We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Weekly planning in your bullet journal is, in my opinion, the most fun part. It’s where you can take a ton of creative liberties, test out new layouts and spread ideas, or you can keep it as simple as possible if you’re in a hurry.
The thing about your weekly planning is that you do it every week. That means that you’ll have way more chances to perfect this type of
In this post, I’ll be taking you through my weekly planning process as I do it myself. So get ready to follow along and make your plan with me!
Flying by the seat of your pants
I wanted to note before I got too carried away that it’s ok NOT to do a weekly spread. If you’d prefer, you can keep your week open to exclusively rapid log.
That means all you do is write “Monday” then transfer over anything from your monthly task list/events section that are happening. And that’s it. Then on Monday add anything else that you need to do or things as they come up.
At the end of the day check off things that you did then write “Tuesday” whenever on the page you are. Move things that you didn’t get done on Monday to Tuesday and repeat.
This is the simplest form of bullet journaling and if that’s your style you’re all set to go.
If you want to have a bit of a bigger picture by planning out your whole week in advance, as I usually do, keep reading.
Choosing a layout for weekly planning
Choosing a layout is arguably the hardest part of your weekly planning.
When you’re doing this, I recommend taking 2 things into consideration,
- How busy is your week?
This will let you know how much space you need for writing things in
2. How much decoration do you want?
Knowing this will allow you to block off space for pictures/ quotes you want to include.
- Related: February Plan with Me
- Related: Choosing a Bullet Journal Theme
Layouts I fancy
Horizontal dividers
With horizontal
These are good if you like to write in notes or have a lot of detail in your tasks since you have a lot of space to write it all out. It also makes it easier to “nest” since you can indent tasks that need to be done to accomplish something larger.
Vertical Layouts
Giving yourself columns gives you tons of room for weeks that you have a lot of little tasks or if you’re a list writer.
Boxes
I’ve been a fan of boxes for a great while. They look so clean, are so easy to do. I find you can make up to 8 boxes comfortably.
This also gives you lots of room to add in decoration or boxes for other things like to-dos, shopping lists, meal plan, doodles etc.
Creative Layouts
Your spreads don’t necessarily need to follow any pattern though. Take a look at the one below. It’s still tidy but the boxes are different shapes and i different places and even different sizes.
Your spreads can be any variety of things so don’t *box* yourself in. Pun totally intended.
My weekly planning: Real Time
So last week I did a horizontal spread with small daily sections and a larger box for my tasks and goals. I had a big area to add in my drawing of the week with a quote as well.
I’ve really liked the spread. It’s had lots of room for my daily tasks and the bigger box has been a great catch-all or brain dump.
I think I’m going to do something similar to it again this week.
Pencil it out first
I am not an art expert.
It takes me some effort to draw up my spreads and I often make mistakes. Check out my post on fixing bujo mistakes if you’d like to learn from my experience and protect yourself.
But due to my many, many mistakes, I use a pencil to draw everything out first. Better to be proactive right?
After I draw it all out and am happy with it, I colour everything in and then outline and draw in details with a black pen.
The real weekly planning
Once I have my layout all done it’s time to actually start planning my week.
The first thing to do is refer to your monthly spread and future log to see if there are any events, tasks, goals, reminders that need to be added to the week so that they’re in the forefront.
Once I’ve filled in these things I think about any major tasks that I want to accomplish through the week.
My major focus for the week is the trip we’re going on starting Thursday. Since I’ll be leaving mid-week there are a few things I need to get done before then.
- Get my blogging done and scheduled by Wednesday including Friday’s post, planning emails, and Pinterest pinning.
- I need to meal prep food that we’re taking with us.
- Clean up the house and make sure everyone is packed.
Each of these things will break down into a few smaller tasks so I wrote the category in my task box and with the smaller tasks then assigned the smaller tasks to a specific day during the week so that I feel confident that I’ll be able to get it all done.
Quick note: since we were going away I changed this spread a bit to include a space for me to write down favourite parts or memories. I made my Friday-Sunday boxes smaller as well since I won’t be using my journal as much while away. Always customize your spreads to your needs for the week!
- Related: Bullet Journal for Work
- Related: 7 Trackers you’ll actually use
The hard part
What I always found the hardest in my planning is NOT filling up all the space and time that I have.
A weekly plan is a bit like a bag. If you have a big bag you carry around more stuff, even if you don’t need it. An empty page just beckons me to fill it with stuff.
DON’T DO IT!
Having blank space in your spread and calendar is a good thing.
Stuff comes up and sometimes we forget things and need to add them in. Sometimes things take longer than we’re expecting.
Having this extra time and space in our spreads gives us some breathing room for just that.
Optionals
These are some things that I don’t always have in my spreads but are nice to have and that I do include from time to time. Use as needed.
Meal Plans
Having a meal plan in your bullet journal is awesome. It keeps everything together and gives you peace of mind.
Goals pages:
In my bullet journal last year I always had a bi-weekly goals page that I added to my weekly spread. This gave me a ton of space to put in larger tasks, track my recruiting goals, meal plan, make lists. Pretty much everything I would need.
Business to-dos
If you have a side hustle or if you’re a super dedicated employee then maybe adding in a work plan for yourself would be helpful. In this
As always,
The bullet journal is super flexible and meant to be customized. Before you start your weekly planning think about what your week really looks like and organize yourself according to that.
Sometimes you’ll have time for a big elaborate themed spread and sometimes you might not. As long as you do some planning, you’ll always come out ahead.
So even if you feel like you have no time, take a look over the fly by the seat of your pants section and you’ll see that anyone, with any amount of time, can do this!
Great, I really like it! Youre awesome
So are you!