireworks display I've seen in my life and making some fun plans for 2017 too!

Speaking of plans, I'd like to share with you how I've set up my bullet journal for the new year and the month of January.

Of course, I couldn't start the new year without a proper welcome for 2017. It is the year of the Rooster in the Chinese horoscope, so I thought it would be fun to portray that with a little rooster instead of the '0'.

Image inspired by Pinterest

The next page is about the word I've chosen for the year, and that is 'Change'. I had lots of other words in my head that I was thinking and contemplating of choosing, but I kept coming back to this one, so in the end I was certain that, that was the one!

Don't be afraid of change. It's leading you to a new beginning.

My word for 2016 was 'Challenge' and it surely served me well during the year. I found in many instances that I was challenging myself to do more and do better and also to do things that I wouldn't dare before. So, I'm grateful for all the challenges that I took and that have brought me to where I am now.

This year I want to change some things in my life, both personally and professionally, and to move one step further to where I want to be and who I want to become.

If you don't know how to choose one word for the next 365 days, then you can check this post I wrote last year, where I explain how I chose my word.

Also, let me know in the comments below what your word for the year is?

After reading 'Your Best Year 2017: Productivity Workbook and Creative Business Planner' by Lisa Jacobs, and also Kelsey's latest post at Paper & Oats, I knew I had to include an Annual Overview Planner in my bullet journal. This is a way to pre-plan your personal life, vacations, important dates, launches, work projects etc. in a 12 month calendar. Essentially, this should help you to brain dump and schedule all your ideas, plans and to-dos for the coming year in an organised way.

I've already filled this up with lots of things that I want to accomplish this year! You can also find a free printable version of this Annual Overview Planner in my Resources Library.

The next spread is my month at a glance that I do every month.

January was a bit tricky, and I had to start my weeks with Sunday (I'm used to having a Monday as the first day of the week), in order to fit all the days in the two-page spread. I've found that this is the best way for me to view my month. I've tried various other spreads before, but this is the one that seems to be working the best for me.

I love the little penguin! I got inspired for it online by B-Keks.

This next spread is something I've tried before (in my November set up) and it worked for me pretty well. So, I'm using it again! On the left page I basically brain dump all the things I want to do, achieve and finish during the month with steps for each one, and then I go and allocate them in the 4 weeks on the right-hand page. This helps me (and my brain!) to not get overwhelmed with all the things I (usually) want to do, and to have some sort of schedule for each one.

The next page is the spread for the #doodlewithus Instagram challenge, that me and Alexandra create every week. There is no picture for it here because it's currently an empty page... I haven't started it yet (well, at the time I'm writing this post anyway...!). Naughty, naughty, I know! But I'm going to catch up very soon and this empty page will turn into a lovely picture full of colour! Make sure you join us (it's never too late!). For all the information you need, go to this post.

From then on I start my month with my weekly spread and my dailies. I'm sharing with you here some of the spreads I created for week no.2. I was very into the superhero theme (as you can tell!) and I have to say that making those dots was quite therapeutic!

I also seem to enjoy more the one-page daily spreads, because I have so much space to add even more to-do lists, notes and of course... to doodle!

And this brings us to the end of this post. I hope you've found it interesting and inspiring. :)

How do you plan out your year? Do you use your bullet journal for it, or do you prefer other apps or digital calendars? Have you tried something new this month? Let me know in the comments below.