Halo Halo | Bullet Journal, Blog Post Ideas and More

On a previous post, we talked about 3 reasons why you should start a bullet journal and to summarize it I talked about how bullet journal can help you prioritize, be organize and essentially be creative. I have discussed about it more thoroughly on said post. More so, I have given out tips on starting a bullet journal for beginners and there I talked about materials and the "basic" spreads you will need for your bullet journal.

These essential spreads are your key & index, future log, monthly spread, weekly or daily spread and your collections; however, apart from these "basic" spreads there are others that you can do as well depending on what you need.

Here is a list of spread ideas that you can easily do in a minimalist way or in a creative way, some of which are pretty common already for a lot of people.

23 Bullet Journal Spread Ideas

1. Mood Tracker

2. Brain Dump

3. Washi Tape Collections

4. Instagram Tracker

5. YouTube Growth Tracker

6. Blog Growth Tracker

7. Goals Tracker

8. Bucket List

9. Expense Tracker

10. Gratitude List

11. Habit Tracker

12. Period Tracker

13. Sleep Log

14. Self-Care

15. Quote of the Month Spread

"A little progress each day adds up to big results"

16. Important Contacts

17. Books to Read

18. Movies to Watch

19. Guest Post Tracker

20. Page Views Tracker (Articles)

21. Fitness Tracker

22. Paint Swatches

23. Favorite Quotes

Now that you have an idea in mind on what spread you want to do and try on your bullet journal, you can click on the video I have posted above to see an average minimalist bullet journal set up made by yours truly to get an idea of what style or theme you want to do on your own.

For this month's spread, July, I decided to go with a mango theme for my bullet journal with a hint of a minimalist and practical approach because I don't want to go overboard with it and be overwhelmed every time I try to write on it.

All of these photos are mine and I am trying out some of these spreads to see if it is compatible with my lifestyle and so can you.

What's your favorite spread?

Back in 2007 Ryder Carroll introduced the idea of bullet journaling to his colleague who was planning a wedding, and on August 2013 he launched his site together with a tutorial video. He sees this as an evolving, adaptable practice meant to be self-curated as you determine what works best for you (“Bullet Journal”, n.d.).

Each bullet journal is unique to its owner, having different purposes for the owner’s personal needs. You can put a lot of different spread sheets such as a habit tracker, mood tracker, YouTube or blog growth tracker and many more depending on what you need.

I talked about the reasons why you should start a bullet journal a few posts back, and it pleases me to see that I got a lot of positive feedbacks from it. Assuming that I or your friends and family was able to convince you to start a bullet journal of your own, I created this post to help you out on starting your journey. So here is the Ultimate Beginners Guide to Starting a Bullet Journal.

The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Starting a Bullet Journal

Basic Materials

What You’ll Need:

Bullet Journal Notebook
Highlighters
Colored Markers
Ruler
Your favorite black tinted pen

For your bullet journal notebook, I recommend getting either one of these three sheet styles: blank, dotted grid or graphing paper. I am recommending these sheet styles because they do not limit you on how you organize your thoughts.

Lined notebooks are great for people who use their notebooks strictly for writing (“Paper Notebooks Explained”, 2017). There’s nothing wrong with using that as your bullet journal but having no restrictions and limits where you can doodle unobtrusively with blank, dotted grid or graphing paper will give you the best experience in bullet journaling.

For the pen you can use your favorite one, but I personally love the look and feel of using the Artline Drawing System in 0.2mm line width for drawing and writing on my bullet journal. This is a water based and water resistant black pigmented ink used for drawing, graphic design, illustrations and documents. The pen is available from 0.1mm to 0.8mm of line width so you have a variety of choices to choose from.

Highlighters and colored markers are essentials because they add life to your bullet journal. My favorite highlighters are the pastel color ones from Stabilo and I use colored markers from Faber-Castell. Color plays a major role in setting up our mood, emotions, feelings and state of mind. Which is why it is important for you to choose colors that makes you feel good inside.

Bright colors such as the color yellow encourages us to be happy and optimistic and the use of dull colors suggests being moody and emotionless. But the use of color still depends on the theme you are going with and your aesthetics so who am I to stop you. You do you!

The “Basic” Spreads

Key and Index
Future log
Monthly Spread
Weekly Spread
Collections

1 1. Key and Index

The index will serve as a guide for you in the future to be able to see what goes where in your bullet journal and the keys will tell you on how to mark various things such as completed tasks, events, birthdays, important tasks and many more depending on what you need.

The design of your keys depends on how you want it to look like, if you are at lost you can find inspirations from Pinterest and Instagram.

2 2. Future log

The future log is a simple and easy place to flip to when you need to check when a specific event is happening (Carroll, n.d.). It doesn’t necessarily need to be fancy or creative you just need to establish and find a way to fit all 12 months into two pages while considering if there is enough space for you to write on.

3 3. Monthly Spread

The monthly spread is an overview of the whole month. I know you see a lot of fun and creative monthly overview layout from YouTubers like amandarachlee and jennyjournals but yours doesn’t need to be that way. If you like a more practical and minimalist style you can do that. Your bullet journal is your safe haven, you can do whatever you want with it and nobody is going to judge you.

4 4. Weekly Spread

Weekly spread is an overview of the week. It is all about preference at this point but personally, I prefer to have a weekly spread as oppose to having daily spreads because that way I can have an overview of the task, appointments and events with just one glance; additionally, daily spreads are not really my thing.

But like I said it is all about preference at this point and if you prefer to have daily spreads instead of weekly or if you prefer to have both of them then by all means go for it. No one can dictate you what to do with your bullet journal not even me! I wish I could insert a winky face right here but that would be too unprofessional.

5 5. Collections

Collection Modules or Collections are great for organizing specific lists (shopping lists, reading lists etc), classes and projects (Carroll, n.d.). Basically, a collection is just a one big to-do list for the whole month or year even. I have a collection spread on each month that goes by and so far, it works well for me.

Apart from these “Basic” Spreads there are others that you can do as well such as,

YouTube and/or Blog Growth Tracker
Gratitude Log
Time Log
Habit Tracker
Mood Tracker
Bucket List
Goals Tracker
Budget Tracker
“I am Thankful for…” List
Important Contacts

There are a lot more spreads that you can create that works best for you and your lifestyle. Just like what I have mentioned earlier in this post, Bullet Journaling is an evolving, adaptable practice meant to be self-curated as you determine what works best for you (“Bullet Journal”, n.d.).

I hope I was able to help you with this Ultimate Beginners Guide to Starting a Bullet Journal and if you aren’t already convince that bullet journaling may help you in becoming an organize person then you might want to check out 3 Reasons Why You Should Start a Bullet Journal.

Happy Journaling!

People read blogs to get information to solve a problem (Money Journal, 2016). Chances are you are reading this right now because you have ran into a case of writer's block. I have been there before more often than not actually and I have sought for ways to get out of that certain situation all over the internet. Among the many advice that I received from various social media platforms there were only three ways that really got me out of my writer's block.

Sharing is good and with digital technology, sharing is easy (Stallman, n.d.). I decided to put those three effective useful tips in one post in hopes of being able to help you get out of your own writer's block so here are 3 ways to help you come up with new blog post ideas.

1. Online Articles

Through reading online articles you will be expose to new information and new things that not only could help you come up with your own blog post idea but it could expose you to new ways of solving a problem as well. Taking a chunk out of an already existing article and putting your own twist to it based on how you understand it is a good way to keep yourself generate [more] ideas that could essentially help you into making your best blog post yet.

I use the mobile application "Pocket" that allows me to save tons of articles to read offline on my spare time. A certain article from the mobile application has inspired me to write this very post that you are reading right now so reading articles online could definitely help you come up with blog post ideas.

2. Magazines

Assuming that the magazines that you pick out are the ones that has something to do with your blog niche, this method allows you to come up with blog post ideas around that niche. Pick yourself a Cosmopolitan Magazine if your niche is beauty and fashion or a Wanderlust Travel Magazine if your niche is all about travelling. There are topics, tips and tricks in there that could give you an idea on what to write about on your next blog post. You could even do the same article but with your own twist to it to give it a new flavor.

This is a favorite method of mine to do because we have a lot of magazines around the house. Even the magazines that were published many years back could help you come up with your own topics that are relevant in today's society.

3. Pinterest

Pinterest is where people discover new ideas and find inspiration to do the things they love ("All About Pinterest", n.d.). It covers a variety of categories from business to weddings, make-up to home decor and photography to travelling. There are a lot more categories worth mentioning but that is for you to find out!

Pinterest is usually the place where I find inspirations for flatlay photography, tips and tricks on how to take good photos and all that good stuff. It is easy to navigate around Pinterest and find pictures that inspires you. It is available in both website form and as a mobile application so you could pretty much take it with you wherever you go.

What is your favorite way to come up with blog post ideas?

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23 Bullet Journal Spread Ideas

The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Starting a Bullet Journal

Basic Materials

The “Basic” Spreads

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