I have a million notebooks, so I wrote a very important scheduling note on the back of a Target receipt today. Go figure. Time + opportunity.

LOVE the pen swatch pages! I don't have the patience to do that.

Snickety biscuit 😂😂😂

I have a kind of 1 on 1 page, but I worry about others getting to see what I’ve written. How are you managing this?

For me, I have 2 separate planners. For work, I just started using OneNote with a setup from Planning Annie that has proved very effective for me. I have 4 different teams to track and their areas are all completely different. I show my boss her page I have set up for 1:1's and she is always amazed at the organization. For home, I BuJo, but mostly I like to do daily journaling to help me remember stuff I did or plan out future items to remember. Got inspired again by you two, thanks.

Jess- thank you for transparency. I would feel guilty about not using content I insert or missing a day of journaling. Mark-you are inspiring indeed. Everything you said was spot on about why guys may not post. I BuJo for a lot of years, not as creative. But it helps my brain remember and feel at ease. Is there somewhere we can share a layout that was inspired? Would be willing for one here or there.

I love the conversation about having different handwritings. I have multiple I can switch between, and one of them I stole from a classmate in 11th grade.

Right now, I have a crazy list of apps that I use for dailies and trackers that I couldn't live without. However, in my printed planner that I decorate with *all* of the stickers due to inspiration from Jess, the must have is the monthly goal write up and review spread. I got into yearly themes (CGP Grey/Cortex) several years ago and started doing level 10 life yearly, but my planners insistence on review to goals and then it pairs weekly goals with weekly thankfulness is such a life changer! I feel more fulfilled as I am living more intentionally and have healthier levels of expectations for myself. The honorable mention fun page is my yearly list of first bird sighting by species for the year. I have this list in chronological order, but I also have a special symbol if they visited my bird feeder and if they had baby birds.

Mark: for the calendar future log, what if you had the page open up like an old paper map? Like a tipin.

I started bullet journaling in 2015. I was rigid with following the "rules". Over the years I have adjusted it to fit my needs. In general, I learned that I have no problem doing it the way that works for me. I need a pretty monthly and weekly spread, that keeps me motivated. But I rapid log my daily still. I also took my collections out of my main journal. They now reside in their own journal. Biggest thing I learned so far has been to keep it relatively simple. Glad I found your podcast. I can't wait to watch the rest.

Currently, my ride-or-die is a weekly dashboard, with space for an overview of events and major date-specific tasks, an Alistair tasks and habits list, a tiny space for shopping, a lot of space for entertainment (mostly books), and some overflow tasks and highlights. I conceptually love but rarely use health trackers of all kinds. I’m working on setting up a reading journal in a B5 because my bullet journal is A6 and I read too dang fast, but I keep changing my mind on what collections to include and how. Honestly, at this rate I might go back to the idea of a long term reading journal for series and authors and TBR and Wishlist and books listed by sub-genre/trope and beloved books, and another for straight chronological mini reviews and monthly stats. I have family with chronic health and I’m typically the ‘ambulance’ driver for late night hospital trips, so I’m putting together a little overview of their meds, conditions, etc to make it easier to fill out the intake paperwork and repeat it all to the Dr/nurse. I highly recommend this if it sounds at all useful to you. Packing master list- I don’t travel often, but whenever I do, the assist for things like making sure I have charge cables, batteries, any required adaptors, bottled water, mini first aid kit, and one or two items for unexpected weather changes… the kinds of things I usually forget. Getting to my hotel last year with a vicious migraine, taking my meds with water that was so chlorinated that I think it was worse than just not taking the meds >_<

For Mark’s calendar/future log problem, Jess got you most of the way there, but if the numbers being the wrong way would stress you out, number stickers over the page numbers? That way they could be oriented to the calendar

I actually love a pre-printed planner! That’s the planner that sits on my desk at work because it’s perfect for a weekly/daily plan. I can fill it out Friday afternoon for the next week and glance at it every morning for a quick overview of what needs to be done today. But I also like carrying a notebook with me for everything that is not part of a “day planner”. I like having a place to take notes, log certain things that are important to me, and store certain collections that I reference a lot. That one is more customized and goes with me everywhere.

I can't live without a seasonal dashboard! They don't always have the same elements but I usually have a seasonal bucket list in there. It helps me understand the passage of time.

I separate my work and home planners.My work bujo has a very basic weekly spread with a small section along the top of the spread for weekly events and then then the rest of one page set aside for notes and the other page is an Alistair method task list (since I tend to work on certain tasks over multiple days and it is too repetitive to write them out again each day) I have a yearly overview that I use for leave and holidays, but I don’t set up monthlies as we have our work outlook calendar for that… I just pull the important events into my weekly spread each Monday.. My personal bujo is a more creative space. I have a lot of yearly collections/trackers, but my personal planning is done on a monthly basis (no weeklies or dailies). I set up a monthly dashboard spread with a calendar at the top and below sections for tracking tasks/chores on a weekly basis in an Alistair method, a to buy list and a books read tracker. This is left open on my kitchen table at all times as a reference, so my family members can see any events or add to the things to buy list. I set up all my calendar dashboards at the start of the year without decoration and add the decorations as the month arrives. Then I just add new collections/notes pages as needed throughout the year.

I don't consistently do it but I enjoy using my monthly calendar for no-spending tracker in my personal life (When did I last buy a book or that fancy coffee); bills and paydays. Boy did that help me see where all the extra money went to! 😧 I also keep a research journal. One spread is a list of all the things/person/event I want to research but don't have the time to just then. I don't reference them often but I enjoy filling up one more notebook.

I'm from the Netherlands and we had to write with fountain pens. That's where I know them from. I have a few around from my childhood actually. And I still use them, at times. Just got them out again and added a Lamy Safari to the line-up. I do use cartridges, but want to get into ink them with convertors. At least for the Lamy and Parker (see below). And for the TWSBI Diamond, Kaweco Sports and Platinum Preppy I want to get. I'm sticking to the 'cheaper' pens, like Mark. But I do have a Parker Sonnet I got a few years ago to review. And I might want an Esterbrook Estie. What about you, Mark?

This is such an interesting episode, thanks guys. Very inspiring!

I didn’t want to be this person and I had hoped someone else would mention it in a graceful way but here we are. And I know this video is a reflection of society and that in the future we will look at videos like this and cringe but it reflects society now. Women. Girls. Females is an adjective not a noun. Language is important here. Research the women’s vs female conversation. I couldn’t watch the whole thing but you mentioned dudes, men, guys. But for women it was….. females.

For the cadence, I like a routines schedule posted.

I love the one-on-one page idea (Mark) and the pen swatch in a collection book (Jess). I have a pentest in every journal because I keep switching journals. My number one is a Monthly grid: Prayers/Gratitude/Big Rocks/Highlights-Lowlights/Playlists/and Important dates. I don't always check the dates, but I really like seeing how my playlists change (and I add in books, videos, special songs) and what the big rocks were.

I know you probably already know this as I see mark is not in his typical background but the audio quality is kinda grating. I only got part of the way though, but I look forward to the next episode where hopefully this isn't an issue.

Oh lol. As I've been using 6 week cycles, my "calendar" has been top to bottom, so I can have 3 columns on each page and it just works out better. And somehow that also turned out to feel really natural. I seem to default to working top to bottom for some reason lol. I did have to add the day names though... cause I kept getting confused. I was like I have this appointment on this Wednesday.... so what box from the top is that?! 😅 that extra mind gymnastics was not needed in my opinion. 😂 (also because I have 8 boxes, with the row at the top being for week goals.)

yeeesss punk goes pop albums are amaziiing! love that and thank you for reminding me of those :D

We have a great solution for the shared calendar at home. We have one personal calendar each, and give insight to everyone else as well. BUT we also have a shared one for things that relates to all. (And another separate one with birthdays, and other yearly repeatable) (Also one ONLY with dinners) In addition, we used an OLD tablet and placed it permanently in the main comment area - this one also sees all the calendars - and since it's digital, it does update whenever someone changes their own plans. So all can see what going on on their own phone/PC, but also just glance at it while walking past. We ofc all have our own color, so it's easy to see if there is anything on it in your color or SHARED color. Hope this helps someone ^^

(soz for commenting so much lol but not really, i wanna be part of this convo) 5. Daily review (kinda same reason as the memories spread, i like to see what happened in a day) 4. Habit tracker (have i taken my meds? when did i last water my plants? how about read for fun? idk, but u know who does? my habit tracker) 3. Memories spread (i really like keeping track of all the little but good things that happen throughout a month that might get lost otherwise) 2. Weekly log (altho it’s not quite working as well for me now as it has been, i’m gonna switch to dailies next year i think, with weekly dashboards, so ig stay tuned lol) 1. Future log (if i had nothing else i would keep this, it’s the main reason i started bujo’ing in the first place)

43:16 i feel EXACTLY the same as Jess with the handwriting - my bujo is all caps, v small, excessively neat, bc i like it looking nice. my uni notes however. i use my normal handwriting and the very beginning of the lesson they are neat and it deteriorates the longer the lesson is, linking, italicising, getting all over the place. and i would never want my bujo to look like that.

I'm only halfway through the podcast, but I had to stop by and say YES TO MONDAY STARTS for monthly spreads. The weekdays and the weekends are separate mini units within the week, and it's so much easier to see them when they are side by side, not split up over different rows/lines.

The only spreads I repeat every month are a 2-page calendar, trackers (daily steps & sleep) and a to-do-list. Must-haves in my yearly collections: voluntary work dates and hours (so I can easily make my expense claim), Formula One, weight

I have been using the future log in the calendar form as well and it has been very helpful for me because my company that I work for plans a minimum of 3 weeks ahead and sometimes months ahead and it is easier for me to make sure I am not overlapping events. The list view type of future log just didn't work for me.

At the moment my top 3 essentials are 2 page monthly, one page weekly and pre set up daily pages sometimes half pages sometimes full pages depending on what I am doing and of 4th would be my future log

Woohoo! Calendar future logs!! I definitely did that this year because I love the idea of bullet journals, but wanted to be able to have a calendar to plan future events on throughout the year! I felt like I needed the bigger calendars to plan with. I put each one sideways on a single page in a B5 size and that worked nicely. I think they're 5x5 boxes? Maybe 4x4? Then I did a little bit of a larger 2 page calendar each month and just propagated stuff over. But it was nice to be able to actually look at calendars as I planned ahead... will definitely keep this up next year!

I keep a master packing list for travel. Start with a packing list for a trip and with each subsequent trip add anything that wasn't already there. It really helps me with that am-I-forgetting-something anxiety. (Content warning: menstruation 🙃) I have a rather unusual period tracker that's a separate stacked bar chart for each period, where each filled grid square represents a product used with crosshatching indicating the absorbency level. I note how many days it's been between cycles next to the chart as well as the total counts for each absorbency. This not only helps me see patterns like when my heavy day hits, or if those patterns are changing, but also predict if a period will hit on an upcoming trip and how much product I'll need to pack. I used to do something more year-in-pixels-like, but I realized that view wasn't that helpful in getting the info I was actually looking for. My most successful layouts are those where I first think about what question I want to answer, and then think about whether a given layout will effectively answer that question.

For me, it's my Daily Log, Reading tracker, Workout Log, and Monthly. Fun to read through the comments to see what everyone else can't live without.

I’ve done both analog and digital. I’m LOVING using Zinnia… it’s so perfect for me! All the features I need, and ability to erase and redo, rearrange, etc. I’m still handwriting with my Apple Pencil, so I still have that physical experience. Perfect!!!!

My top must haves are the weeklies, to pay list, wishlist, chorelist, Kindergarten closing times, period tracker, reading tracker, and the cover page 😊 when I started bullet journaling I haven't had a cover page, because I thought it was uneccesary 😂 This year I only read one book so far 😅

After this episode I went to Apple Music and put on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Love Their Country. It’s been a fave for years. 🤠 Fun episode, you two!

After this episode I went to Apple Music and put on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Love Their Country. It’s been a fave for years. 🤠 Fun episode, you two!

“Try cold brew coffee” <ded> ♥️🤣✨ 5:58

I was so excited to see this topic! My top must haves-future log, monthly calendar, monthly dashboard, and my weeklies. Nothing too exciting, but I refer to these pages daily. Love you guys!

Some of my favourite cover versions, some show my age! Faith No More - Easy, The Ataris - Boys of Summer, 99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger, various covers by Reel Big Fish and a mash up of the Ghostbusters theme/Nine Inch Nails Hand that feeds.

I love that your lists were so different based on your different lives, jobs, and needs! I get exactly why what you presented would work and be important to each of you, but maybe not as applicable to the other person. It was great to see the contrast of different styles, areas of importance, etc. presented and how something that might seem “silly” or “boring” to one person could be an absolute necessity to another. It’s a good reminder that all systems and setups are valid, they just need to work for what you need and want.

In addition to my weekly and monthly spreads and my future log, which are essential to me, my must have collections are my reading collection (where I track the books I read, my reading goals and challenges, my series, etc.), what I call my Lupus Tracker (which I use to manage my chronic condition and keep track of symptoms,, treatment, etc.) and my Check this Out page (I have separate spaces for food, events, places and other). Thanks for another great episode!

You're Brilliant Mark! I'm naming my future me problems lists.....Dopamine Hits! LOL

I did a pen/color swatch page for the first time this year and I go back to it pretty often. I also live on my weekly’s

mark, if you want to figure out how your future log/calender will look in your next journal with it being a different size, you should totally use the excel bullet journal spread planner from Jess 😂😂!! theonly problem I have with digital swatching is that screen colours differ between devices, and I just can't get an accurate representation, whereas I can on paper.

The absolute musts for me is my "Into His Word" spread to track my daily devotionals, a Memory page, and my daily journals.