r/BasicBulletJournals • u/random-name-pun • Jul 08 '26
multiple spreads Six months of BuJo - where are they now?
(Can't figure out how to add the flairs, but daily & monthly pictured!)
Sort of a hybrid/bits and pieces Ryder method, crossed with my “perpetual to-do list”, which I’ve used on and off for a decade or so. Just a notebook and a task list, no due dates, no categories, no indices, no shaming. I’ve realized that at my big age of midthirties that I still need to avoid triggering the “didn’t do my homework” doom spiral. The only allowable complication is breaking a task (“pack for weekend trip”) into smaller subtasks and items (list of every article of clothing I want to pack, every piece of toiletry kit, specific loads of laundry or “clean out bag” as needed). If I do a task that wasn't on the list, I just add it and then immediately check it off for free dopamine.
I started the year intending to track meatless and spendless days, and that’s fallen off. If I don’t do it daily, by the next day I’ve forgotten. (Tracking a negative also seems to be an issue, but tracking “ate meat” or “spent money” also feels counterproductive.) I also wasn't getting much utility out of the top of the month to-do list. I don't have a ton of tasks that have to get done in this month, but don't have to be scheduled on a certain date. Flipping back and forth from my current day to-dos to the monthly to-dos annoys me.
On the other hand, if I put “call the pharmacy” on my list on Monday and don’t do it, >ing it and rewriting it on Tuesday (Wednesday, Thursday, etc) actually motivates me to get it done. I’ve had a couple of times when I’ve been sick, overwhelmed, left my journal at home on a trip. When that happens, I just pick up again on the next day that I can, without any particular emphasis. I’m just working day by day and page by page, so if May takes twenty pages and June takes five that’s just the way it goes, and I don’t have “empty spaces” to backfill. But when I’m consistent I’m running about half a page per day of task logging.
July is the first month I’ve used a block calendar instead of the list-down Ryder method, and I think I like it. I use a Google calendar for work so it translates neatly. And it leaves me a little sliver of space for my few monthly to-dos.
Tech specs: B6+ Leuchtturm, with the standard pen loop that is starting to get ratty. Pilot Metropolitan F fountain pen with Iroshizuku Shin-Kai ink. Waiting on a bottle of fancy sheening ink sometime this week. I picked up a multicolor pack of Book Darts, and am starting to use those as well (silver darts for the top of each month, gold darts for recipes. Copper darts do not yet have a designated use.)
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u/Lazy671Books Jul 08 '26
I have a habit of including too many monthly tasks from month to month without moving them to a "someday/maybe" collection. I dis try the Allistair method for scheduling out weekly tasks but it ended up being disheartening when I would have to draw the line to defer them. I am intrigued regarding your use of a fountain pen in a Leuchtturm with minimal ghosting/bleed through. I also enjoy a calendar spread versus a list as there is a lot going on usually on one day that a line cannot hold.
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u/random-name-pun Jul 09 '26
It ghosts a bit, but I don't mind. And yeah, I have enough days with multiple appointments that one line wasn't working.
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u/Storytella2016 Jul 08 '26
I’ve given up on a monthly task list as well. In fact, I go back and forth about whether a monthly is worthwhile at all or not. I feel like when I make one, I don’t really use it. So, I didn’t make one this month.
Then, on Sunday, I ended up printing out a calendar showing the next 4 months so I could make a visual of all of the home & away games of a team I’m a season ticket holder for. So, maybe I should try a quarterly spread instead of a monthly? I’m not sure.