Plan With Me: My September Setup in my Bullet Journal + Video
I'm finally back from my holidays! July and August have been such amazing months, full of laughter and lots of great memories and experiences. I needed some time off and I'm really grateful that I managed to do it. But now, August is almost over and we have to start getting ready for September.
This is the last month I will be setting up in my Scribbles That Matter notebook. I can't believe that I'm finishing my 4th bullet journal already and I'm ready to move on to my 5th one! If you would like me to make a video of how I set up my 5th bullet journal, let me know in the comments below.
The theme I chose for this month is 'Message in a Bottle'. You can do so much with this type of theme and I think that it turned out pretty good. I've always wanted to find a message in a bottle, while I'm walking by the sea. And on the other hand sometimes I wonder what I would write in a message that I would put in a bottle, so that the sea will travel it to someone else to find. I find this sort of thing fascinating for some reason.
For the colours, I used again a limited palette of different shades of blues, greys and beige colours, with a pop of pink and some pastel yellow. You can check all the supplies I used for this theme at the end of this post 😉
Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the post, because there's also a video, where I'm showing you exactly how I've created each spread.
As always we start with the Cover Page of the month. I created lots of jars and bottles with different types of messages and hanging details to add more dimension and interest to the page. I think it turned out nice and cute and I'm really pleased with the result.
The theme continues into my Monthly Spread. I've noticed that I don't need a double page spread for this layout. Even though I do use the page, I saw that I can turn it into a one-page layout and still have space to write the things I need to. So, I turned the squares into 3x5 rectangles and this is the end result. Changing a layout can be tricky sometimes. I made a lot of mistakes while I created this page. And even though I always plan my pages in pencil, I still managed to mess up the boxes and the dates in the beginning. But with the use of some correction tape , it still looks good.
Because of the change I made with my monthly layout, my monthly goals moved to the page opposite. I decided to make the lists for the two different sections vertically this time, and I have to say that I prefer it this way. I'll see how it works when I'll actually use the page, and I might keep this setting for the next months as well.
I didn't create my monthly focus page this time. Even though I still like the purpose of the page, I couldn't fit it into the layouts I wanted to create for this month, so I decided not to include it in the September setup.
Next comes my 'Areas of Focus / Tasks to Complete' spread. I love planning each week separately. Allocating different tasks and projects per week is very helpful, especially when you're trying to focus and re-organise things!
On the next page I created my Finances page. I use the same layout over and over again because it's really simple and functional. I added some coins into the jar to combine the page with the theme. I also like to add coloured lines in the two sections.
As always I include a Notes pages into my monthly setup. It's good to know that I have a page to write anything I want to remember or to keep a note of, without having to create a specific layout for it. I was thinking of turning it into a 2-page spread, but I believe that the space is enough for now. Also, if I run out of space, I can still create a second page like that in a following page.
Next comes my first weekly spread of September. I wanted to include a tracker for this week, but I still wanted to have enough space for my daily to-dos. So, I thought to use a dutch door layout with a shorter middle page. I used a weekly layout that I tend to use at least once every month. It's simple and functional and it works well with this dutch door layout.
In the middle page, that I cut in half vertically, I added my tracker on one side and planning for this week and next week on the other.
The tracker is separated into 3 different sections: personal, work and house. I don't usually add trackers to my layouts because I tend to forget to fill them in, and in the end they just use up space in my notebook for nothing. Plus, I fill bad for not filling them in... But, I wanted to track some things this week, and I also thouht that having the tracker right in the middle of my weekly will help with me remembering to fill in the boxes. 😉
I really like how this turned out and I'm definitely going to be using this dutch door layout again for sure!
If you want to learn more about dutch door layouts, I have written these blog posts you can check out:
SUPPLIES USED:
Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen in B, S, F
Tombow Dual Brush Markers (673, 491, 990, 533, 553, N89, N95, 451, and 800)
And that is one more month planned in my bullet journal. Have you setup your bullet journal for September? What theme did you use? Also, if you'd like me to make a video of how I setup my 5th bullet journal, let me know in the comments below.
