How to Start a Bullet Journal In The Middle Of The Year: 2019-2020 BuJo Setup

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Hey Planning Mashers!

Are you the kind of person, like me who prefers to start a Bullet Journal in the middle of the year? Or maybe you want to see what else you can add to your annual setup? 

You’re in the right place!

We all are so used to planners starting on January 1st, but what if you decided to get yourself together at a different date?

Well, with Bullet Journal it’s absolutely possible. Here is a huge secret and beauty of this system – you can start your Bullet Journal in the middle of the year, in the middle of the month, or even in the middle of the week!

With Bullet Journaling nothing is impossible. Don’t wait for the perfect day to come – start right away and see your life-changing.

I don’t really like to start a brand new Bullet Journal from January the 1st. Yes, of course, it makes sense and all… but… December is far too busy with all the holiday preparations and the end-of-year deadlines, and I’d rather focus on enjoying my time with family and friends, not sweating over my annual goals.

Therefore, I usually give myself a break at that time of the year and start a new journal later. In 2019, I started my third journal in June. 

I chose a larger sized journal, so I expect it to last me for a whole year; that way I can keep the tradition.

I thought this plan with me post would be perfect for everyone who is thinking of starting a journal at any other month of the year, so I’ll be going over the specifics of this as well.

There is, of course, a Plan With Me video at the end of the post, so make sure to check that out. 

This setup is also a huge lesson on how to fix your mistakes – I honestly screwed up a lot at the beginning, so I’m sure it’ll be pretty useful for you reading (or watching).

Ok, enough introduction! Join me as I set up my third BuJo and I’m sure you’ll find it fun and useful. Let’s dive in.

(Pssss, if you need a more detailed introduction to the Bullet Journal system and how to set up your first BuJo, check my Ultimate Guide To Bullet Journal For Beginners) 

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Cover Page

There’re plenty of things you can do on your Bullet Journal cover page, but I personally prefer to just write the year I started the journal and later the time when it ran out of pages.

I did the same this year, but I thought I could add some simple little star-themed doodles. I always try to make my annual pages more minimalist, so they stay classy disregarding what is happening with the rest of the journal. I want the annual pages to be universal.

Since I had a lot more space left, I decided to add a key to the cover page as well. The truth is, by now I really don’t need one, but I thought it’d look nice here.

Something happened to me while I was setting up my page. I didn’t wait long enough before erasing a pencil, and my golden pen smudged. Like… a looooooooooot!

This broke my heart for a bit, because I was absolutely in love with the way the page came out. But I quickly remembered my favorite fix – white gel pen.

A few little strokes and the smudges were gone! Not completely, of course, but enough for me to calm down and be happy again. Chocolate also helped. 

Future Log

The next page in your Bullet Journal is, of course, your future log. Well, not really. Usually, it’s actually an Index page, but I don’t really use it (and maybe you don’t need one either), so I went straight to the future log.

Starting a Bullet Journal in the middle of the year means you have to create a different kind of future log. There are a few options. First, you can follow my example here and create a whole year log, but just start from the month you’re in now.

The second option is to have a future log up until the end of the year, and then create a new one. That way, you’ll also kind of divide your journal and it’ll be a bit of a new beginning in January.

Going back to my spread, it went soooooooo wrong guys! Hiding behind that beautiful classy black washi tape is an ATROCIOUS pattern. It looked really nice in my head, but it just didn’t come out the right way.

I did have to take a break for a hug and a cup of chamomile tea to calm down after that fiasco!

Thankfully, I remembered I had this black washi tape, and it saved the day! Thanks to this error, the black washi tape became a uniting design treat of most of my annual pages, and I’m absolutely loving it!

Like I always say, the need to fix a mistake makes me think outside the box, and that usually brings the best in me, and pages I create in such situations are the ones I love the most.

About Me Page

This year I’m experimenting a lot with my annual pages, and this is one of those new ones.

I’ve been trying to use my Bullet Journal more as a way to reflect on my life and help me grow, and I think this “About Me” idea will be a great motivation.

This is basically a page about me and my life as of June 2019. My health habits, work habits, and things like that. Where I am in life, what changes I made already, what makes me proud, and finally, what are somethings I’d like to be working on.

The page next to this one is empty because there I’ll create the same “About me” page when I’m done with this journal. 

I’ve started to see my BuJo as – in a way – a book about my life, and I thought it’d be very useful and interesting to follow this idea and expand into a comparison like that.

I really feel like a completely different person from Masha a year ago a.k.a. before Bullet Journaling, and now I’m excited to meet that new Masha a year from now.

To learn more about this page check my post About Me Page In Your Bullet And Why You Need One.

Year In Photos

Quite a while ago, I got myself an HP Sprocket printer – a cute little machine for printing pictures on already sticky paper, perfect for Bullet Journaling and travel journals.

I used it quite a lot to record my travels, but I don’t travel all the time (something to improve on!), and I really wanted to use it more.

Therefore I decided to create a page to stick my photos to.

Basically what I’ll do here is add one photo for each month of the year, and maybe add some text like what is this or how I felt. 

I decided not to create pre-made space for each photo because I don’t always have the same orientation on my pictures, so I left it completely empty. 

It looks boring right now, I know. But wait for a bit, and it’ll be full of life and amazing memories! I’ll definitely be sharing updates on this page in my Instagram so make sure to check it out (and give me a follow while you’re at it ;))

What I’m Looking Forward To

My life is about to drastically change – in a few months I am leaving China after living here for 8 years and starting a new adventure in Bolivia.

Some pretty wicked and interesting things are coming. I wanted to kind of create a context for the upcoming year because this change will impact every area of my life.

The best way I could think of is to create a list of all the things I’m looking forward to happening.

For some reason when I was done with the page, I thought it looked much better in black and white, so I just added some accents with thicker black lines and gold and silver gel pens.

Things To Check Out

I get lots of recommendations for cool books, shows, music, and such, but it all flies away from my brain pretty soon, so when it’s time for a new show, I can spend hours just choosing what to watch from the endless Netflix list.

I decided, therefore, to add all these to one spread. This is probably the only collection I have in my Bullet Journal at the moment.

I didn’t want to divide it into sections, but I will as I go, so hopefully, pretty soon, the page will look much livelier.

If you guys have any recommendations for me, please do let me know in the comments below! I’d love to add them to my collection.

Annual Goals

Finally, it’s time for a must-have page of my annual goals. Since I usually start my Bullet Journal in the middle of the year, I decided to count yearly goals from that time. 

It makes double sense to me because June is my birthday month, so it’s also a great time for a new start.

You can approach your goals in many different ways; it doesn’t really matter when you start your Bullet Journal. Put annual goals and count them from the time you started this journal, or put smaller goals until the new year and then create a new goals page.

There are always options to plan your goals quarterly or monthly – it’s all up to you and what works best for you personally.

I love to have annual goals, but the important thing here is not to follow them too strictly. During such a long time, the priorities and needs change, and some goals might become obsolete or just something you don’t want to do anymore.

So if you’re setting for yourself some annual goals, make sure you treat them as a general direction, not the exact step-by-step path.

Now, going back to my yearly goals page….

I divide all my goals into three parts – health, personal development, and Masha Plans, since for the longest time these are the largest areas I need improvement in. This is not to say my everything else is at 100%, but it’s at a good enough level to keep it secondary.

Just like with the “About Me” page, I decided to make myself accountable and left one empty page next to this. That amazing Masha a year from now will be filling out the empty page with all the fantastic things she achieved during that year.

I figured with my goals that reflection like that helps to keep me accountable and motivated.

Plan With Me Video

Time for the juicy part – here is my plan with me video! I hope you enjoy and get some fun ideas for your Bullet Journal.

What are the pages you add to your Bullet Journal annual setup? Let us know in the comments.

Hope this post was interesting; if you find it so, please share! If you enjoy my content and want to show your appreciation, please consider supporting me with a cup of coffee.

Well, that’s it for now, and remember: Keep Bullet Journaling, and don’t be a blob! 

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