April 2017 Bullet Journal Setup (Transition Into a New Journal)

This month is especially exciting for my bullet journal! Okay, I know I say that a lot, but I really mean it this time, mainly for 2 reasons: 1) I'm moving into a new notebook (volume #3 to be exact), and 2) as of the beginning of this month, I've been using the bullet journal system for an entire year! My very first bujo monthly setup was from April of 2016, so I suggest checking that out if you want to see for yourself how my bujo has changed throughout the course of a year. However, I will be making a post next week all about that topic.

Anyway, without any further ado, here is my April 2017 bullet journal monthly setup, AKA transition into my third bujo!

First of all, I'm going to go through a bit of last month. This is March's completed monthly spread, and I promise that it's not nearly as fluorescent as it seems to be in the picture.

This was a spread I made in bujo vol. 2 to help me transition into bullet journal number 3. I basically went through all of my collections and made a list of the ones that I wanted to keep. I then brainstormed about all of the changes I wanted to make or new things that I wanted to add into my new system. Once I recreated the old collection into the new journal (or at least started to set it up), I checked it off. As you can see, I haven't actually fully transitioned everything into my new bujo.

And finally, this is the last page of my old bullet journal. I originally did some brush calligraphy directly onto the page, but I absolutely hated how it looked. So instead, I just taped some pretty scrapbook paper on top and did faux calligraphy using a Sharpie. I lettered "goodbye" since I couldn't think of anything else to write, lol.

Finally, here is the beginning of my new bujo! I didn't take a picture of the journal's outside, but it has a gorgeous, brushed silver cover. Like my old bullet journal, it's a Rhodia A5 Webnotebook with dot grid pages from Goulet Pens.

As I did when I set up my last bullet journal (volume 2), my first page is a contact information page sort of thing. I posted a photo of my last one on Facebook, and one person brought up how someone might be able to break into my house if I lost my bujo along with my house keys since I included my address. At first I was worried about something like that happening, but then I realized three things:

1. I don't actually have a set of house keys.
2. I live in one of the safest places in the country with a very low crime rate.
3. Having my address actually helped back in January when I lost my backpack, which had my bullet journal in it; one of the big reasons they got my stuff back to me was because I had my address written there (read this for more details about this interesting experience).

So, with my third bullet journal, I decided to stick with a similar page with pretty much all of the same contact info. However, if you live in a shadier area, I highly dissuade putting as much personal information as I did.

I'm sorry with how wonky this picture looks; the cover wouldn't lay flat, and I didn't realize until now that it's not very clear :(

This is my updated bullet journal key. It's pretty much the exact same as it's been in the past year; the main difference is that I use color instead of black if it's related to my AP world history class, since that's the hardest course I'm taking right now, so I try to make its tasks and such a higher priority.

Eek, this is kind of blurry

This is my table of contents. Yes, I call it a table of contents and not an index because that's what it is - a table of contents! I love you, Ryder Caroll, but this is not what an index is. (I think you guys can tell that I'm a little passionate about this . . .)

As I've done previously with each month, I indexed April using color to make it stand out more.

Here is my new future log! It's pretty much standard to what a traditional one is like, and it spans six months as most do.

The letters have shadows done with a Pilot FriXion highlighter, but you can't see it in these photos

This is my April monthly spread so far! I went with a blue theme because of "April showers" and stuff like that. The main brush lettering is done with an Artline Stix brush marker, accents are done with a Sakura Souffle gel pen, and a Pilot FriXion Light Highlighter is used to make shadows on the letters.

The only thing I've changed from last month is that the little goals section in the bottom right corner doesn't have a header. I use that area for any big goals that I want to focus on throughout the entire month; in April, for example, I want to try to sleep more since my sleeping habits have kind of gone to sh*t in the past couple of months. Also, the last column ("mi") stands for miscellaneous, and this is where I put any sort of random monthly tasks or notes that don't really belong anywhere else.

Here is my blank monthly habit tracker and memories spread! For the past couple of months, I've been using the "stats" part in my tracker to =analyze the data from my tracker and use it to encourage myself to do each habit more often.

If you've read my monthly bujo setup posts before, then you know that I usually show my monthly memories spread from the previous month. However, I still haven't gotten around to finishing March's, so I can't show it yet.

Outside of these spreads, I also have the following layouts completely or partially set up in my new bullet journal:

• Year-at-a-glance calendar: I'm using this printable from Wendaful
• Lessons paid: this is what I use to keep track of the payment for the private lessons I take
• Bell schedule: the different bell/class schedules for school
• Wishlist
• Blog post ideas
• "Literal bloody hell" (haha, you get it?)
• Blog post planning brain dump: just a place to scribble out stuff about future blog posts
• Spring break: all of the stuff I have to get done during spring break
• Emergency contacts

I still have a lot more spreads to put in, as you can see in that picture from earlier.

So, that's what I've set up so far for April in my new bullet journal! Next week, I'll be going through how my bujo system has changed in the past year since, like I said earlier, I've now been bullet journaling for an entire year, so watch out for that.

How long have you been bullet journaling? Let me know in a comment!

Setup for last month: March 2017

Setup for next month: May 2017