I can't believe I’m about to move into my fourth bullet journal! I still feel like a relative journal newbie, but at the same time I can’t remember or imagine my life without one. I started bullet journaling in November 2020, and you can read a little more about my first journal and supplies here. 

One of the many advantages bullet journals have over conventional planners is that you can start at any time of year, and each journal lasts as long as you need it to. I started my first journal in November and my second in August. I did however make the leap to Jan - Jun and July - Dec journals at the start of 2022, as I felt a new year and a new business venture called for a new journal. When I started journaling, I was flabbergasted that anyone could fill up a whole journal in six months, but the number of set up pages and monthly pages I include has gradually crept up over the years! I’ve also been using more ad-hoc notes pages as I like to keep things that I may need to refer back to in my main journal, rather than a separate notebook. I don’t worry about leaving a few empty pages at the end of a journal, as they always get used up eventually for notes or doodles.

Archer & Olive Neapolitan journal

In this blog post, I’ll be taking you through my mid-year bullet journal set up. My new journal marks the midway point of 2022, but I hope this will be helpful no matter what point you’re starting your new (or even first!) journal.

I made things more complicated for myself by using an Archer & Olive Neapolitan journal. Neapolitan journals contain a mix of white, kraft and blackout dot grid paper, divided into 10 sections of 16 pages. I had hoped to use it for my first 2022 journal in January, but I wanted to use a different coloured section for each month and my initial pages, and I couldn’t make it work at the time. Armed with a pack of sticky notes, I was determined to succeed this time and by Jove, I did it.

Witches Be Crafty Pipstickers | Pentel Fude Touch Brush Pen

I used these stickers to decorate the name page in my January 2022 journal too!

I started by listing the spreads I’d included at the start of my January 2022 journal so I could decide what to keep and what to bump: 

• 2022 cover page
• Key
• Future log
• Photo a month
• Goals
• Achievements
• Wish list
• Reading list
• Things to check out
• Symptom tracker
• New business to do list
• Content planning
• New clothing wear tracker
• Monthly theme ideas

You can see my pre-pen January 2022 spreads in my Instagram story highlight.

Pigma Micron 02 | White Gelly Roll 10

I never actually refer to the key page, but it seems a nice consistent way to kick off a new journal!

The only spreads I ended up bumping were “photo a month”, “things to check out” and “new business to do list”. I love other people’s photo spreads, but I don’t have a pocket/instant printer, and I just don’t get around to printing them from my computer. Likewise, I don’t really use the “things to check out” page, as I just add things straight onto my Netflix watchlist or bookstore wish list.

Monochrome crosses washi tape

Having six fewer months to include in my Future Log definitely helped keep the number of pages down! 

I also switched up the order a little bit, so the spreads I use most often are near the front of my journal. I jotted each page I wanted to include on a sticky note, and shimmied them around the first white section of my journal until I was happy with the order. I opted for:

• 2022 cover page
• Key
• Future log
• Symptom tracker
• New clothing wear tracker
• Reading log
• Wish list
• Goals
• Achievements
• Content ideas
• Theme ideas

It’s always worth leaving a page for next year’s dates!

As this was my first time using a Neapolitan journal, I leaned into it and carried the Neapolitan theme throughout the set up pages, as well as the mismatched letters from this theme. It’s not super colourful, but I think this could be a great opportunity to use one of my coloured Kaweco inks! I didn’t want to remove any kraft and blackout pages and make the sections uneven, but I had a couple of pages spare from other journals. If you don’t want to tear your pages out, you could use these Archer & Olive notepads, Nikki’s A5 pastel dot grid pads, or any other paper scraps you have on hand. The lettering took a little while, but it was so much fun to do, and I love how it turned out. I struggle to keep my lettering neat and consistent, but that totally doesn’t matter with this style of lettering.

I almost never use a ruler for straight lines, but this page really needed it!

These are my two most useful “non-conventional” spreads. As the title suggests, the symptom tracker is used to track two recurring symptoms as it’s really helpful for me to see the frequency and when they occur, as well as any overlap between them.

The “clothes” spread has been carried over from my January journal, which is why it’s partially filled in. I record every new item of clothing, whether it’s bought new, second hand or made by me, and how many times I wear it. Gotta get those 30 wears in! I’ve become much more aware of the environmental impact of my clothing over the last few years, and was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d only acquired five new pieces during the last six months, and none of it brand new! 

I think “Reading Log” sounds better than “Book Log”, but it didn’t fit!

These are pretty self-explanatory! I didn’t plan to add any illustrations to these pages, but they were looking a little empty. Why yes, that artfully torn piece of blackout paper is hiding my first attempt at a book-themed contour line drawing which went very wrong! I included printed book covers in my last reading log, but as with the “photo a month” page, it was a bit of a faff (and a waste of paper) to print them out every time.

Scalloped edge slim washi tape - black and white

Again, pretty self-explanatory. Goals and achievements pages seem to be a bullet journal staple, although I must confess I’m not great at using them. I haven’t decided how to lay these out yet, so they’re a bit bare bones for now. Amanda Rach Lee is big on goal setting, so I think I’ll watch some of her bullet journaling videos for inspiration! I think it will be helpful to have a mid-year check in with myself though, and I want to set some meaningful and achievable goals for the second half of 2022.

Star doodles slim washi tape - black and white

This page will (hopefully) be very full, so I opted to keep it simple with lots of space for planning. I also added an important reminder: Content is an adjective too!

Let’s do this!

…and finally: A place to record future bullet journal theme ideas, and a peek at the first kraft paper page of my Neapolitan journal! I’m not normally big on quote pages, but I didn’t want to start the month on a mis-matched page, so I needed something to fill this first kraft page. I love how the black and white paper letters look against the kraft. 

This was probably my most time-intensive journal set up to date, but it’s also my favourite! I hope this has been helpful whether you’re setting up a new journal, starting your first journal, using a Neapolitan journal, or just wanted to snoop inside mine! If you do want to replicate this style of lettering, I highly recommend using a Tombow mono glue roller or Sakura glue pen as those pieces are teeny tiny!

Tombow mono glue roller

Nikki and I would love to see your new journal set up, especially if you’ve been inspired by any of the ideas in this blog post. Please tag @nikkissupplystore on Instagram, where you can find heaps more journaling and stationery inspiration. You can also follow me, @joy.margot, for more craft content!