september bullet journal plan with me・paper trail plans・pumpkin

[@CaffeinatedPhoenix]

I love watching your memory planning and admire it because it is not in my wheelhouse. I have always done bullet journaling and a planner. Stickers are an easy way to set things up really fast which is great when you don’t have a lot of time. I use and love a balance of both, but you are going to have to find that balance of what brings you joy and what works for your business.

[@lustrousplans]

thank you for your insight! I agree, stickers make setting things up much quicker - unless you’re extra AF like I am 😅😂 that’s so true though, it’s all about finding balance!

[@shawkins79]

I love them both! I’ve been a Bujo girlie for years and always wanted more deco, washi, and layering kits so I’m super excited for the decorative and journaling kits that are coming out. I tend to buy the journaling kits, the decorative kits, and the weekly kits and use that all month in one massive theme. I wish more shops had mega bundles for sale.

[@lustrousplans]

thank you for sharing! I love hearing about what people are drawn to when they're buying from full collections. I'm curious how you incorporate weekly kits into your bujo spreads, because that's something I'm considering trying out too! also a very good point about mega bundles, that we'll have to consider for our own shop! do you mean the full decorative kit, all the add-ons, and the weekly kit all in one bundle? that's a great idea! I know that the pretty pink co does something akin to that, at least with her weekly kits!

[@TiffanyOGrady]

I am so enjoying watching your process and hearing how you think through your choices. I am doing both memory keeping and a journal like this. One thing you don’t have is “Quotes”. I think “Health” might be another good one.

[@lustrousplans]

ooooh thank you for those suggestions Tiffany! they’re wonderful 😍

[@Jamieplanswithcats]

I am excited for the habit trackers. I will be doing a glow up plan and I’m hoping that they , trackers will come back in style.

[@lustrousplans]

ooh a glow up plan! tell me more!! also, are you wanting just plain old habit trackers like there used to be? or do you have any ideas for how to modernize them? we’re not opposed to bringing habit trackers back to the shop in some form!

[@zSydir]

I loved this!! I can never keep up weekly with my memory planning, but I do manage to do a BuJo set up monthly. That's a lot more doable. Currently I use PET tape and washi tape as my main decorative components, and I use a decorative sticker kits from sterling ink, or sadies stickers in my actual journal. Maybe next year I can pile them together... and do stuff like this! As for journaling label likes things, perhaps "line a day" or "one line a day"? I don't know how big that could be made, though... but yeah, great work! Loved watching and seeing it come together!

[@lustrousplans]

@@zSydir thanks Emma! I’m glad you enjoyed 🥰 yes! bujo definitely feels more manageable. I like the line a day idea!! we’ll definitely try to include it if we can ☺️

[@laurelmeng5086]

I've done weekly memory planning spreads for so many years and next year I'm finally letting go and sticking to a A5 Hobonichi Cousin instead. I've been testing an Avec for the last month and I'm really enjoying it. To be honest, the cost of getting a different weekly sticker kit has been taking its toll! Also there were weeks that I just got really busy this year and I skipped over those weeks entirely because the hours that it would take to sit down to lay down a weekly spread just weren't happening. I think the cousin will be easier to keep up with. But I'm gonna make the most out of my large memory planner for the rest of the year and I'm gonna go back before the year is over to fill up those missed weeks! I don't think I can switch entirely over to a bullet journal because I benefit a lot from having some structure on the page. And my Cousin will still be about memory keeping, so I guess I'm doing a best of both worlds situation :)

[@lustrousplans]

thank you so much for sharing your experience, Laurel! I hope that the Cousin works well for your purposes, but it sounds like it’s a good compromise for your style! and you’re so right - weekly kits do indeed add up 😂 and I was finding that I was only realistically using half of most of my kits, so it really doesn’t feel worth it! especially when you can stretch decorative kits between multiple weeks!

[@Journalesq]

My journal peace appears to be my B6 for every day journaling and calendaring and my memory planning and a TN for my notes/budget. i used to have a BUJO and phased out of it after getting into memory planning. But with that said, I do have a lot of weekly kits. Enough for years so i’m enjoying the journaling focused stickers that have been coming up to beef up my B6. s

[@lustrousplans]

@@Journalesq that’s good to know! I think my thing is that I don’t wanna have to keep up with a bunch of different planners - I’d rather have one that I can use for everything you listed 😂 but that’s really hard to achieve I feel like lol. thanks for your insight Lisa!!

[@susanneplans6750]

Nah, the leaf pile isn’t tiny, it’s just really far away - it’s all just perspective, right? 😂

[@lustrousplans]

@@susanneplans6750 you right 😂

[@kellycarrillo2153]

I am TERRIFIED of everyone changing to doing more journaling and letting go of Memory Planning, I've been scared of this change for a year now and I am so so sad. I do not want to stop doing Memory planning in a A5 planner and I am scared that not enough people post spreads so everyone just assumes that type of styling is over but it's not for me, I will be crushed if you stop doing A5 wide spreads .... if your shop stops selling kits as well i will cry for eternity please people dont stop this type of planning!!

[@lustrousplans]

@@kellycarrillo2153 thanks for your input Kelly! I think part of the struggle is also that there are so many shops releasing weekly kits, and there are only so many weeks in the year, so it can feel hard to compete 🤷🏻‍♀️ we’ll definitely keep your input in mind though!

[@ImperfectPlans]

I love watching you create these! I want to try it but I feel like I wouldn't use it lol I'm so used to the weekly memory spread layout but I also feel like I'm "outgrowing" it for lack of a better term. Idkkkkkk lol

[@lustrousplans]

@@ImperfectPlans I feel you, ngl it’s been hard to remember to use it everyday 😂 but I’ve been getting better about it. I eventually wanna add a bill tracker section, and maybe even a daily section, so it feels more functional and useful, but for now I’m mostly just doing it to stretch my creative muscles 😂 I definitely get what you mean about outgrowing it! the more creative we’ve been getting with layouts, the more limiting the columns start to feel lol

[@sweetlikehoneyplans2728]

This is so gorgeous! I too am enjoying more journaling and not as much memory planning in the traditional sense. But I’m still delusional enough to think I might pick it back up because I DO love it…so I buy all the things 🤦🏼‍♀️ So don’t worry, I’m taking part in my own enabling haha sorry not sorry? 😂

[@phamerina.planning]

(I'm sorry I wrote so much, but I have so many thoughts because I am someone who came over from the bullet journal community) I think it’s kind of a grass is greener situation. Or the shiny new thing situation. (Not that that’s bad, but I think there is always a freshness when you get into a new hobby.) But it's funny how something as simple as taking the columns away can change everything. I personally think that's why the tilted boxes is really big and using the bottom washi not in the bottom and the horizontal/double decorative sidebars as well as all of these layering elements. And maybe it's the smaller size that helps to since it makes everything feel so much fuller and you need to do less to create that effect. Does it being bound in a book have an impact on your thoughts? Because what if you had the unicorn paper without the columns. Probably use the dot grid to have some sort of guidance. Do you think that would change your thoughts on doing the standard weekly spread? My read on the situation is that those of us who love being decorative in our bullet journals but don’t have the artistic ability to make it come to life, will be coming into this, especially with all of the journal kits and deco kits available. PET tape and stamps were big in the community a while ago and I am seeing a shift into stickers/simple themes while others continue with their art because they are artistically talented (using paint, markers, rather than washi tape as a main element). There are a few bigger bujo names that have patreons where they send out their stickers that they design (PlanningWithKay, MochiBujo). Archer and Olive have their own sticker sheets that are popular (they have a kit club where they send out some papers and stickers to make monthly spreads). And Notebook Therapy has smaller collections sort of like The Giving Girl’s Twinkle Tuesday. Also, I am playing with the idea of going back into previous years and doing weeks that had major events in them (birthdays, weddings, fun outings). I believe that this is something Dani is doing for her memory planner for previous years. This might be the best compromise if people still wanna make use of their weekly kits and do their memory spreads but want to dedicate more time to doing this kind of journaling. I have pretty much adopted making use of leftovers in my bullet journal and building spreads around them. Very much like my memory planner, I am just going with what catches my fancy at the time. Habit trackers is very much about building routines! Even if you don’t get into it every day, as long as you check-in and be honest with yourself, then you’re successful. One spread that I use every month is a “Memory” spread, which I guess everyone else calls “Highlights.” But that’s where I stick my photos for the month and other little ephemera. I also do “meal tracking” where I log what we had for every meal, but mostly it’s to track when leftovers were originally made. And another variation on “highlights” is “One Line a Day”. I prefer one line a day because it doesn’t really place a mood on the statement. While a highlight isn’t necessarily always positive, my association with that word is generally positive. So in my head, if I just say, I’m going to write one line about my day, it can be positive, neutral, negative. Another thing I used to do in my bujo was “Year in Photos” where I would have one photo that was my favorite memory for that month next to all the other months and I would be able to see my entire year in 2 spreads or 1.5 if you used a Dutch door.

[@lustrousplans]

I’m so sorry this has taken me forever to respond to, but I appreciate your thoughtful comment, thank you!! it definitely does have that shiny new thing element, but also it would mean going back to my roots in a way, which excites me… I do think using inserts instead of a bound book could be fun, and have been toying with that idea, since Sadie’s has simple dot grid inserts. that could be a fun way to bridge the gap between bujo and memory planning! also, I hesitate to even call what I’ve been doing bujo, because it doesn’t quite feel like the right term for what I’ve been doing? idk if that’s just me feeling like an imposter though, since a lot of bullet journalers consider bujo to require drawing your own art and making it yourself as opposed to using stickers 🤷🏻‍♀️ I love hearing about the categories you use in your journal! I agree - line a day is better than highlights so that it can capture the whole vibe of the day, even if it wasn’t positive. we’ll definitely include that in our next wave of bujo labels!! thanks Kat 🥰

[@phamerina.planning]

@@lustrousplans No worries about taking a while to get back. There was a lot to go through and you got a lot of other things to worry about. I believe when I originally wrote that comment, I wasn’t aware that you did bullet journaling originally. Like I said, it wasn’t a knock on anyone, but it’s definitely something that is a factor for some people. I feel like I might have started to touch on this in one of my “Bujo With Me” but I think that’s definitely one factor that discouraged people from trying bullet journaling. The fact that the bigger names all have these aesthetically pleasing spreads that are hand-drawn. And that’s nothing against those people, but when people see the artwork being hand-drawn and not being able to achieve that, it’s like a barrier. Bullet journaling is fundamentally not that at all. What you’re doing is bullet journaling because of the fact that it’s so versatile and flexible. A bullet journal is supposed to serve your needs, regardless of how pretty it is. I know that for a lot of people, including myself, being pretty is kind of important. But the fact that the spreads need to be handdrawn is not a “prerequisite” for your bullet journal. That’s why I’ve wonder if here is a shift or movement into the more journally side of this because sticker shops are starting to “cater” to this crowd.

[@Jessica_Crease87]

Is the colorwash the transparent or matte?

[@lustrousplans]

the gingham colorwash? that was on washi paper, which is how I was able to tear it! :)