This year July is the month of the ocean! (For me anyway ). I’m late, as usual, writing this post. But I really quite like how it turned out, so I thought better late than never! and maybe I can keep this motivation to start August early to be on time for next months spread!
Life is always hard to manage, and I for sure haven’t mastered it yet (not that it really can be); but I have found my bullet journaling over the years to have become a little bit of a life survival guide for myself. How others find use and interpret it is entirely dependent on them, but I can account a lot of my improvements over the years to these monthly spreads.
anyways, here’s July
July Title Page
I got a little carried away on Minecraft recently, breeding my turtles for scutes to make my underwater helmet, so it felt appropriate to attempt drawing a turtle while I endlessly waited around for eggs to hatch and baby turtles to grow up.
Turtles do, however, fit a sea theme perfectly, and I do love turtles, so I hope I did this lil guy and his side eye some justice! I initially wanted to use watercolours, but I can’t seem to get the hang of colours like I can with shading.
July Calendar
We’re using bubbles this month! At first, only my title page had bubbles, but whilst trying out my previous washi tapes, I realized I wanted to change it up and start drawing my own borders. I’ve drawn a nicely spread-out calendar so I have plenty of space to make a note of any events, appointments, or just anything I wish to remember.
July Mood Tracker
I’m always a bit hesitant with my mood trackers, which is perhaps why I fail to commit to it. I think it’s the complexity of emotions; I can find it hard to tell, or what to me feels more like deciding, how my day has been. So I’ve mixed it up a bit this month and included productivity and simplified some of the emotions. It’s always more beneficial to find what works for you with the mood tracker options, to best keep track of your mental health.
July Habit Tracker
My habit tracker dilemmas are a bit similar to my mood tracker. As you can see, I hadn’t even filled it in before photographing this. I aim to use basic habits as well as ones catered to what I want to improve on, with a few examples: hydration, fruits and vegetables, reading, writing, yoga; another good range of options includes looking at any habits you’d like to quit, like drinking too many sugary drinks – you can add ‘No sugary drinks’ as a habit.
Unfortunately, I also made a mistake while writing out all the tiny numbers… but we move on and use this as a chance to learn to accept that things can’t always be perfect, and mistakes happen; you just have to move on (and not rip out the page and start again…)
July Finances
I’m sure you noticed the stickers by now. I have a little drawer of stickers I’ve collected over time; it’s still occasionally added to. I only had a few bubble stickers, so I incorporated a couple onto some pages, but still kept my drawn bubbles border vibe too.
Finances can be tricky, but one of the (annoyingly) most important requirements of life. I can find it hard to manage mine, and the autism and ADHD certainly don’t help. Every month I write out all my bills, when they’re due, how much I need to pay and have a tick box to show it as paid. With this, I’ve found it a lot simpler to ensure all bills are prioritized.
(Who can name the sticker👀)
July To-Do List and Schedule
Work and life are hard to balance; it’s one I’ve definitely not mastered. I’m not even completely convinced yet that I will (but that doesn’t stop me!). I’ve previously had the same ‘To-Do List’ page design for a long time. It was plain and maybe too simple. Whilst it helped me keep track of some due dates and tasks I needed to complete, it didn’t offer anything more. It was beginning to feel like a waste of space. So with added responsibilities in a job I’m currently working, I’ve tried to find something new, something more effective perhaps. Just in case, however, I find that overwhelming and lose out from my previous page, I added a smaller version in there too!
July Exercise Tracker
Another sticker to name here… but maybe you’ve also noticed how I’ve tried to match the stickers to the page (or maybe it’s harder to tell if you don’t know the characters; I’d love to hear some insights on that!)
I’m terrible at keeping up with exercise, and realistically, I need to redesign this one to be more specific. I’d like to incorporate a routine of sorts; like specifying 20 squats and 10 press-ups. I suppose I’ve made a ‘gentle’ start with that with my 10k steps daily goal, the rest are still a bit ambiguous. But hey bubbles!
July Brain Dump
My brain dump page is another ‘lazy page’. Whilst it comes in use as it is, it doesn’t offer anything more. I find it useful for writing down ideas or potential plans I want to remember, but even then, it doesn’t get used all that much. There’s no real motivation behind it yet.
July Weekly Spread
Am I overdoing it with the bubbles yet? I’d never really drawn bubbles all that much before my turtle drawing, but it does seem I found myself engrossed in drawing all those tiny little circles.
The weekly spread could be seen as the most important. If used correctly and designed toward your own needs and aspirations, it can help you keep track of your health, work, and personal life. My daily essentials include taking vitamins, drinking enough water, and my daily physio. I use the notes for any reminders like shopping, appointments to be made, or any tasks needed doing during any point in the week (like fixing the time on that clock…).
Bullet Journaling 
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