A Week in My Head is some kind of journal of all the things that went on in my head the past week. Be it succes, struggle or just some random ramblings. I know it doesn’t replace professional counselling, but this is my kind of therapy – talking it out of myself in this way. Join me if you want and feel free to share your experiences. I’m sure we can learn from each other and A Week in My Head will be a less lonely time.
In case you missed any of the previous entries, you can find them on the A Week in My Head page!
As I previously mentioned in my January Sneak Peek, from this month onward I’d like to have a weekly journal-like feature on the blog (it’ll have a nice feature image, it’s under progress, bear with me). I’ll talk about anything that happened the previous week, things that made me think, made me feel – be it good or bad. I’m not quite sure how this will go on, but I’m determined to take better care of my mental health this year and this is part of that attempt. The first few posts will be about experimenting and figuring out a system, so bear with me.
It’s not exactly the first time I raised the topic of mental health on the blog. A few months after starting the blog I had a lenghty post about things I’ve learned and last year when I was the most vulnerable, I used this platform to share some of my thoughts aboutthe importance of self-care. A lot of things happened since both of those posts, I’m more aware of things and probably more affected too in a way. I’ll try to untangle the mess in my head one weekly post at a time. I figured this is a better way than keep annoying my friends in different group chats with my whining 🙂 Seriously though, I do need an outlet, and what better place do I need for it than an Asylum?
As I mentioned, I intend to take better care of myself. I don’t do resolutions, I rather have goals – I’ll talk about these in another post later. And one of that is trying to understand what’s going on and how to keep the negative thoughts at bay. This will be my 2nd full year of having a bullet journal. Last year I had a pretty simple one which I mostly used as a calendar basically with monthtly and weekly spreads and keeping track of my spendings. This year I decided to take a step further. I purchased a dot grid notebook – hoo boy I was anxious about it, I need lines for directions and I had no idea how it’ll work out (as you’ll see, I can’t write straight…) – and planned out everything. I spent the better part of 2 weeks planning and setting it up starting with doing some research for ideas, drawing up the headlines and layouts and graphics, then adding ink and colours to it. But of course I did have screw ups… Some pages I had to redraw a few times and as determined as I was to draw up the letters first, I should have taken a more sensible approach and doing the layouts per page before moving on the the next one. That would have made my life easier, and my bullet journal would be less crammed. And I could have the extra pages I decided I don’t need. I did. Also some parts would have needed 2 pages instead of one. Luckily for me it still worked out, and some things can go at the end of the journal when I’ll do a revise at the end of the year. And I can also do better the next month now that I’m smarter and worked out the finer details.
Anyway, this year I also decided to have a theme – pandas! They are fairly easy to draw and I’m pretty sure I’ll be a pro by the end of the year. My journal is not 100% done yet (I need to write down my goals too) – I’m waiting for some stickers I’ve ordered, and I also want to draw a few doodles here and there, but for this post’s purposes, you can have an idea how I’m going to use it. So, let me present some pictures:
Note: The pages aren’t aligned well, because that damned dot grid wasn’t aligned either. It annoys the hell out of me, but I can’t do much about it, so I just accepted. Also I need to note, that my bullet journal has an odd mix of Hungarian and English, but you’ll probably see that for yourself. As for colours: I decided to go with black for the front stuff, and I’ll use a different colour for each month for the rest of the year.
Pages 1-2
Well, this pretty much talks for itself. It’s a yearly calendar, where I can see events, birthdays, travels, etc at one place.
Pages 3-4
Here I’ll write down my goals both for the blog and for my personal life. I have most of them in my head, I just need to organise my thoughts. On page 4 I have a yearly mood tracker – mostly because I want to see all the year at one place, but wait for the monthly one!
Pages 5-6
Well, shit, I ran into some problems with this one. I overestimated the space, and then when I squeezed all the months in, and thought I was done, I realised I screwed up, and mixed up the income and spending columns. It doesn’t show thanks to the scanner, but all of the “bevétel” and “kiadás” texts were scratched with correction roller. It looks hideous, but what can you do? *sigh* Anyway, this is where I’ll keep track of how much I spend on things such as books, music, food, travelling, etc; and how much I get from work, editing, etc.
Pages 7-8
I couldn’t figure out what else to put on the front (of course I had ideas later *sigh*) so let’s jump to how my months will look like. To start off, I have a monthly calendar with the events. Last year I used to have a big monthly calendar, but that was just a waste of space, so decided to go for smaller. I’ll attempt to draw a panda each month depicting a zodiac sign. For January I have a panda in a Capricorn hoodie. I also will have a qoute picked during a month. In January that went fairly easy. When I shared a drawing on Twitter about the then uncoloured panda, Tade Thompson said it looked like a demon familiar and that it inspired him to draw his own. I mean, what a better qoute to start your year with than one where someone says you inspired them?? I probably will add a panda sticker at the bottom or something. On the memories page I’ll put pictures and maybe drawings to remember things that happened in that month.
Pages 9-12
My weekly spreads. I have a key on the upside left side. This is where I’m planning out the blog posts and see what is coming up that week. I left more space for Mondays, because that’s when I have a weekly meeting with my boss, and she gives me my weekly tasks. I also realised I don’t need a full space for both Saturday and Sunday, so they share a row.
Pages 13-14
And now my most favourite page: the monthly mood tracker! I reached that point in my panda obsession from which there is no return. Not that I care. I also paid a little homage to my “status” as queen. Because of course I deserve it. So I’ll colour one place at a day according to my mood. On the other side I’ll add some notes what triggered that mood, so I could look back at it. It will also be helpful when I write up these weekly posts.
Pages 15-16
This is also a bit new. I’m trying out to have a habit tracker. I’m not sure this’ll work out for me, but here we go. I’ll keep track of how many hours I slept, if I read, blogged, edited, worked, crafted or did sports in any month. I think I only added the sports one to shame myself into actually doing something…
On the account page I’ll keep track of my spendings. I did this last year and it worked out really well, so I kept it. At the end of the month, I’ll add up everything and add the data to the Finances page.
Pages 17-18
I tried to have a monthly reading layout before, but that only included a list of books I read. I decided to try something different and added a lot of extra, which will help me to write up the Monthly Wrap Up / Sneak Peek posts. I have a list of books I plan to read, then I’ll add those I actually read. I also have different codes for source and format. I also have a page dedicated to the blog. With a list of things I have to get to, and to count how many I posted about different things. Not sure if this will helpful but we shall see. I hid some things, because I don’t want to spoil some surprises 😉
Pages 19-20
Well, this is not really interesting, at the end I have a notes page for everything else. The next page I will either use for some more notes or will draw something on it before I jump into February.
Aaand, that’s the end of it. I really went all out with this. I used both things that worked out before and tried to add several more new things. I don’t know how it’ll work out, but I’m pretty positive about it. I promise I won’t show it off every month, but figured this would be a good way to start off this new series. As the days led up to this fine Sunday my anxiety and selfdoubt kicked in and wasn’t sure if it’s a good idea to ramble all about my struggles and share all my stupid thoughts that goes through my head with everyone. But alas, here we are. Whether I’ll keep this up or not is remains to be seen.
So, this is it for now. Do any of you have a bullet journal? Did it work out for you? What do you have in it? I already got some ideas by talking to others about bullet journals and I guess I still can have a few more, so share away!
In case you missed any of the previous entries, you can find them on the A Week in My Head page!
Hmmm, well I suppose it IS called the Asylum. Best of luck keeping your agenda organized, and head in a good state. I rather thought I was organized until I saw your diary! And I wish you success with your panda creation. May they not be sad!
Haha, thank you! I sure keep the Asylum busy. With crazies. And pandas. What else do you need? Apart from a good library, that is. And a good sound equipment for concerts. Yep. Anyway, I must be organised, otherwise I wouldn’t have lasted even a month back then when I started blogging.
I love this journal😁 And I’ve never done a bullet journal myself but always wanted to. I’m not sure I have the patience!
Thank you! When I started it – 3 years ago – I had no idea if I’d stick to it. Then started blogging and suddenly it had become something I needed. It helped me to be organised and see what I was planning for that month. Otherwise I would have given up a long time ago. Setting this new one up though tested my patience, lol. And I’m not really good at being patient in the first place, lol. I started with a really simple basic agenda back then, nothing fancy. It was really a big step up this year.
You’re journal is really cool Timy! I’ve always thought these are cool but I not the type to ever create one. Idk maybe one day.
Thanks! My first two were really simple ones, just to keep track of blog posts and events. I decided to have a step up this year and see how it goes for me. I’m good so far.