It’s that time of year again! The new year is almost upon us, which means that a lot of bullet journalers need to migrate into a new bullet journal soon. Now, if you have never done this before, it can seem a little tricky. You have to figure out which spreads you want to keep and which new spreads to add. However, starting a new journal can be lots of fun! Finding new spreads and starting over again might be exactly what you need.
To migrate into a new bullet journal, there are a few things you need to figure out first, such as how you want to use your journal, which spreads you want to include, how you plan on setting it up, and more. Essentially, you have a lot to cover before you migrate. Here is everything you need to figure out before moving to your new journal!
Choosing Your Goals
To migrate into a new bullet journal, you first need to choose your goals. Without knowing what you want to use the journal for, migrating can get extra complicated. And we don’t want that! (It’s already complicated enough. Thank you very much!)
Let’s say you want to keep track of your habits this year. Therefore, you need a self-improvement tool. Lots of people use their journals this way (myself included). Now, you have a set purpose and you can work your journal around that purpose.
(If you want to check out some other purposes for your bullet journal, check them out here!)
You might also want to set goals for your life and not just your journal. For example, maybe you want to read more. It would make sense for you to include a reading tracker in that case.
Whatever goals you have, whether they be for work or personal things, you can always incorporate them into your journal.
Knowing your goals in advance can help you to shape your journal into exactly what you need!
One Year or Month at a Time
Next, you’ll probably want to know how you plan on setting up your journal. Will you be setting it up a year at a time or a month at a time? You might even prefer to journal a day or week in advance. How you plan to use your bullet journal matters when you migrate.
First, it’ll take way more time to migrate if you plan on setting up a year at a time. So you’ll need to give yourself plenty of time. Bullet journaling isn’t meant to be stressful, but if you decide to journal with very little time, you probably won’t enjoy it.
Secondly, if you plan to set up your journal for the year, you’ll also need to plan all of your spreads in advance. When you go month by month, it is way easier to incorporate a new spread later on in the process.
(My advice would be to leave a few pages at the end of each month to add some of your new spreads throughout the year. You’ll need some space for your fun ideas!)
When you bullet journal monthly, you have a little more leeway. You can always add spreads later because you’ll be working on your journal regardless. Unlike yearly journaling, your tools and supplies will already be available to you.
It doesn’t matter how you choose to journal as long as you give yourself time and space to work on it.
Figuring Out Which Spreads Worked For You
My first time journaling, I didn’t know which spreads I would need, so I included quite a few of them. Sadly, all it did was clutter up my bullet journal with spreads I never used (which made me feel terrible). Even worse, I didn’t learn my lesson and included those same spreads in my second journal (though I did get a little more creative).
The third time is the charm! After two failed attempts at both an index and a future log, I finally stopped including them.
I felt like I had to have them because they were standard spreads for bullet journals that everyone else had. Yet, I never used them. I’m not a plan months ahead kind of person and my spreads are easy enough to find.
Throughout your first year (or however long your journal lasted), you’ll have found some spreads that simply didn’t work for you. Maybe those spreads need to be reorganized to work better or maybe you won’t need them in future bullet journals. That is up to you!
The important thing to remember is that you don’t need to keep a spread if it doesn’t work for you. The same spread that you found on Pinterest might be helpful to someone else but not necessarily to you. And that’s okay! (Check out how copying others can hurt your bullet journaling experience here!)
Don’t feel like you have to follow everyone else’s example! This bullet journal is yours to create. It should apply to you and no one else.
Finding New Ideas
My favourite part about migrating into a new bullet journal is creating new and unique spreads! I love trying out new spreads to see how they might change my life or my bullet journaling experience.
There are so many great spread ideas out there. Every year, I go through hundreds of options before I finally land on a couple that I want to add to my bullet journal. (I may have a thing for research. Sorry, not sorry!)
You don’t have to look through that many spreads to find some new ones for yourself. But it wouldn’t hurt to look up a couple of them. You never know what you might find. I am sure there are plenty of great spreads out there for you!
However, keep in mind that not all these new spreads will work for you. You might not end up including them in your next journal. But you’ll never know unless you try!
Also, you are not obliged to include any new spreads if you don’t want to. It is possible to have perfected the spreads you need in your bullet journal. Yes, it can be fun to add some new things but why mess with perfection?
Here are a few ideas for some new spreads that you might want to check out:
- Reading Tracker – Shows you how many books you’ve read over the year and how you liked them.
- Goals Page – Choosing your goals for the year and writing them down is a strong motivational factor.
- Grid Spacing – Tells you how to organize spreads based on how much space you have on the page.
- Birthdays – Keeps track of everyone’s birthdays.
- Wish/Gift List – Keeps track of what you, your family and your friends want as gifts.
- Period Tracker – Makes tracking your monthly cycle so much easier.
- Year in Pixels – Keeps track of your moods all year long.
- Favourites – Shows you all your favourite things over the year.
Organizing Which Ones Go Where
Honestly, organizing the order of spreads in my journal can sometimes be what takes me the longest amount of time. I have to make sure all of my pages fit. They might need one, two or more pages. To migrate into a new bullet journal, we have to account for that. There might also be some spreads that need to be organized together.
It can be a lot of work but you need to make sure your bullet journal works as efficiently as possible for you.
However, stressing about it can cause you to not want to do it at all. My advice would be to give yourself time and try not to overload your bullet journal with too many spreads.
By keeping the number of spreads you have to a minimum, this process will be much easier. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes you have a lot of spreads to organize. That’s okay too! Just know that even if it takes time and a little stress, having an organized list of spreads can help you when it comes to setting up your bullet journal.
Creation of Your Spreads
Lastly, we have the creation of the spreads. The final step to setting up your bullet journal is, of course, to add in all of your layouts.
This is the hardest part, so be prepared! It will take you plenty of time to create all of your spreads. But don’t be intimidated. The spreads can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. You don’t have to go all out if you think it’ll just make you nervous.
Your bullet journal is yours and yours alone! You can create it in any way you want.
When it comes to creating spreads, you also need to consider your monthly spreads. Typically at this stage of migration, you’ll probably only be concerned with your yearly spreads that go at the beginning of your journal. However, you will need to worry about monthly layouts eventually (especially if you set up your journal a year at a time).
First, you need to decide which spreads you want to use monthly. It’s pretty easy! I have a great article about setting up your monthly spreads here! Next, you’ll need to choose a theme (or themes) for the month. I also have a list that might help you with that!
The creation of your spreads shouldn’t be that stressful. You’ve already planned which spreads you want to include and how you want to organize them. All you need to do is create them, which is the fun part if you ask me!
Conclusion
To migrate into your new bullet journal, there are a few steps you need to worry about first: picking your goals, choosing your spreads, choosing the order, and creating your spreads. A lot goes into migrating into a new journal. But bullet journaling is all about planning! The more you plan, the more this new journal will work for you! I just know that your journal will be perfect for you, so don’t stress. Your new journal will be set up in no time!
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