Bullet Journaling Spreads: Monthly Logs, Weekly Spreads and Daily Logs

This post provides some of the reasons for why people use the monthly, weekly and daily spreads.

Before you read this post and if you’re new to Bullet Journaling, do check out the official site Bulletjournal.com. You can also read our post on Bullet Journaling.

First things first, what are monthly, weekly and daily spreads?

Monthly Logs (or commonly known as monthlies)

Monthly spreads are spreads that look like mini calendars. While they are usually like a mini monthly calendar (with boxes/grids), they are also sometimes done vertically.

Here are some examples of monthly spreads:
withkx | lisaaschwartz1990 | pensandbullets

Monthly Logs – Pros and Cons

Pros

• Used for big picture stuff like long events that span more than a day, so things like conferences, events, camps, holidays, etc 
• Helps you keep track of big projects – and the smaller deadlines in the project that leads up to the big one. 
• Plan in advance – as compared to weekly and daily spreads, you get to plan things 4 weeks in advance (if you start planning at the beginning of the month) 
• Monthly spreads do not just include a planning calendar but also allow you to have space to write a ‘focus’ or certain targets you want to achieve that month. See that in the post by squarelimedesigns.

• You can split work and personal life – if you use ONE bullet journal for EVERYTHING
• You prevent ‘overbooking’ or overloading – if your day is packed, you will know it at a glance 
• You will never run out of monthly spread ideas – the internet is full of them. 

Cons

• Monthly spreads can be time consuming. It can be even more time consuming when you realise you want to draw out every spread in beautiful elaborate detail. Here’s the thing – there are some people that take bullet journaling as a way for them to art journal. In that case, they may not find it time consuming to draw it out. However if you think it is time consuming, feel free to make it as minimalistic as you wish. After all, there is beauty in simplicity. 

• Somewhat linked to this is – many people feel very intimidated when they see the crazy beautiful spreads that others do on the internet for their monthly spread. They google ‘monthly spread ideas bullet journal’ and the result terrifies them so much they would rather not do it. Remember, the bullet journal method IS A METHOD to increase productivity, mindfulness and intentionality, and it is FIRST and foremost that. It is art second and getting things done FIRST. So you don’t need to draw all those things to make a monthly spread work, I repeat DON’T NEED TO! With that, enjoy some minimalist monthly spreads! They’re so aesthetically pleasing, neat, elegant and very useful monthly logs!

• Some people find it repetitive. They feel that if you use your monthly spread to write events, you’re going to repeat them in your weekly spread so why bother. If this is the case perhaps you don’t need a monthly spread, or you could just make a smaller one if you still wish. 

Weekly Spreads

Weekly Spreads are basically – seeing your whole week at a glance. It can be done in any way you wish, although many bullet journal enthusiasts do it more commonly in vertical or horizontal format. Here are some examples and ideas of bullet journal weekly spreads.

Weekly Spreads – Pros and Cons

Pros 

• TRACKERS!!! Firstly, the list of trackers to include in a weekly spread has overtime grown exhaustive. Just a quick search on the internet reveals these – there’s so many, you can find an enormous ton on inspirational spreads and ideas and layouts for trackers of them on Pinterest: 
  (Click the photos for links to the original posts!)

  (Source: Mashaplans.com)

  
  Source: pageflutter.com

  But the point is that – while many trackers are monthly trackers, no one said you cannot break them down into more bite sized, weekly tracker spreads. Trackers every week are 1/4 the monthly one and allow you to deal with each day and each week, one day at a time, instead of a whole month which can be frightening to some. 

• It allows you to plan the week at a glance – you can even plan by time if you wish. 
• You can migrate tasks from one day to the next easily, usually over the span of two pages, without flipping back and forth. 
• You can do it over one page or two pages – and you can put the second page to be just for tasks. 
• It works for ‘Planner’ people, those who want to combine the logic of the ‘rapid logging’ that Ryder Carroll talks about, with the structure of planners like the Erin Condren or the Happy Planner. 

Cons – there aren’t many 🙂

• Sometimes, your weekly spread feels more empty than usual and you wonder if it’s because you’re being unproductive. The solution is to other make it one page, or to make it together with your other spreads. 

• Not enough space per day – well, that’s what DAILY LOGS are for! Another solution – is to not make it over the space of 2 pages but to give half a page to a day!

Daily Logs

One of the best parts of bullet journaling for some people, is the ability to write down each and every single thing in their day. That’s what daily logs are for – tasks, events, appointments, reflections, just about everything and anything in your day. Here are some daily spreads for you if you need daily log inspiration!

Pros

• You can write as much as you love about your day!! It’s wonderful for reflection, journaling and rambling, as much as your heart wishes 
• You can decorate as much as you want you have so much space!!
• If you’re someone with a ton of tasks to do everyday, you can even break the day down by timing (as the spread does, above) 
• YOU DON’T NEED to decorate it if you don’t want to. Just start writing! 

• If you’re someone that does not want to fill in your journal everyday, you might rather choose the dailies over the weeklies. The weeklies leave a gaping empty space if you don’t fill it completely. The dailies allow you to start a new page even if you don’t finish the previous one. 
• There’s enough space for daily trackers also! 

Cons

• If you do one page a day you may not be able to have a whole year in a single notebook. Solution: buy another notebook!