Artline Monday - Birthday tracker for your bullet journal

It feels like it has been a while since we have done any kind of bullet journal spread so I thought I'd show you a nice and easy birthday tracker today.

Birthday tracker

I know you can add birthdays to your monthly log but if you have a place to record all the birthdays together it is easier to plan ahead for buying cards, presents and arranging celebrations too.

I started off by writing "birthdays" across two pages of my bullet journal with a Supreme brush marker, in magenta if you are trying to place the colour, and then drew six boxes with pink and magenta Artline 200 fineliners.  I halved the boxes so I had space for all twelve months and the wrote the first three letters of each month at the top of these sections.

To make things look a little more interesting I added backgrounds to the boxes by drawing a second shape behind them, either a little bit higher than the first box or a little lower and then drew diagonal stripes across them.

I also doodled a little banner on the right hand page and wrote "celebrate" inside it and then added a flora sticker in a small space I had left over.  

Now all that is left to do is for me to fill in the birthdays of all my friends and family!

I have written quite a few bullet journal posts over the last two years, including how to set up your own journal if you wanted to get started.  You can find all my previous post here if you are looking for some more inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - How to start planning

So it’s a brand new year and the perfect time to get organised!  If you got a lovely new planner for Christmas or treated yourself in the sales then I have some tips for you today to help you get started on your planning journey.

My planning tips - created with Artline pens

No matter what kind of planner you use the basics of planning are the same: 

• Write down any important dates and reminders 
• Take time to check and use your planner daily 
• Follow through with your plans (it's no good writing things down & then not doing them)
• Utilise to do lists 
• Colour code

For this post I will be showing you how I plan my month but you can also use these tips for planning your week or day too.  

A blank month ready to be filled in

The very first thing I do is decide what colours I am going to use for my colour coding, having a set colour for certain things means it is easy to spot the information I need even when there are a lot of notes on my pages.  

For January I am using dark blue for birthdays, light blue for my children, royal blue for my blog, grey for me, black for my husband and a blue highlighter for any bills or payments I need to make.  I made a note of this in the long, thin box down the right hand side of my page but as the month goes on I usually remember what each colour is for anyway.  Then it was time to fill in the month with my important dates and reminders.  

All my dates and reminders

I also add any money that will be coming out of my account by drawing a thick line with my highlighter and writing over it which bill it is for.

Adding bills & payments with a Supreme highlighter

I like to use a little bit of space to write down my goals for the month (or week or day depending on what I am planning) so I used a Supreme brush marker to create my own header for this and then added them to my notes section.   

Goals for the month

I also made another header for my monthly to do list.  These are usually things that I need to get done over the course of the month but not on a specific week or day.  On my weekly pages I have daily to do lists that include things like tasks and errands.

I use to do lists to help me achieve my big goals too.  Sometimes a goal can seem really far away and hard to reach so I try to break it down into smaller steps that I can complete and it feels less scary and more manageable doing it this way.

Monthly to do list

Now I have all this information in my planner I need to open it up and check it daily!  Every night before I go to bed I look inside to see if I need to prepare anything for the following day and then I check again in the morning to make sure I know what I need to do or where I need to be.  I also need to add more notes and reminders as the month goes on and things change or crop up, setting aside 5 or 10 minutes a day to do this really helps me to keep on top of everything!

My month so far

If this post has inspired you to start planning but you don't have a diary or planner then you can use a notebook and pen to get organised, check out my Bullet journal basics post for some more ideas and information.

How I plan using monthly inserts - a washi and decoration free post

Today I thought I would give you a peek at what goes on behind the washi tape in my planner.  I love decorating my weekly pages and having fun with them but the real reason I use a planner is to keep me organised.  That means I have to write everything down, I used to be able to keep track of things in my head but now we are a family of five there is just too much for me to remember!     

Planning in pencil

At the moment I am using the month on two pages inserts that came with my Webster's Colour Crush Planner.   As you can see I have already started filling in August, I like to plan ahead!  

I always use a pencil on the monthly inserts, these pages are my first stage of planning so things can end up being moved around or cancelled.  Nothing moves onto my weekly pages before I have scheduled it on these ones.

How next month is shaping up

When I start a new month the first things I write down are:

• Birthdays
• Direct debits and bills due
• Work hours

These are the most important things I have to remember, I then make a note of any:

• Appointments
• Deadlines and reminders 
• School functions
• Rubbish and recycling collections

I also use some of the undated boxes for either little notes or so I can see some of the previous month while I am looking at the current one.  For my August pages I added the 29th to the 31st July because my husband will be working those days and I wanted to see what that week looked liked without having to flip through between the two months.

There is a section on the right hand side of the monthly inserts which is for your Quick Lists.  I use this space to note down things I need to do at some point during the month.  My list for August is mainly about the school uniforms and supplies I need to buy before September and I have also written down the sizes I need.  

So that is how I use my monthly pages, I plan, I scribble, I rub out and rearrange until it all fits together and then I transfer it over to my weekly pages and add a splash of colour.   

Do you use monthly inserts too or plan week to week?