Yearly Bullet Journal Layout
I started using a calendex last year when I started my second bullet journal, and it is one of my favorite ways to see my long-term schedule. I hated the idea of drawing the same grid over and over for 12 months. I didn’t really want to take up 12 pages on a monthly view. If I don’t see my upcoming events before the week of, I will not be prepared. I thought about adding a little section to my weekly planner calling out my upcoming events, but rewriting events from one week to the next did not sound appealing. Plus, if I set it up like that, I’m bound to miss something.
I started looking around last year for things other people had done, and I found the calendex. According to thecalendex.com
“The Calendex is a calendar/index hybrid. It is a simple, flexible and adaptable analog future planning system giving you a birds-eye view of your schedule harnessing the power of the humble notebook.”
It’s so simple and clean! You can do single colors and make the whole year look sleek, or you can use a rainbow to indicate different categories.
The idea behind a calendex is that it shows the months on the horizontal axis, and the days of the month on the vertical axis. For months that do not have 31 days, you just black out those days in the calendex. I use a dividing line between each Saturday and Sunday to block off my weeks, but you can completely leave them off, or move them to whichever day you choose. I only run into trouble with this design if I have more than one event on a day. I then either have to write very small or kind of squish two days together.
I like the fact that this is a small, at a glance view of the entire year. It prevents me from putting too much information on the overview, and motivates me to make individual pages for things that require more planning. such as this page for our weekend trip for my friends’ birthday. My favorite thing about using it is that it allows me to see trends or free time more easily. If I am looking for a day to have a family dinner, host a party, or try to get away for the weekend, I don’t have to flip between pages just because I’m at the end of the month.
Last year, I actually used two different pages set up like a calendex. The first one was my own personal calendar that has most of the things my family is going to do. The second I used for business purposes with meetings, due dates, or other things that go on in the office that I only need to remember while I’m at work. This really helps me to separate my home life from my work life and helps me to not worry about work while I’m off.
Do you use a calendex? How do you show your yearly plans? Subscribe to our blog, like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for more planning ideas. Share your own journals, suggestions and comments!
