Gemma 
These first few weeks of September have been super busy for me, which is why I’m only just getting around to sharing this month’s bullet journal setup with you now!
I opted for a super simple design this month: something really minimal (in fact, I actively challenged myself to be as minimal as possible, because, if you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I am many things, but minimal is not one of them), quick to create and easy to use.
Table of Contents
- Equipment
- Cover Page
- Monthly Calendar
- Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine
- Weekly Spreads
- September Review
- Final Thoughts
Equipment
To create this setup, I used the following equipment:
- Sakura Pigma Micron black fineliners.
- Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 990 Light Sand.
- Ruler.
- Scissors.
- Corner rounder.
I meant what I said about being minimal this month!
Cover Page
I did some research on ‘minimal bullet journal spreads’ on Pinterest before diving into these spreads (mainly because of my aforementioned lack of inherent minimalism). I particularly liked this design, so I tried to replicate it for my Cover Page this month, using my Tombow pen in the shade Light Sand as the accent colour, instead of the green shade in the original design.
Monthly Calendar
To keep my Monthly Calendar as minimal as possible, I only separated the grid out horizontally, omitting my usual vertical lines. I have to say, I don’t love doing this (I’m a major waffler, so I need strict boundaries to keep my notes in check!), but it did make the process of setting this spread up much quicker! I used my Tombow pen to highlight the horizontal lines, wrote the dates on top of those coloured lines, then added the SEPTEMBER title at the bottom of the page.
Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine
Next up, we have two spreads that I have recently (re)introduced to my monthly setups & am still loving: my Things to Look Forward to page and my Daily Sunshine page!
The Daily Sunshine page is exactly the same as its previous iterations: just a vertical calendar format where I can write in one positive thing that happened on each day.
The Things to Look Forward to page is a little different this month, because, instead of being ‘Things to Look Forward to in September‘, it’s ‘Things to Look Forward to in Autumn‘! There’s a couple of reasons for this: firstly, I knew I had a lot of things happening in September that I was not looking forward to (just general life stuff: appointments etc) , so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to scrounge enough fun things together to make this page the encouraging, fun addition to my journal that it’s supposed to be. Secondly, autumn is by far my favourite season: I get so excited in the run-up to it and I just love every second of it when it comes, so I figured a seasonal version of this spread was more appropriate this time around!
Weekly Spreads
Now we come to my Weekly Spreads, for which I’ve used the exact same format as recent months: I’ve trimmed down the central pages in this section, so that there are two spaces, one on each side of the spread, that are visible no matter what weekly page I’m on. These spaces house my master task lists, where I note down jobs that I need to do, but don’t necessarily have an assigned day for yet.
I added a vertical stripe of colour down the left-hand side of each master task list, using my Tombow pen. In this stripe, I can add little checkboxes alongside each individual task, so that I can easily tick them off as I complete them.
As always, I used my corner rounder to soften up the corners of the cut pages. I like how this helps these pages fit in with the rest of the journal (which also has rounded corners!), plus I feel less at risk of paper-cuts this way, so it’s a win-win!
I opted to use the same layout for each of my Weekly Spreads this month, to speed up the process. I divided each spread into 8 sections (4 down, 2 across), and used 7 of the spaces for my daily task lists. I then used the remaining space for the weekly heading (which helps me to keep track of which week I’m on!).
As I’ve done throughout this setup, I used my Tombow pen to define the different sections, then wrote the corresponding dates/days of the week over the top.
September Review
Onto the final spread in this setup now: my September Review page. The content and basic layout of this spread is exactly the same as its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘September Review’ heading and a space to stick in a favourite polaroid from the month. On the left-hand page, I have sections for writing down the ATP & WTA (that’s tennis!) Top 10, my #1 memory and my 6 favourite songs from the month (or my ‘September Playlist’).
As with the other spreads in this setup, I’ve used my Tombow pen to highlight the different sections, then used my Sakura fineliners for the headings and extra decorations. For this spread, that mostly just equates to a few extra lines and some little doodles on the playlist section!
Final Thoughts
Okay, so I’m not a minimal person— we’ve established that! I’m pretty happy with how this spread turned out, though: I used every ounce of my self-restraint to keep it as minimal as possible (admittedly, that self-restraint slipped a little with my doodles on the final spread, but… oh well) and I think this definitely qualifies as a minimal setup, right?!
It may not be my usual style, but this setup was exceedingly easy to create, took almost no time to make AND is super functional, which is just what I needed this month with all of the life-induced chaos. All-in-all, yes, I do generally prefer a more detailed setup, but there’s a time and place for minimal and this month was definitely that!
I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my September setup! It won’t be too long before I’m posting again about my October one (and isn’t that a scary thought…)!
Gemma
xxx
