4 Ways to Organize Your Bullet Journal Layouts
Your bullet journal is supposed to help you be more organized, but if it isn't organized, your bullet journal won't help you be organized. Try saying that three times fast! How to organize my bullet journal was one of the big questions I had when I started my bullet journal and I wish that I had had a post like this to give me some guidance, so today, I wanted to give you some options on how to organize your bullet journal.
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Updated for 2024
When you are starting your first bullet journal, it can be very fun and exciting, but it can also be a little bit overwhelming because of all of the options.
Should you put your collections in the back of the book or the front? Should you put your weekly pages in between your collection pages? How do you know how many pages to leave at the back of your notebook for collection layouts?
Yes, it can definitely be confusing to figure everything out, so let's get into some options, that you might want to use for your bullet journal setup, and hopefully, these ideas will give you some clarity.
4 Ways to Organize Your Bullet Journal Layouts
1. All of the Collections at the Back of Your Notebook
This is a popular setup that a lot of bullet journalists do. All you have to do is put your index and key at the front of the book, and then put your monthly and weekly layouts after it. Then starting at the back of your book, you put your collections.
Some people might leave a third of their notebook at the back of their journal.
The only problem with this method is that you might run out of room for your monthly and weekly layouts or you might not have enough room for all of your collections.
You might also not be able to decide which collections to put at the back of your book and which to put at the beginning of your notebook. For example, putting your yearly overview at the back of your notebook or the front of your notebook.
You might not know how many pages you need for your monthly and weekly layouts, so you might end up with blank pages in the middle of your journal.
2. Putting All of Your Collections at the Front of Your Notebook
If you mainly want to use your bullet journal as a planner, then you might consider putting all of your collections at the front of your notebook.
This way, you will have plenty of space for calendars and weekly layouts.
The only problem with this is that if you want to add a collection layout later, you will have to add it in between your other layouts and then you might forget about it. A solution to this would be to add a tab at the edge of your page so you can find it easily.
3. The Bullet Journal/Planner Hybrid
The bullet journal/planner hybrid was a method I used for a while. It solves quite a few problems because you can move your pages around. You can have sections in your bullet journal if you want to.
For example, you might have sections like...
- Monthly Layouts + Weekly Layouts (Basically, the planner portion of your bullet journal)
- Finances
- Fitness
- Work
- Other
The problem with this method is that because the pages are double-sided if you move one layout to another section, you also have to move whatever is on the other side. You have to keep this in mind whenever you make a layout.
4. Mixing Everything Together
Talking about being entirely unorganized! This is the method I currently use and I find it works very well as long as I make sure to add the layout to my index so I can find it.
You just have an index at the front of your notebook, and then everything after that you just put in chronological order. Make sure you have your pages numbered!
I also don't use monthly layouts. I only use weekly layouts and collection pages.
4 Ways to Organize Your Bullet Journal Layouts
So which one should you try? Well, it depends which setup you like best and it's hard to know without trying them.
The fourth option is obviously the easiest one to set up because you don't really have to plan it out and you can just start at the front of your notebook. In the end, it is all up to you!
If you liked this post, you can also read the posts below.
- My 2021 Bullet Journal Part 2
- Bullet Journal Recommendations for Beginners
- The Ultimate List of Bullet Journal Blogs for Inspiration
- 6 Reasons Why Your Bullet Journal Isn't Working for You
I hope this post helped to give you some ideas on how you can set up your bullet journal!
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