Gave up on my fancy monthly spread after 3 weeks straight

I spent like 4 hours making this really artsy monthly layout with drawings and washi tape. By day 10 I realized I was avoiding using it because I didn't want to mess up the nice pages. My actual daily tasks were getting scribbled on sticky notes instead. A buddy in my local bujo group told me he just uses a plain list with a highlighter and it clicked for me. Has anyone else had a pretty setup that actually made things harder?

3 comments

3 Comments

walker.julia2d ago

Same thing happened to me with my 2021 journal. Drew little mountain ranges and watercolor splashes on the monthly spread and then felt physically sick about writing "grocery run" on top of it. Ended up taping a blank index card over it just to get myself to use the darn thing. That whole "don't ruin the pretty pages" feeling is so real and so counterproductive. It's funny how the fanciest setups can actually stop us from writing anything at all.

thomas_price2d ago

Oh man, that's exactly what happened to me with my 2019 bullet journal. I went full Instagram aesthetic and then just felt paralyzed every time I opened it.

scott.olivia2d ago

Respectfully disagree though. That aesthetic pressure comes from social media, not from bullet journaling itself, and you can totally skip all that and just use a plain notebook and pen.