bullet journals as a life respository: bits of mine from 2025 & 2026

I have been making bullet journals for at least the last five years as a place to hold all the odds & ends of my life. I have found them to be a great repository to put down any ideas I have, bits of inspiration, important dates and goals, future ideas, TV shows and movies to watch, health items, reading goals and all kinds of miscellaneous stuff. It’s something I normally keep to myself, but Mike thought people might like to see how a compulsive list-maker and dreamer organizes herself.

I spend an inordinate number of hours preparing a new bullet journal for each year. In most years, I start thinking about the next year in October. I choose which color of Leuchtturm1917 journal (251 pp) might capture my mood in the coming year. I usually like to get the dotted version, but in 2025, I accidentally bought the lined version, which I didn’t like as much.

Once I decide on the journal to use, I start filling in the details in November and December. I try to give a lot of thought to what I’d like to get done in the year. Once the new year arrives and I start living the days, I jot down happenings, ideas, things that need to be accomplished, and even future ideas and dreams. I used to do this in many different places — on Word documents on my computer, in various types of journals, and on loose pieces of paper — but now my bullet journal is where everything goes for the year. That way I know exactly where to look when I forget something. Maybe it’s my way of guarding against memory loss. Mostly, I do it because I truly enjoy doing it.

2025 Bullet Journal

In 2025, I chose a dark turquoise journal for no particular reason. I picked 25 things to do in 2025. I usually put a collage at the front, and make a list that I print on aged-looking paper, ripped around the edges. On that paper, I include an overall theme for the year, projects for the year, travels, mantra of the year, a gratitude mantra, a poet of the year to read, music of the year to listen to, a subject to study or read about, and finally what kinds of activities I will do for fitness. If I find stickers, I put them in, along with washi tape.

Some years I have drawn pictures – of birds, flowers, etc. at the beginning of each month. In 2025, I put stickers on each month’s cover page. For each month, I include a title page, list of dates & special events, a habit tracker, and tasks for the month.

To give you a glimpse, here are some pages of my 2025 bullet journal. As you can see, my handwriting is not the best, but I can read it and that’s all that matters. Many pages are rather sloppy when I don’t have any particular organization in mind. For instance, restaurants in Costa Rica was very disorganized, but you will see in 2026, I created a whole new organizing system. I know, call me crazy! I also squeezed in seasonal BINGO cards in the appropriate spots once I started doing them in 2025.

I love it when I complete the year’s bullet journal and I have a kind of messy and bulky compilation of my year. The projects I continually put on my list (finishing a memoir and publishing my novel) are things I rarely take actions toward achieving (some years I take steps toward those goals, but other years I ignore them completely).

2026 Bullet Journal

Once the election results were tallied in the U.S. at the end of 2025, I chose my bullet journal colors for the next four years – all dark colors – since I felt the years ahead would be heavy and bleak times in the U.S. and in the world. I have so many bright colored journals I would love to use, but I want to save those for happier, more optimistic times. If there ever are such times in the future. If there aren’t any more optimistic times in the future, I’ll have to learn to create my own paths to happiness.

I chose a dark burgundy color for 2026. I actually started this journal before I left the U.S. in June because I knew I wouldn’t have a printer in Costa Rica. I completed the collage and cover page themes at that time.

In October, when I went home for two weeks, I added habit trackers for the first six months of the year. I’m sure I’ll have to adjust them as the months go by since my priorities will change. It was hard to begin so far in advance of the year. Once November and December rolled around here in Costa Rica, I began filling in more details.

Below are bits of my 2026 bullet journal. I’m sure my priorities and desires will evolve, but I’ll just change things as I go along. I’m sure you can imagine the jumbled mess my brain would be without something to organize myself!

Of course, I still have to have more journals. I use these for creative ideas, stream of consciousness journaling, and for adding details that don’t fit into my bullet journal. I also have a separate journal for each travel destination.