October Bullet Journal Setup

We’re into October; this year is absolutely vanishing! After a relatively random theme last month, I’ve been looking forward to sharing my October bullet journal setup, which (so far) is far more uniform than what I achieved with Harry Potter! While I don’t mind a bit of random colour in my bullet journal, I’ve definitely decided my preference is for themes that stick to one or two colours every spread! These simple themes let me put more thought into using my bullet journal, not just the setup.

If you’ve seen my non-Halloween offering for my free October calendar, you may have guessed what my theme was going to be this month. Ladybirds!

As it’s Spring here in Australia, and Halloween isn’t celebrated at all in my family, I decided to go the opposite direction to all the spooky, autumnal ideas I’ve been seeing and go bright and cheerful. When I did a bee theme back in May, I discovered that insects are amazingly easy to draw, so I thought ladybirds would be a great idea as they’re so bright and cheerful.

What I didn’t expect was to find a sticker book of ladybirds in the local supermarket! This has allowed my October set up to be very lazy, as they worked perfectly with my latest washi tape haul.

For October, I’ve also shifted my three monthly goals to my cover page. I did this so I have more reason to look at my cover page and, as you’ll see further down, my monthly log didn’t include enough room to fit them in! I haven’t yet decided what my goals are going to be, as I’m trying to make them measurable, but I’ll be doing a brainstorm over the next few days. For the first time, I’ve also included a quote on the cover page, I thought something uplifting was appropriate given the state of the world!

“Spring will come and so will happiness. Hold on. Life will get warmer.”

Anita Krizzan

October Monthly Log Setup

As per my preference, my monthly log is again in a calendar layout. I find this much easier to read than the traditional vertical bullet journal log. The difference this month is that I’ve completely centred the calendar setup. Normally, I’d avoid writing across the centre margin and keep three days on one page and four on the other.

This October though, I’ve decided to experiment. I’ve done so partly because my favourite weekly setup includes something similar, uniting both pages of the spread, but mainly because I love these washi tapes and wanted margins on both sides!

I’m very pleased with how the log has turned out. I think the horizontal and vertical lines being different colours works really well and I really like the symmetry. Having a bright theme is also so uplifting. I want to open my bullet journal every day and have it left my mood, despite everything else that’s happening!

October Habit & Mood Tracking

And now for something completely different! I haven’t linearly tracked my habits for months. When I first started bullet journaling, my habit tracker was opposite my vertical monthly log and required turning the whole spread sideways to complete.

As with the vertical monthly log, I fell into a habit of using a calendar layout for my habit trackers a while ago. I work better when I can visualise which day of the week I’m up to! This month though, I really liked the idea of making the spreads I could fit an A4 rather than an A5 space. I also found the mood tracker I came up with in September worked well, so I could incorporate it with the habit tracker.

This layout also allowed me to continue with the washi tape border I’ve been using throughout the October bullet journal setup pages, which I think is great for a unifying feel. Having my trackers horizontally also gave me a bit of spare room, which I’ve decided to use for a monthly to-do list. How much it gets used may be another matter!

As I’m still not working, I’ve kept my habits simple, but added in a no spend habit. This is a habit I’ve been able to skip for several years as I’ve had a steady income, but with no cash coming in, I need to be a bit more mindful of where I’m spending my pennies!

My Blog Goals for October

If you’ve been keeping up with my weekly updates, you’ll be aware that September was a disappointing month for my blog. I set myself a goal of 500 views, which given I’d had around 400 in my first two months, I thought was achievable. In the end, I fell laughably short of my goals.

It’s really disheartening when you think you’re doing all the right things, but it doesn’t make much difference. A heap of my missing traffic was from Facebook, so I know that’s an area that needs work this month. Also, I’ve now launched a couple of freebies, but they’ve had no impact- so either I’ve provided completely the wrong products or a lot of the advice I’ve been looking at is wrong!

As I had such a bad September, I’ve decided to be a lot more cautious with my goals this month. I’m looking for a 10% increase across all of my measurables, so hopefully, I can hit some targets in October and feel a bit more positive!

	August	September	October Goals
Blog Views	391	203	225
Blog Visitors	216	105	120
Comments	27	8	10
Email Subscribers	9	10	12
Pin Impressions	5143	5198	5500
Pin Audience	1555	2111	2200
Pin Clicks	22	14	15
Twitter Followers	31	38	40
Facebook Page Likes	8	8	10

It’s something I’ll have to remember; stretch goals have their place, but if you’re struggling, be kind to yourself and set achievable goals to get some motivation back!

My October Bullet Journal

That’s it from me this week! I hope you’ve enjoyed checking out my ladybird-friendly bullet journal theme and seeing what I have planned for October. For those of you who celebrate Halloween, I hope you have a suitably spooky month, I wish you all the best, and I’ll be back next Thursday with the next instalment of my Job Hunting series, which I’m absolutely loving sharing with all my fellow job seekers!