I’ve been keeping a journal since late 2016, and have found it both helpful and entertaining. I describe what I do as “bullet journal inspired”, although at this point, it’s drifted pretty far from the original bullet journal ideas, and I tend to focus more on memory and reflection than on organization. For 2023, I’m trying to incorporate some more long form writing, and more formalized review processes throughout the year.

My Favorite Spreads

This is a key organizational tool for me. I find the official time tracker at my job difficult to plan around, as it doesn’t have an easy way to show me how much time I will have available, factoring in future spent time for example. So, having a tracker like this helps me to see at a glance how much time I have available.

This is pretty simple to use. At the top, I fill in my available time, then I enumerate the specific days below. As I allocate time off, I fill in the days I took, typically with a short note for what I took them off for. Then I can see at a glance how much time I have available for the rest of the year.

And yes, I am fortunate to have a lot of paid time off.

Addresses and Postcards Sent

This is a simple tracker, but I get a lot of use out of it. Rather than carry a separate address book, I keep addresses for the people I mail the most in my journal. I also enjoy keeping track of how many postcards I send, and this is one way I do that. The right side of this spread tracks the days I send out a batch of postcards to friends and family, and who specifically I sent the cards to.

I like this setup for people who I mail regularly throughout the year, but it doesn’t really help for my card swaps (postcrossing & such). I don’t have a tracker setup I love for this yet, and I’m experimenting with a few things. Currently, I have a monthly page where I keep a tally of which countries I’ve sent cards to or received cards from that month.

Pen Pal Tracker

Over the pandemic, I got into pen palling as a hobby, and I have half a dozen people I correspond with somewhat regularly. This spread helps me keep track of them. I write down the date I last received a letter, and then the date I sent my reply. Each box will get one pen pal, and if I pick up more people to write to over the year, I may have to split some of the boxes in half. There’s no lack of space for tracking letters though. I’ll also write the addresses for my pen pals in their boxes, so they’re handy when I’m writing my letters.

Reading Log

I read a lot of novels, and this is where I track them. In addition to keeping this global list of what I’ve read, I jot down each day what I’m reading that day. I find it interesting to look back on my entries and remember what I was reading at the time.

I think most of my reading log is self explanatory, but the source column is kind of interesting. Basically, this is where I got the book. I expect to fill it in with things like “owned”, “library”, “humble bundle”, or (in the worst case) “amazon”.

In previous years, I had a column for Favorite Quote, but I actually found that made me want to fill it out less.

Hiking Log

This is new for 2023 in my journal, and inspired by this post on r/bujo. I’m not really sure if I’ll get a lot out of this spread, but it’s good to try new things and see what happens with them.

Monthly Main Page

The basic information I track here hasn’t changed in many iterations of my journal. The left side is for scheduling, and the right holds my intentions and memories for the month. I’ve slightly changed up the layout this year, and the accomplishments section is new.

Monthly Mood, Sleep, Symptoms and Self Care

I have my symptoms and self care on the left, and my sleep & mood on the right. Previous years, I’ve had the goals and highlights spread from above swapped with the sleep tracker here, but I think it’s better to have symptoms and sleep on the same spread.

The columns on the symptom and self care side are:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Exhausted
  • Trouble Sleeping
  • Zonked after work
  • Not engaged at work
  • IBS/Stomach issues
  • Headache
  • Sore Throat
  • Congestion
  • Coughing/Sneezing
  • Itchy eyes
  • Allergy meds
  • # Drinks
  • Left my office for lunch
  • Walking/hiking
  • Yoga
  • Time outside
  • Writing/journaling
  • Screens off by 10

For this iteration, I simplified my mental health symptoms to focus more on the specific things I’m trying to improve. I’m likely over-indexing on allergy symptoms still, which is probably less relevant since my treatment has been working better. I’m also not great at identifying self care activities that actually help. This is an ongoing issue, and the list above is my latest attempt.

How I Organize Goals

I do an annual goal setting exercise, in which I review the previous year’s goals and write an updated goals list for the new year. First, I set out a theme for the year, which helps me focus my planning. During the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, those themes tended to focus on just getting through the year, but as we emerge into a less acute phase of the pandemic, I’m hoping to have the mental space to focus on broader personal growth themes.

After setting a theme, I block out “big goals”. These are things I expect to take many small actions to support throughout the year, and I try to list some examples of those actions along with the goal. I try not to have too many of these, as it is easy to get overwhelmed, and then nothing gets done. A big goal would be something like planned home improvement projects.

I then lay out some “small steps”. These are things that are important to me, but are mostly one-and-done type tasks, or habits that don’t require a lot of planning. Small steps might be things like “check the 401k and rebalance if necessary”.

Finally, I include a “keep it up” section, for things I already have well incorporated into my life. I like to take some time to acknowledge and review these things, and make sure I still want to have them in my life.

When setting goals, I struggle with finding the right balance between aspirational and achievable. For a long time, I made goals that didn’t take into account what I already knew I had to do, with reasoning something like “well, I know I’m going to get to that anyway, my goals should be things I’m reaching for”. I now believe that to be counter productive, and try to set goals that acknowledge the reality of what I have going on. This is not just for the “keep it up” section, but also gets reflected in my big goals for the year and monthly specific goals.

End of Year Review

By The Numbers

I do one page where I track my “stats” for the year. What exactly gets tracked varies a bit from year to year, but generally includes books read (sometimes page counts if I tracked them), postcards and letters sent, vacation and sick days used, and similar things.

Major Events and Accomplishments

I also read back through the year and make note of any “major events”, with a date and a page reference. Major events can include personal milestones (e.g starting a new job), world events (e.g. the start of the pandemic), or just dates I want to remember (e.g. a friend’s wedding). This serves as a supplement to my table of contents, as I don’t always recognize that an event is something I’ll want to find later when I’m first writing about it.

Goals Review

I review my big goals for the year, and for each one I have four sections: How did it go; what made this hard; what helped with this; and what are the next steps. For smaller goals, I just make a few notes on how it went.

Quadrants

Finally, I do a four quadrant page with best of the year, worst of the year, what to carry forward, and what to leave behind.