More Bullet Journal Collection Pages

Hey everyone!

So I have been trying to post bits and pieces of my bullet journal over on my Instagram. This led to a friend of mine asking if I wouldn't mind setting one up for her so that she could get a little more organized. Of course I agreed because drawing spreads is a great sort of therapy for me! So far we have gotten through her collection pages and so I wanted to share them here as well. I am pleased with these spread and am even thinking of adding them into my own journal in some spots that I have left blank thanks to my OCD and knowing that I will appreciate the space to add in more later. Here are the spreads I did for her:

I also have a Wishlist page, although mine does not have a price column and I simply check off the items like I would a task. But my friend saw this, and for her it helps to see what she wants to save up for. I think it is a great idea!
She was even forgiving of my drawing of the dandelion; something I am going to have to practice since I plan to use the design in one of my future monthly themes!

Nearly all of my social media accounts have the same password. Or I manage passwords based on theme, like the email account I use for my writing and my Goodreads page both have a literary themes password. So I didn't feel the need to put something like this in my journal, espcially as we are currently in a place where I fear my journal could be looked at. Perhaps in my next one I will include this spread.
For now I did this page for my friend who manages not only multiple social media accounts but many small businesses as well. This page will definitely come in handy for her!
It was quiet interesting finding the symbols for some of the accounts she needed, and as you can tell I am no artist. But one thing I told her, was that this is about functionality foremost. So as long as she could tell which logo was for what site, she was set.
Another thing about this layout, if pressed, depending on the length of some of her usernames and passwords, she could add a second column of sites. As it is I gave her 2 additional spots at the bottom in case she created more accounts after I send the journal to her.

This is the last of what I think of as the organizational collections for my friend's journal. She needed a place to keep up with her daily medications. I actually found and tweaked the layout as she simply knew that she wanted one, not what she wanted it to look like. This one is far more simple than my other spreads tend to be, but we were really looking for functionality here.
In case you can not see the titles of the columns, I included a space for each medication, dividing that by name and dosage. The next section is for when she would need to take it, int he morning, evening, and if multiple times a day. Then we made sure to include a spot for refills, because that can be one of the most challenging things about have a prescription, remembering when to get it refilled.  Each prescription has 3 refill date boxes. While I am hoping that will be enough to get through the journal, there are additional rows for her her to rewrite a medication on a new line for additional refills. Finally I made sure to have a Notes section. My friend wanted a spot for the prescribing doctor, I wanted her to have a spot on the effectiveness and/or side effects of each medication. Notes was our compromise in the space we had. We are both happy with this layout.

My friend really fell in love with this page when she found it on Pinterest. She finds joy in doing little things to make other people's days brighter, something I love about her. So I took the spread she had found and grabbed a couple of the things I knew would be easy for her to do. The rest of the space on the page is for her to fill in more of the random acts that she would like to do, would feel comfortable doing, and even a few that I would consider bigger acts that she might be interested in doing.
I love this spread and am considering doing something like it in one of the blank spots later in my journal as a sort of list my children and I could accomplish this summer. When you have it down on the page, it makes it more difficult for you to forget about it. I like the thought of having my journal hold me accountable for doing a little something that could brighten someone else's day.

This last spread was something that I pushed to put in the journal, actually. I wanted to make sure that my best friend took time to make sure she was ok. This spread gives her a few ideas of what to do when she might need a little pick up or a chance to focus on herself for a minute.
I am also looking forward to putting this spread into my own journal in the first available free space because it is a great one! Everyone needs to make time for self care and having a page with ideas for that makes it a little less overwhelming when you might be too stressed to think beyond your need to simply stop and think about yourself.
I also love this particular spread because it makes you slow down and think about what you might need when taking time for yourself. Instead of a spread that simply lists a variety of activities, this one is more focused, something I need in my journal.
As you can tell I wrote down plenty of ideas for my friend, things that I know will help her, things that she would be comfortable with doing. However, I also left plenty of room for her to write in her own activities, things that she has found work best for her over the years. I highly recommend doing something like this in your own journal!

That is it so far for her stuff. Besides a calendar I have left blank for birthdays and anniversaries that I may post a picture of later, depending on if it is actually requested, and a rather long private note that I wrote for her to help remind her how incredible she is. We haven't made it far in the prep for her journal, but I have time to kill so I can wait for her to be ready. I have also been using that time to begin working on my May spreads already! Y'all, this journal thing is so incredibly relaxing for me. I love doing it!
So today I leave you with another of the notes I have added to the free space I have in each daily spread. It was something I have heard plenty of times and loved and when my mother shared it on Facebook when I was having a bad day, I knew it was something I had to include in my journal. The scrap of paper I wrote the words on is part of the wrapping my bullet journals from my mother were wrapped in. She said they came that way when she ordered them and the colors and designs are so incredible I had to save them for my journals. Keep these words close to your heart, guys! And I hope your February ends on a high note!

Some of my Bullet Journal

With January done, I thought I would share a few of the spreads that kept me going through the month. I am using my journal not only to keep track of everything we have going on, but to help me take a closer look at myself day to day. This means including a mood tracker so that I am forced to sit and really think about how the day went, spaces on my habit tracker to keep up with anxiety and headaches, and a Notes section on each daily to write a little like I would have in my old journals. I am loving it! This new system has really helped me focus on myself and my mental health a little each day. And with my writing coupled in, I choose to lay down the problems rather than dragging them into tomorrow. I won't say this system is perfect, I still have issues I need to handle in my life in order to get rid of one of my biggest contributors of anxiety, but I do think it is helping me on a smaller scale.

So, my dailies:

I never fill up all the space in the "To Do" or "Goals" boxes, although on a few busy days I have come close. Mainly the boxes are so big because I have this OCD-driven urge to use an entire page for a daily spread and I didn't have too much to fill space. Having a large box for the "To Do" box also allows for a little sigh of relief when the box is mostly empty on a hard day.

Something important about this set up for me: I don't let myself feel discouraged if any of the black boxes are left empty. I try to do better the next day, but I know that while the black is set in stone, there will always be that bar on every daily forever, it is there to encourage better habits, not demand them. It's the end of January and neither the "miles" or "workout" boxes have been filled a single time thanks to the weather. And that it ok.

My notes section also doesn't always get filled. Sometimes it's just a comment on how many new Pokemon I got. It's a mind dump space for me to just let it out. And I love having it.

The gratitude log:
This is something I have tried many times over the past few years, keeping up with things that I am thankful for in my day to day. Sometimes it worked out pretty well, when I was having good days. But I changed it a little this year. I am allowed to be grateful for the same thing 3 days in a row, especially if it is the only thing keeping me going on bad days. I am allowed to not fill it in if the day has been rough and I can't think of anything, or if I forgot to fill it out and looking back that day was blurry and who knows what I was thankful for. I am giving myself leeway. And I think it turned out really well this month! I am looking forward to continuing it in future months, despite having a drawn out battle with March's design thanks to the theme and my need to keep these things looking pretty consistent. We will see how it turns out.

One thing about my version of this, I tend to offer up an explanation for why I am so grateful for a particular thing. And sometimes that works really well. Like when my husband does something incredible

and I want to talk about it for hours, and then the next day I have forgotten why I married him because he left his socks in the middle of kitchen table. I love being able to look back on why I was grateful for something. However, this year I am letting myself get away with not elaborating. Day 1 simply says Jareth. Do I really need to go into detail on why I am so lucky to have my son the day of his birthday when we have so much to do? No. I can simply be happy I have him.

My last main spread to help with my mental health this year, is my yearly mood tracker. This one is at the start of the whole journal. I also have one next to my monthly habit tracker that I fill into little designs to fit my monthly theme, I think I will post that in March because that is the one I am most happy with. Right now I want to share my yearly with you.
This is the sit down in the evening and really think about how today felt tracker. This one forces me to stop and think about my overall mood because there isn't space to really detail out the ups and downs of some of my days (I do that in the monthly one) but instead I have to think a little closer on how I generally felt. Some days I do mix colors, there are great days striped with some anxiety, and I do that on the days when the anxiety or anger or exhaustion was so overwhelmingly noticeable, it had to be noted on the long run. I am so grateful for this spread! At the end of January I took a look at it and noticed way more pink days than I thought I would have had. Days where things were great and I was really happy with how things are going. I am looking forward to those days in the future and seeing how it all changes with a new house, family experiences, weather changes, all that. I think this is my favorite page in my journal!

Oh, "Inside Liv" is my daughter's page. She is journaling with me, and while she doesn't always sit down to do it, we are having fun sharing the time in the evenings when we do get to sit and fill in our trackers and dailies together. I encourage you to share this with your kids!

Those are a couple of my major spreads helping with my day to day mental health. Remember, this kind of thing is no substitute for seeing a professional, it is simply a tool I am using to help manage my day to day with my depression, anxiety, and OCD. I hope that some of this helps you with finding ways to help yourself in your own bullet journal. And check out Pinterest for ideas on other mental health related spreads and blogs. Research before you jump into something like using a bullet journal to help manage problems, because sometimes what works for someone else could really be a bad idea for you!

I wish you the best of luck with your spreads and journal. I would love to see what you have in your own journal! Feel free to share in the comments or find me on Instagram or Tumblr (I am trying to increase my presence on there, so be patient) to share with me! Have a beautiful February!

Something I have written in one of the blank spaces on my dailies, right next to my goals. This spot is used for doodles, stickers, quotes, or even just left blank. My mother shared these words with me and it touched my soul.