Monthly Update (February 2021)

          Last month was a complete disaster when it came to my studies, my blogs, and my journalling. I mostly failed at adulting in that month. 

As you can see a lot of half done boxes and crosses. The only thing I really kept up was practicing my languages via the apps. 

          I decided that some bits of what I did last month were good but the rest had to be changed so that is what I did for this month as a trial.

          First let me start with the monthly review. I did that using my new glass dip pen set. 

I loved using the set, and it worked wonderfully with my new journals from Notebook Therapy. Some of the inks did ghost but not all of them. 

I had half a page of nothing so I decided to try and see how much water the pages of the journal can take...boy they can take a lot of punishment. I piled on the water and it didn’t warp much. 

Notice that because some of the inks had ghosted and I added water to the mix they showed up even more but the words on the previous page stayed just the same. So this journal can really take a lot of punishment. 

          Next I decided to work on my February cover page. I had a picture in my head of what I wanted to do then I sketched it out and used my new Ohuhu Acrylic markers and stamps to work on the picture. I like the end result!

          I also decided to not do a daily tracker but instead use a new format that I have been playing with last month. I have a weekly study log and I kind of have what should be done on any given day but if I don’t finish it by that day then I have the rest of the week to catch up. The important thing is that by Saturday everything has to be done. I did keep my monthly calendar the same with a little tweak to make the page look even and the boxes a little bigger.

The next spread is my goals, blog ideas and books read spread. These have not really changed.

I’m hoping this new way of doing things will help me get motivated and going.

Monthly Update - September 2020

           This would be the first month I try my new set up for my bullet journal. But first, let us look in on last month. The power sheet calendar had a few of my finished goals and ones that I didn't know I would finish in red.

Also, my tracker sheets in the power sheets and my journal were semi-complete too. I did a lot of work this month especially at the end of the month.

          The next thing I did was look at the goals I had in my power sheets combined with my power sheets calendar last month so that I could do the Month in Review page in my journal.

It was interesting how I was really enjoying answering the questions I put for myself as opposed to the ones in the power sheets, which are standard and for everyone. The purple pen I used for the title actually bled through to the back so I glued this page to the one below it to cover the bleeding.

          Next, I worked on the cover page for September. I decided to finally try using watercolor in my journal which is supposed to be watercolor friendly...It was and it wasn't. The paper did crinkle but once it dried and I put a book on top of it and it flattened out a lot then I glued it to the next page and it was fine. So next time I will probably use this method.

  

Next, I added some stickers and just wrote in September 2020. I like simple things I guess.

          The next page after the cover page was the calendar. It was easy to put together thanks to my doing all the planning and counting previously last month. I like how it turned out.

I added my dates and all my bills and I was set. If I need to add anything else after that I can just add it in.

          Monthly goals came next and I decided to just divide them into three sections which correspond to my three main goals. and add in my mini-goals.

          This page gave birth to my tracker page which was divided into pretty much the same thing plus a few extra tasks that I do daily and want to track. I also put in my weekly and monthly trackers on the same page. And of course some stickers to pretty up the empty spaces.

          Finally, I added my "Blog Ideas and Books Read" page. This page is a staple of my monthly setup and the easiest to deal with...unless I didn't have ideas for my blog...then it is hard.

Thoughts on my journal (Part 1)

          I'm sure you all know by now how much I like the Power-Sheets Journal and how it makes me think, but now that I have tried it for 7 months the verdict is in. While I love the current journal and liked working in it but I've also come to see its limitations for me. Some of the questions posed in the summaries of each month and a few of the questions in the 3 month check in don't work for me. I've been filling them in mainly because I hate leaving them empty. I've come to realize that the "Tending Sheet" is basically a big tracker (Daily, Weekly and Monthly), and I've got a perfectly good one in my journal. I also have come to hate the fact that I have two journals. I prefer just using one. Yep, I know in the beginning of the year I wanted many but now I realized that is not the kind of person I am. So starting next month I'm going to try my own system. I'm going to take what I liked from the Power-Sheets and add my own spin on it in my journal. 

I've counted boxes and this helps me know how to size my two page calendar.

This is what my monthly calendar will look like. I've counted boxes and know exactly where the lines should go. Our week starts on a Sunday so that is how I'm going to start my calendar.

This page is where I will break down my main goals into small mini steps and also prioritize my goals.

This is my "Tending Sheet" AKA Tracker page.

This is my month in review page at the end of the month. I love it in the Power Sheets, but I hate the questions on it so I changed that.

I'm keeping the "Ideas for Blog and Books Read" page, and next I'm going to think about how to structure my 3 month check in pages and the work that needs to be done up front each year... The second part to this might not come next week but it will come :-)

Monthly Journal Update

          It is a new month and so a journal update is in order. Last month was an abject failure in journalling but a sort of success when it comes to figuring out a bit more about myself and power sheets. I learned after adding some smaller goals to my power sheets that I needed more concrete bite-sized goals that go towards the big goal and luckily this month is when the power sheets give you the chance to look over your old goals and revamp them. So today I’m going to start with that. 

I didn’t actually take pictures of everything I did but I used to have more goes than this. I’ve streamlined a few and added more chunks to some. I have targets now, mini-steps that I take for the bigger picture. 

I filled out the other pages too which helped me mentally. 

So let me show you last month’s tending sheet. 

As you can see lots of days where things went to the dogs when it came to my language studies and I also felt like my tasks were not specific enough. 

Here is this month’s tending sheet.

Not many tasks but specific enough to let me have a more detailed approach. 

Now the power sheets calendar is where I keep track of my bills and when they need to be paid when to take my Humeira medication when to post my blogs and I record when I finished a set goal. So I did not want to clutter it with anything more and I hated that sheet they have at the back of the calendar to list mini-goals so what I did was add separate calendars for three different things I wanted to keep track of my Islamic studies, my Korean studies, and my Mandarin studies. 

As you can see...clutter! But organized clutter.

I'm also using Google Calendar to organize my lecture times as just writing them in my journal is not enough of a reminder. I have it set up to remind me of the classes 15 minutes before the lessons.

Now to my journal. The only thing I kept up with there is my tracker page, my idea blog page and my books read...even there weren’t many books read 😂

Here Are the opening pages for this month in my journal.

Now I vowed to myself that I was going to journal more this month because last month was a total failure in that regard and so far I have kept my word to myself.....but the month is only at its beginning...so we’ll see.

I did subscribe to a new stationery box from Japan so you might be seeing reviews of that every month! 

That is it for now!

Journal Update

          This blog was supposed to be up at the beginning of the month, but because I was so excited about my Suho Album and the Kpop news that came out it was delayed. So let's get into it. 

          For this month I decided to move into a new journal because the one I've been using only has about 10 pages left and I did not want to split May into two journals. 

So I went from this

to this.

I've been using it for a while now and I like its size and the way it feels.

          The only thing I migrated from my previous journal was my budget page. Then I added a cover page for May, a blog ideas page and on the same page Books Read. I also have a tracker page that I love using to keep track of things. 

Budget page. 

Cover page


Blog ideas and Books Read page


Tracker page. 

From my previous journal here are my tracker and books read pages. 

Blog Ideas and Books Read page April 2020


Tracker page April 2020

My Cultivate What Matters journal also had some changes. One of my goals has been put on hold for now. Another one of my goals has more tangible steps which will help me see progress. And around the 9th of this month, one goal was added to my list because of work. I’m going to try for baby steps with this goal just like the previous one. 

My Cultivate What Matters journal

April tracker page. The yellow is times I took the day off from a certain goal.

April assessment.

May calendar


May tracker. 

And this is my journal update for this month...late as it is.