October Setup

Yep, it's that time of the month again where I have to set up for the coming month.  My spread and process has been working pretty good so far, so I only have a couple of things to add to my monthly setup. 

I 'borrowed' the idea of having the tracker page across from the monthly calendar from someone (who I can't remember - fail).  For those wondering on my monthly calendar what the "Q" and "J" stand for, these are the designations we used for the day of the week when I worked at American Airlines.  "Q" is Thursday and "J" is Saturday.  After 34 years, it's a hard habit to break.

I do go through and highlight Sunday as an easy way to tell the weeks apart.  I have a column for my work schedule, one for Savvy and one for Texter/Kayden.  For Texter, I generally only write something in completely different than the norm for her.  The final column is for meetings, appointments, outings which aren't work.  

Switching to this vertical column spread for the month really works for me.  I know when I move into my Hobonichi it will be back to a regular monthly spread, but I can work with that too.

Then I have my 'Goals' page.  And yes, I think I got a bit carried away with goals for the month, but most of them are just reminders on habits I want to promote, like walking, drinking water, and meal planning.

I have a 'Notes' page for reminders on things I want to get or do.  I realized the pajamas and house shoes are over three years old and are past the 'used' stage in well into 'shabby' and 'holely' stage.  So a new pair of slippers and some pj's are on the list of need to get in the coming month.  I also made a note to myself to THROW THE OLD STUFF AWAY!

This is where I really changed up things.  I have been using the vertical days for a couple of months now and like it better than a horizontal spread.  What I added was an area for my top three tasks for the day.  And at the bottom an area for something positive about the day.  I may put something I am grateful for, a good thing that happened that day or a positive affirmation or quote.  But having a separate, designated area is a good reminder for me to do something like that.

The date flags and little stickers at the bottom are from Cocoa Daisy for August which I had gotten for my planner workshop.  Since they were fall looking, I added them to the pages.  For October, I am going to use an orange highlighter and black and orange pens for the most part.

Finances are probably my worse area in my life.  I have started tracking all my spending for the month to try and be more conscious of it.  In September, I took a tip from someone (again, I have failed at noting the name) where they put actual money in the bag and left it there.  Kind of a self fulfilling prophecy of bringing money into your life.  

For September I put in a dollar bill.  And so far it's still there.  If you knew me and my finances better, the fact a dollar has stayed there all month is a minor miracle.  For October, I am putting in a $5.  That's going to be a real challenge to leave it there all month!  (I'm giving the $1 to Lady K for her piggy bank.)

My final spread is for blog posts.  I have sticky notes with post ideas I will move over from September to the blank page and then as I write and prepare for posting, I will note the title and then check it off when it is scheduled to post.  I put in the weekly reviews and mandalas which I try and do automatically on Sundays and Mondays.  This format worked really well for me last month.

There really isn't anything I am removing from my monthly spread.  I deliberately started out pretty much bare-bones-bullet-journaling and have added things as they came up.  I thought it was better than having a lot of things and then cutting them out.

I have room for one more month in this journal.  So December will have to be back in an older, partially filled notebook.  Then I can start January with my Hobo.  With it's bright yellow cover.  I think I can make it work in there quite nicely.