My New Year Bullet Journal Setup – It is Finally Here!
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After a long and difficult year, I sat down to plan out my 2021 bullet journal setup to get myself ready for a new chapter.
It’s Nearly Over
2020 has been a doozy. A global pandemic, lockdowns, political unrest, marches, movements, and the presidential election… it’s been a lot. And that’s only scratching the surface of all the wild and chaotic garbage that this year has thrown at us.
The whole year wasn’t entirely terrible, but I am not sad to see the last of 2020. I decided to channel my energy into my 2021 bullet journal spread so I can put the past behind me and focus on the year to come.
My Supplies
- Archer & Olive Watercolor Dot Grid Journal
- Daniel Smith Watercolors
- Colirocolor Gold Watercolors
- Ceramic Palette
- Princeton Paintbrushes
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen
- Sakura Micron Drawing Pen
- Prismacolor Colored Pencils
Watch My 2021 Bullet Journal Setup
Goodbye 2020
The first thing I wanted to do in my new year bullet journal setup was acknowledge the closing year. This is where I reflected on the new experiences I had, the lessons I learned, and the best moments of the year. I put all of this together on a single page where I immortalize the big stuff.
In 2020, everything was overshadowed and affected by Covid-19, so it only made sense to put Covid in the center of my spread. I considered leaving this out of my memories page, thinking that I should focus only on the good memories. But I realized that it was impossible to imagine any of the other memories without recognizing the touch of Covid as well.
Besides, there were some pretty excellent memories despite Covid! Some close friends brought their first child, Liam, into the world. I launched my brand new shop and started selling art for the first time. And we also added a new puppy to our family! There were several things to be thankful for this year.
Flushing the Year Away
On the page immediately after, I created a simple goodbye page to close the chapter on 2020. I started with a blue and purple wet wash, but I started adding little shapes on a whim. Then I built them up more and more until I realized I was painting a proverbial toilet flush to close out 2020. I chuckled at my own accidental symbolism and left it as was. It’s a fitting end to a shitty year.
Hello 2021
After I finished closing the chapter on 2020, I did the most obvious thing: I started a new chapter.
I turned to a fresh page, picked some warm colors, and welcomed the brand new year into my life with a beautiful cover page.
Word of the Year
For the past few years, I’ve tried to pick a word of the year to help me focus on my overarching goals. I decided to select “Journey” as my word of the year in 2021.
When thinking about the year ahead, so much is still uncertain. We don’t know when we’ll be able to break lockdown, travel, or generally return to life in a post-Covid world. The past year has forced some major changes to the way I run my business, and I’ve struggled more with mental health than ever before thanks to quarantine. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I do know this: it’s only a step in my journey.
I wanted to remind myself that despite whatever life may throw at me, I am only in the middle of my journey. This journey is going to take me to strange, unfamiliar places where I feel uncomfortable. I’m not supposed to have all the answers or react perfectly. I’m going to run into obstacles and struggle to overcome them — but I will overcome them. I always do.
Level 10 Life
Every time I sit down to create my new year bullet journal set up, I always want to take a minute to create a brand new Level 10 Life. This super simple and powerful technique is a great way for me to check in with several different aspects of my life and see where I might improve.
Never made a Level 10 Life chart before? See how to make your own here!
This Level 10 Life was interesting to create because, as I said, Covid touched every part of my life. I noticed that this year I felt pretty good about how I was able to give to my community. Covid, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the election gave plenty of opportunities to speak out and donate to causes I believe in.
In addition, I was pleased to see that despite the challenges of the year, I still felt more creatively engaged, more financially secure, and more strong in my marriage with Jon than ever before. However, I noticed a few categories that suffered this year. I haven’t spent a lot of time on my spirituality recently, and the fun in my life has taken a hit thanks to our inability to travel or see friends in person.
2021 Goals
Armed with my Level 10 Life assessment, I turned the page and went about setting some goals for the year. I don’t believe in resolutions, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like thinking about how I can improve myself in the year to come.
I brainstormed specific and general ideas for how to improve upon or maintain my satisfaction in each area of my life. This simple listing of my goals gives me something of a roadmap to refer back to from time to time when I’m feeling dissatisfied or lost.
Some of these goals won’t get the attention they need to flourish, while others will grow and become more ingrained in my everyday life. That’s okay! I’m not trying to fix everything in a single year. Regardless of how much I end up working towards certain goals in my life, I still like to do this exercise every year so no sections of my life remain neglected. If I’m aware of a problem and face it in my journal, I’m more likely to fix it when I have the opportunity.
Affirmations for 2021
For the final page in my 2021 bullet journal setup, I decided to do a simple affirmations page. I thought it would be helpful to sum up my overarching goals for the year and put them into affirmations (in lieu of an affirmations log).
That way when I reach an obstacle or find myself struggling, I can draw upon one of these pre-planned affirmations to help me get through. I’ll rewrite these five affirmations and hang them somewhere I can see every day so I can use them again and again.
Looking Forward
I am frankly exhausted with this year and I’m relieved to bid 2020 farewell. We have no guarantee that 2021 will be any better, but if we all put our minds to it and work hard, we can make the best of whatever happens next. The world is out of my hands, but I have the power to change my choices, my goals, and my life. And it all starts with my decision to look ahead with optimism.
If you’re looking for more new year’s inspiration, you can see all my new year related articles here!
Love you website! By the way there’s a problem that I’ve been encountering: Right after I set up a new month, I discover a super awesome theme for next month, and that kinda makes me not want to use this month’s spread.
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If you use weekly spreads, you could always use your newly discovered theme for your weekly to make sure you can use it right away! Or you can have a list in your journal with monthly theme ideas and collect all the cool ones you come across into an easy to reference list. I hope that helps!
I appreciate the content you post so much! You’ve inspired me to start my first bullet journal this year. Although I was nervous about messing up at first, using your spreads and examples as a guide helped me feel confident enough to take out my art supplies and get going!
That is AMAZING, Muniba! Congrats on getting started and building confidence! May your 2021 be full of even more growth and planning fun!
Hi Shelby,
Just wanted to put it out there, how greatful I am that I found you on the web. I love the fact that you are constantly stating that with a bullet journal there really are no rules, just do what works for you and that’s what I love. During Covid, we went from a family of 2, to 3, then 4, then 7, {3 generations living together} thank heavens for my bullet journal, as it’s so adaptable. it also meant that once everyone was asleep and things were a bit calmer, I would do my “check” of the day, make some notes, look at what needed to be done the for the next day, and if I had the energy would do some jazzing up of my journal. I just loved that looking at what you gave as examples, somehow gave me permission to make it mine, and my way. So a big thank you for that. Your grocery template has been an absolute time and money saver, to say nothing of no longer writing out a shopping list and then losing it. Even though we went through a very rigid stage 4 lockdown, if I had a diary it would be empty, but by bullet journaling I realised how incredibly busy I was, {very interesting to reflect on}.
Just looked at what you have put out for 2021 and love all your ideas. I have bullet journaled now for 18 months, ready to start 2021 journal and it’s only now I know how I want to set mine out, what I want to include and what for me doesn’t work, however in saying that who knows………..
To everyone have a very wonderful and blessed Christmas, lets try and be kind to each other, please all of you stay safe and to Shelby a huge thankyou.
I am so so happy to hear that you have gotten the confidence to make your journal unapologetically YOURS. That is something that can be hard to come by, but boy does it make all the difference! It’s wonderful to hear how helpful your journal has been in keeping your household organized in a world of utter chaos. I hope the world settles down in 2021, and barring that, I hope you continue to find new ways to keep yourself organized and mentally on top of things this year. Thank you so much for this wonderful comment and Happy New Year!
Hi! I have posted a comment like this on your 2020 bullet journal set-up, but then I saw your 2021, so I decided to post it here too. I’m sorry if it bothers you!
“I’m starting bullet journaling this year, well at least I planned to, but I am not much of an artist, I can merely draw a stickman. I am not a very organize person, either. It’s also hard for me to draw charts, diagrams, etc stuffs like that for the bullet journal. And because I’m 12, I don’t have the money to buy a dotted notebook. I currently only have one dotted notebook with 224 pages. I have watched some video about bullet journaling and they used more than 1 dotted notebook in a year. My life is very dark right now so I want to find some spark in it if I can.”
Hey Lisa! It sounds like you’re right at the beginning of your journey. It’s okay if you don’t know how to do things right now. You’ll learn with time! My first bullet journal wasn’t nearly as pretty or organized as it is now. Over time, you’ll learn what works for you and what doesn’t work. And don’t worry too much about whether you have a dot notebook or not — it’s not necessary! You can hand draw anything you want into your journal, even if the lines aren’t perfect.
All you need to worry about is getting started and having fun. Also, don’t worry too much about using your journal too fast. Some people use their journals super quickly, while others take years to get through one journal. If you find that you are using your journal faster, feel free to switch to something cheaper like a cute composition notebook. That way you won’t feel shy about using the pages and you can breathe easy.
I’m sorry that things are tough right now, but this could be a nice way to give yourself something fun to do. The trick is to not put too much pressure on yourself. The best thing I ever learned with bullet journaling (or really life in general) is Done Not Perfect. If you focus too much on making everything just right, you’ll miss out on all the fun. Remember that you are still right at the beginning and you’re not going to be good at everything overnight. Try your best, go easy on yourself, and don’t be afraid to try something new if a technique isn’t working! Every day is a new opportunity to grow and enjoy it.
I hope this helps and I hope you are able to have fun during the first steps on your bullet journal journey! Good luck and happy planning, Lisa ?
I have always loved your work, but just now learned you are a D&D fan! Me too!!! I miss playing with my friends so much. I would also love to learn how to DM, but I am not confident enough! I did buy Matt Mercer’s new book and it has three small encounters included. Since I know his words from Critical Role, I thought it would be a good start to learn. Love your work and thank you for sharing so much!
DMing is so intimidating! I’m hoping to get the chance to DM this coming year, I have so many fun ideas that I want to bring to life. I just need to learn a few things first. I asked for some D&D books from my brother, who’s a long time D&D dude, so hopefully that helps! I hope you get to play with your friends soon, it’s gotta be leaps and bounds better than playing via zoom like we are right now. Anyway, happy new year!
Given the mess of 2020 I feel like I should start 2021 in a new journal. But i don’t know how I feel about leaving about 1/3 of my current journal blank
I understand! I hate feeling like I’m abandoning a journal with lots of pages left. You could use the rest of that journal for random notes (I have a whole journal just for unstructured notes and chicken scratch), grocery lists and meal plans, or maybe even as a travel journal once travel opens back up again!
Love your web-site I am beginning bullet journaling with my niece, so this site has become my go to. Just a quick not about your 2021 Goals layout…you spelled Career-Carrer. Just thought you should know 🙂 Thank you so much for being such an inspiration.
It’s not my spread unless there’s an obvious misspelling in it ? Thanks for pointing it out, I was waiting for it to show up! ?
I love the colors of your drawings. I have a brand new, fresh journal and I am starting on Jan 1st. I am a little apprehensive that I will mess up, but I am going to enjoy learning. I was trying to get ideas and am curious what read cards 1x a week means if that is not too invasive? I appreciate the fact that you left marriage therapy in there for us to see as I think that is a wonderful way to build a stronger and healthier relationship. I appreciate all your monthly calendars and now I will try to bullet journal because of the work you share. Happy and Healthy New Year.
Don’t worry about messing up, Anna, you’ll do great! I mess up all the time and I’m still getting better all the time. Someone just pointed out that I misspelled the word “career” in this very spread ?
I read Tarot cards for myself as a way to meditate and work through my problems, but I haven’t been doing it much lately! I’m hoping this year that I can get back into the habit of giving myself that quiet time to think and process. And I love talking about therapy! I love how it’s made our marriage stronger and our communications skills better. It’s a great way for couples to work out small problems before they turn into big problems.
I hope you have a wonderful new year, and happy planning!
I am a Tarot reader also! What deck(s) do you use? I have bunches of decks, but recently, my primary choice is Everyday Tarot by Brigit Esselmont. The simple illustrations don’t make my brain short out before I can even start reading the cards.
The Mystic Mondays deck by Grace Duong is another favorite. You and I seem to have similar tastes so I think you’d also appreciate the aesthetics of the deck.
Have you thought about creating a deck with your artwork? That is something I’d definitely be interested in purchasing.
I have absolutely thought about making a deck, but boy howdy that is a big project! My favorite deck is the Shadowscapes deck by Stephanie Pui-Man Law. Her watercolor artwork has been a big inspiration for me for the better part of the last decade! She does an amazing job making art full of symbolism, movement, color, and an incredible amount of detail. I’ll check out the decks you recommended, I love seeing how different people interpret the art into their own style!
I love this, and seriously admire your skill with watercolors! I too love them but am not even close to your level of skill… yet. I just wanted to ask: I tried a BuJo two years back and it didn’t really work for me. I burned out pretty quick as whilst I love being creative, I didn’t manage to fit it all in. One missed day turned into missed months and it was a bit of a flop. I have found a planner system similar-ish to BuJo that works for me, but it’s all black and white! Would you happen to have any ideas for me-ifying a printed planner?
-K.
I totally understand the burnout, Kiara! I regularly go through slumps where I don’t really use my bullet journal for months on end. It’s just a cycle that I’ve come to accept. There are thankfully lots of ways you can jazz up a planner that’s a little plain. Colored pencils can add lots of gorgeous texture and color. You can use a black drawing pen to add doodles in the margins, wreaths around headers, zentangles, or just about anything! Brush pens and highlighters can help you easily add color and shapes. And don’t forget about stickers! Stickers are super easy and incredibly fun. I’m sure you’ll be able to make your planner your own in no time!
You’ve done it again, Shelby. All of this is perfect, especially the Hello 2021 page. I’m in a gold-swirled marble phase and simple, clean layouts are my favorite, so I am totally digging it.
In the upcoming year, I’m saving my bullet journal for collections and using your Botanical Living system for my planning.
So looking forward to 2021!
Thank you so much, Heather! I love that you’re using your bullet journal for collections only. It’s a great way to have the fun of the bullet journal with some steady daily structure elsewhere. I definitely need that sometimes, too! I hope you have a stellar 2021!
Hey Shelby!! I love your art, its so inspiring. I was peeking at your goals, and I noticed that under Giving it says “Push causes on platform”. Does that refer to political causes? I hope you don’t start pushing political beliefs on your blog. Bullet journaling is my escape from worrying things, and politics are definitely on that list!
I don’t know exactly what that means yet, Abby! I suppose it depends on the definition of political. What some people consider a political statement I might think of as stating the obvious. For example, I’ve gotten angry responses because in my memories spread I state the fact that Trump lost the 2020 election. To me, it’s a notable event that occurred this year. To others, it felt like a political attack. I can only say what I feel, and some people will always find a way to make it political.
I care deeply about a lot of things in the world, like access to art, social justice, mental health, etc, and I have a chance to talk about those things in this space. Of course, I fully expect that some people will stop following me because of this, and that’s perfectly okay! No one is obligated to listen to me. I just want to do what I feel is right, and to me, that means being more vocal about issues that are dear to me.
That being said, I’m not going to stop putting out tutorials, guides, and other helpful posts! I’m moreso talking about starting discussions on social media, not so much on the website. I hope that answers your question!
I was snooping through your goals and saw that you’re a fellow D&D nerd! Honestly, if it weren’t for my weekly games, I don’t know how I would have survived the quarantine. My group is more than just my friends. They’ve become my extended family.
On topic – I love how simple your layout is. Some of the yearly layouts I’ve seen are so stuffed that I feel it loses sight of the bujo purpose.
I am a brand new D&D nerd, actually! I’m only about a month into my very first campaign, and I’m HOOKED. This has been a fantastic way to virtually hang out with my friends and engage in an immersive entertainment experience. Where has this been all my life?
And thank you, I’ve been needing simple lately! I just don’t have it in me to get all fancy with my layouts, not this year ?
I’m a brand new D&D nerd also! My fiancè was a Dungeon Master in the late 80s and early 90s and he has told me so many stories that I knew I just had to try it! Im excited to meet other D&Ders ?
I’m quickly learning that it’s quite the community of creative people! I was even talking to my mom yesterday and learned that she was into D&D in her early 20s! Blew my mind, I never knew. It’s such a fun way to connect with people and build something fantastical together ❤️