New Bullet Journal and New Routines

It was only right that my first Cricut project for reals was this sticker. I designed a Hestu sticker in Procreate and then made a silhouette version to cut out on my Cricut machine! It had a few hiccups but I adore this cover.

I’ve been bullet journaling since 2018 and every year I get a new bullet journal. (My first bullet journal looked like this:

The next year I found the perfect Bujo for me and I’ve bought the same one every year since. (It’s a Lemome dotted journal. You can find it on Amazon.)

Something that I always have struggled with in my bullet journals as a writer is a writing tracker! I’m a highly creative person so I always want to add art and spice to my trackers instead of just writing down numbers. (I did that last year and it didn’t go well :/ )

So I finally came up with a writing tracker!! I did one similar in one of my previous years but it just didn’t hit the spot like this one.

I took inspiration from Pinterest for the vials but the idea to fill horizontal rows for 1k each of word count was my own idea. So here’s how it will go. During the each month I will keep track of my word count in my monthly section and then at the end of the month I’ll add it up and in that month’s color I’ll fill in the appropriate rows over here on this page.

(If it isn’t a round number I’ll probably write down in the colored area what the detailed word count was for the month.)

This is another page that I add every month—or every time I finish reading a book—and I will write down the book title on a spine and fill it in with the month‘s color that I read it in. (Example: I finish reading Warbreaker and since I read it in January I would color it in Smokey blue since that’s the color I chose for January.)

I love my bookshelf and quote pages and I make sure to add this spread to each bullet journal. I usually draw 50-60 ish books on the shelves. Last time I did about 50 ish and had to add some extra books on my quotes page! All in all its a fun way to keep track of the books you’ve read in the year.

Another spread that I put in my bujo this year was a Job requirements and Routine’s page. I work from home and am self employed so things can get a bit hairy if I don’t have a clear picture of what I HAVE to do and what NEEDs done.

Especially when I’m going through a Fibromyalgia flare.

So here’s my spread for that:

My first and foremost job is to get healthy. This means . . . Quite a lot actually.
It means that I have to exercise and eat healthy and do things I don’t want to do when I feel crappy. It might seem . . . Small. But having chronic fatigue and pain and brain fog amongst other things can make these “simple” steps excruciating.
Hence it’s now my first and foremost job requirement!

I’m a writer and an artist so my next biggest requirement is to be creative each and every work day! Weather it’s writing fiction, my blog, painting new paintings for my etsy store, designing merch, etc. I must flex those muscles and do this portion of my business!

The third section is my Australian shepherds. Finn—my boy— and Heidi—my little girl— are coming up on their time for their first ever litter this summer! (They are a mated pair not littermates, don’t worry )
So this little side business has me making sure they are happy, healthy, and not bored constantly!
I also need to make a website for the litters! *suddenly jots down that note in the dog pages portion of my bujo*

4 and 5 are very similar but they are super important parts of my job. Help take care of the house I live in with my parents/help with meals and to make sure that my areas/my things are always tidy and clean.
I’m what you might call an “Interning Homemaker”. I don’t have a home of my own yet so I’m working under my mom to learn her trade .

Onto the next page: my routines! These beauties are gonna help me to accomplish my job requirements and I’m hopeful that I will have the strength and will power to follow through with them. —a good reason to share your routines with loved ones so that they can help hold you accountable when you ask!—

Finally I wanted to share my cover page for January.

On the left page were my notes from my mom and I’s monthly meeting where we set goals and review the last month. Every week in my weekly spreads we will set weekly goals to help us accomplish our monthly ones! Which in turn helps us with our yearly ones.

Anyways, I’m off to go exercise now. Yay. :/ .
I hope your 2022 is starting off well!

‘Till next we meet.
~Tiffany Michele.