Creating Routines In Your Bullet Journal For Success And Structure

Today we are talking about probably the most impactful thing you can do with your day for productivity and general happiness: establishing routines!

Routines are my secret weapon to have productive and happy days, so I’m excited to tell you more about it and help you create your own perfect routine.

Of course, there are Bullet Journal page ideas that can help you with that.

Routines are a series of little habits that you do every day one after another. Like when you wake up, brush your teeth, and go downstairs to brew your first cup of coffee – that’s your routine.

It doesn’t seem like it’s such a big deal, right?

Well, actually routines can be extremely impactful on your everyday life and a general feeling of happiness. Good routines can help you be a better self and feel happier, while bad routines might affect your days and psyche in a negative way.

Don’t be scared; today we’ll talk about the importance of routines and how you can create perfect daily routines for yourself.

I also don’t want to leave you without inspiration, so at the end of the post, you will find different routine Bullet Journal spreads from tons of amazing creators.

There is also a free printable at the end of the post as well.

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Why Are Routines Important

Routines have an amazing impact on our lives. 

Let’s start with the easiest thing – having routines helps you to move through your day quickly and more efficiently.

Try waking up without a routine and figure out what it is you should do next! Isn’t it much more effective to already know what steps are there once you open your eyes?

Morning and evening routines help you to show some self-love and are a great way of self-care. Making yourself a priority even in little things will bring you joy and peace.

Following repetitive steps also makes you feel safer and in control. There are very few things in life we can really control, and I can get pretty overwhelming.

But as long as you have your routine to rely on, you’ll have more structure and control over how your day goes.

Finally having a routine means that your steps are automated and you don’t need to spend any will power on making decisions.

The thing is – willpower is a limited resource, and if you can save it up by having routines and automating your actions – you’ll be able to save it up for important decisions and be more efficient and productive.

Bullet Journal Routine Types

Usually, when you think of routines (or type it in Google) it’ll tell you about morning and evening routines.

For a good reason – those are the ones everyone needs and are some of the most important routines you can have.

Aesthetic Morning and Evening Routines

The way you start your day defines how it will go, and the way you finish it will be impactful on your next day.

So it only makes sense that you would pay extra attention to it and make it a pleasant experience by creating a wonderful routine.

But your routines don’t have to be limited by that!

“Perfect Day” Routine

This is a total lifesaver if you’re working from home or are self-employed.

If you have your daily routine set it will take away so many worries! It’s kind of like having a clean house.

You know each thing has its own place so no need to stress where to put it.

Another type of routine is ….

Planning Routine 

Planning is definitely a key to achieving your goals, being more productive, and being happier and healthier.

However, starting to plan can be pretty hard. You’re not used to it and you don’t really see the results right away. I know from my own experience it’s so easy to just slide back and stop planning.

If you’re just discovering the planning world (or started a Bullet Journal) it’s very helpful to create a planning routine. Make it easier on yourself to start planning and keep it up.

Psss, if you’re struggling with that check out my post on How To Make Your Bullet Journal Habit Stick.

How To Create An Aesthetic Routine

There are many amazing routine ideas out there, but you should never just copy somebody’s routine.

You are you and you are absolutely unique, so you have to think of a routine that works best for you and your lifestyle.

That being said, here are a few steps you’d like to follow when creating your routines.

• Find Your Why

If you don’t know why you’re doing something, it isn’t likely you’ll be committed and will not follow through with it.

So first and foremost think about why you’re creating a routine and why your current routine doesn’t work for you.

• List Out Some Ideas

Next step – brain dump. Think of all the things you’d like to include in your routine. This is where you can absolutely do a google search for different routines and find ideas from others.

• Time The Habits

Now take a look at your list and time how long each of these things would take. Also, make sure you add some wiggle time because life does happen and you might hit that snooze button in the morning or decide to watch just one more episode at night.

• Set Priorities

By now, you probably see that doing ALL the things would take you the entire day, so it’s time to cut down on what you’re adding to your routine by setting priorities.

Yes, it’s nice to wake up at 6 am, do some yoga and meditation, and finish up the morning with a fresh green smoothie and journaling.

But chances are, you don’t have time to do it all, so set your priorities and pick the tasks that align with what you want to achieve.

• Assess Your Routine

The final step is to assess the routine you created. Does it fit with your lifestyle? Will it be intruding on your family routine or your roommates?

Another important question to ask yourself is – will I do it? Don’t make your routine overly complicated and don’t include things that you’re unlikely to do.

I’d love to wake up, do an hour of CrossFit and have a Wonder Woman body. But I know that’s definitely not something I’ll ever do. So I start small, with 30 minutes of yoga.

Yeah, for some reason, I started by talking about routines in general but ended up with a morning routine. But the same principles work for every type of routine, so don’t be confused.

• Try And Improve

There is one more step to creating a routine though. 

Once you start actually following your routine in some time you’ll have a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not.

So don’t take your routine as gospel to follow step by step. Make it more fluid and change it as you go. You’re changing, and your life changes – it makes perfect sense that your routines would also be changing.

How To Make  Daily Routine Stick

Creating new routines won’t be easy. Your brain already has set routines, and breaking old habits can be pretty challenging.

There are a few things you could do to help yourself with this process.

• Habit Tracking

Probably the most important instrument will be a habit tracker. It’s always there to remind you to do things and it will work with your routines as well.

• Bullet Journal Routine Spread

Visualizing your routine as a schedule spread in your Bullet Journal is so impactful. 

When you have it all written down step by step you’ll be less likely to forget what to do and eventually it will become an easy automated process for you.

• Stay Motivated

Motivation is a great moving power for all things, including establishing new routines.

Stay motivated by always remembering your why. Maybe you could write it down or create a little visual board on how you see your life improving with your new routine.

Another thing that helps me a lot is reading self-help books. My Miracle Morning was probably the most motivational and impactful book that brought me on board with creating routines for myself.

I still go back to it pretty often to get that extra charge of motivation and refresh my memory. Every time I do I find something I completely forgot about.

You can also get this book as an audiobook for FREE with Audible trial. This definitely is my favorite way to consume books lately, since I can listen to them when I clean, do chores, or just in commute.

Bullet Journal Routine Spreads

Finally, as I promised here are inspirations for different routine Bullet Journal spreads.

Let these be a fun example for you on how to bring your perfect routine vision to the pages of your journal.

I love this spread and how creatively she divided the time section from the task section.

Another thing I like about this format is that even though there is the time assigned it kind of seems fluid, which is exactly what I love about a routine spread.

There are many ways to set up a routine spread and on this page, you can see two of them – a column and a list.

Personally, I prefer the column design, so it’s a bit clearer what goes after what, but there is merit to every type of spread, depending on what you need and prefer.

Jess always has such well-organized pages, love it!

This also seems like a great way to put on paper your school schedule, which I think is what Jess actually has here.

I love this ideal day schedule because the colors are so bright and happy. It also works so well in the contrast with the black lines.

I also really like these small reminders she added all over, it’s always great to have those to keep you on track.

This is a unique routine page because it kind of includes all the routines she follows.

I think it’s kind of cool that she also added here something that she needs to do weekly or monthly – pretty useful since this spread is already something she will be referencing pretty often.

Quarantine routine – definitely something we should have. The pandemic absolutely put everything upside down.

Also must mention how I’m so in love with this handwriting. And I really like that the tasks are divided by time of day vs exact time – always appreciate the flexibility. You never know when life can happen and disturb your routine completely.

A lovely spread and I really like the bright and happy colors used for it.

I feel like the tasks are color-coded here, but I can’t really figure it out. It’s not my place to do it any day, as long as Cat knows what they mean that’s all she needs for her journal.

A totally different routine – weekly routine. This is I think, especially great if you work from home and need to create a schedule for every day.

Also must give prompts for having am hours on one side and pm hours on the other – it helped to save up so much space.

This page is so cute, I really like the little doodles, washi, and other cuteness used to decorate this spread.

I found it also very interesting that each time frame has a goal to it – I might want to try something similar in my next routine spread.

Skincare routine is very important so I had to include at least one example to this list.

I must say I definitely need this spread in my journal, because I keep forgetting so many things to do, like using the roller, for example.

An evening routine spread, and here I really like how detailed each step is.

Also, this image on the bottom left is so cozy, made me totally want to go and take a bath.

I love it when the routine spread is decorated with doodles, you probably got it already after seeing all my routine pages.

It’s great that she also added some planning time to the routine. I try to have some bujo time for both my morning and evening routine.

A new approach to routine spread – a routine tracker.

I find it very useful – before your routine becomes your second nature it’s very useful to have a tracker like that to make sure you do what you planned to do.

This can also help to figure out your perfect routine – after some time see what are something you do and some things you don’t do during your routine. Analyze it and make changes in your routine based on what you found out.

Workday routine is really what helps me to stay on top of my tasks every day.

This can be used for a corporate job just as well, though, don’t think that this is only for self-employed people. Of course in the corporate atmosphere, you have to be a bit more flexible, but having an approximate routine still can help you be productive.

What I love about routine pages is that you can absolutely create a new page each month, depending on what changes you think you need to make it work better.

That means you also can create a design this spread differently each month, depending on what theme you’re using for this month.

really love the header: routine to keep it all together. That is absolutely the way I feel about having a routine – it helps me to keep it together.

I love that she included a chill time here and how it doesn’t necessarily have to be just couch and Netflix. You actually rest more when you switch to a different activity vs being a blob.

Said Masha while dreaming about couch and animal crossing. Oh, the irony!

Vera’s pages are always so pretty, and her handwriting is very unique – I can always tell when I see that it’s her work.

It’s a great example of a planning routine to remember to open your BuJo and use it to your benefit. A page like this is great when you’re working on establishing your Bullet Journal habit.

I’d always say that two pages are probably too much for a routine spread, but then I saw this one.

Extra space allows you to add more details (like for example she elaborated on what house chores are to be done), as well as more decoration. And the journal is always fun when it’s decorated wouldn’t agree?

Probably my favorite routine spread; it has all the elements I love – doodles, a schedule, and pretty letters.

And can we also take a minute and show respect for somebody who wakes up 5-5:30 am! I used to do that when living in China and it really was an amazing morning start. But ever since we moved I can’t seem to go back to it.

Cute and kind of minimal spread with very pretty handwriting.

I also like that she included more details on some tasks; it’s always useful, and that way on this ideal day she also has her morning and evening routine included.

This looks like a great spread for somebody who is still trying to figure things out.

It’s like a brain dump with ideas on all the things you want to do in the morning, then you try to add some of these to your actual routine and see if it works.

I’ve never seen a circle routine spread before, but now I feel like I definitely want to try it out.

I also really like seeing other people’s routine spreads because they always give me fun ideas on what I might want to include in mine.

I know I already featured here 2 other routine spreads by Lenny, but what can I say – I love her work.

And I totally feel that hashtag – staying at home during a pandemic is not difficult. Staying sane, however, requires some effort and maybe a good routine.

I really love the idea of having an ideal day for both work and nonwork days.

I probably should create one for a nonwork day – so far I literally work every day. Gotta remember to chill. Is anyone else having trouble with allowing themselves to have rest?

A great example that shows that to create a beautiful spread, you don’t need much, just a few pens.

I like how organized this schedule is, and the contrast between the black and red looks really cool and makes it stand out a lot.

I’ve been working on tweaking and establishing a new morning routine and this is the page I came up with.

This is a spread from my February 2021 Bullet Journal setup where I went pretty minimal and used different colors of paper for decoration. It turned out to be a pretty fun and easy way to add interest to the pages.

Minimalist at its best – this page is so beautiful!

I kind of like that this daily routine has some free space to add different tasks depending on the day. I feel like if you leave your routine more flexible you have more chances to succeed at making it work.

Beautiful skincare spread, and I love the products she is using. I always love finding new products for skincare, and this page already gave me some interesting products to try.

Also, I love the color scheme used for this page, it’s so gentle and calming.

I like how on this page she has both hers and her bf’s routine included.

Having different schedules ad working hours can be hard on relationships, so it’s a great idea to have a routine page like that to make sure you still have time to be with each other.

I always appreciate using bright colors for a routine spread, to make it look happier.

I think it’s sweet how she added “realistic” to the title! This spread also reminded me I should probably open my animal crossing again before all my villagers decide to hate me forever.

I just love the aesthetics and filter of this image. Just makes me want to wake up at 5 am and go pick some fresh flowers from the gardens.

Not that I have a garden, or even the will to wake up at 5 am. But it would be cool if I did, right?!

This looks like a beautiful way to brainstorm ideas on what to add to your morning routine.

The more I look into it the more it seems to me like it’s just a to-do list. But the design will work for a beautiful routine spread as well, so we are keeping it on the list.

I’ve been really loving minimalist Bullet Journal pages yesterday, and this one is a great example.

I find that with the routine pages, you need to be able to clearly see what’s up, and simple spreads like this are perfect.

Plus I want to say that it’s a great idea to have a morning routine on one side and an evening routine on the other.

I love this morning routine – it’s so inspiring and has all my favorite things – affirmations, meditation, yoga!

The only thing I cringe over is a cold shower – this is something I never could master; cold showers scare me.

It’s such a cute page, and I like that she used brown instead of black – really adds softness to the spread.

I also think it’s kind of cool how in these two pages she manages to add three routines – ideal day, morning routine, and evening routine. All you need for a successful day in one place!

Beautiful routine, and I love that she created this page just for summer vacations.

Things like vacations (or a pandemic) really change our schedules so much that it’s a great idea to create a new routine just to make sure you don’t get lost in all the free time and just waste it all on Netflix.

This is my evening routine, and it really has been helping me to get better sleep, and therefore wake up feeling rested and ready to slay the day.

For this setup I used Acrylograph Pens and stickers from Archer and Olive subscription box, this was from March 2020 one. The colors just match so perfectly and the clouds and air balloons I thought were great for the evening routine spread.

I love this morning routine spread with its pastel colors and cute little doodles.

Free Printable Journal Daily Routine

Of course, I couldn’t leave you without a freebie.

Routine is a very personal thing, so this one is pretty basic and allows you to customize it to your needs and your routine.

You can get it already in the Resources Vault, and if you don’t have your access yet – just sign up in the form below.

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Do you have a routine spread in your Bullet Journal? What kind of routines do you have established in your day?

Let us know in the comments!

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And remember: Keep Bullet Journaling, and Don’t Be A Blob.