Hey YouTube World! It’s me, Evelyn’s hands. Peace and blessings. Just wanted to show y’all
how I’m finna set up my bullet journal for April. A couple of things have changed since
my previous bullet journal video, just figuring out what works and what doesn’t and what's
the point of anything ever. But of course the first step is to caress the pages. Okay,
just give them a good rub down.
I traced everything in pencil beforehand. And we’re starting with the monthly calendar
spread. The only consistent artistic theme throughout the year is gon be these bubble
letters that I’m doing. So I’m using this pen to outline the calendar starting with
the month of course. Happy April, everybody. The first quarter of the year is done. We
are three months into 2020 and uh...send it back. What’s the return policy on a calendar
year? I don't want it anymore-- actually me myself I had 2020 on layaway anyway, so I’m
think I'm just finna stop making payments.
Anyway, I would see people doing full calendars like this and I always thought it was so stupid.
Because you could just get a planner. Which is technically still true. But I also realized
I hate most planners because I always need more space each day than they give for a day,
so I think what works best for me is having a full calendar like this and then blank pages
for everything else. But until I figure out if that actually exists already printed, Ima
just have to draw it myself.
(music plays)
Okay, so now Ima do an art. It's time to do an art. I enjoy collage as an art form. One
of my favorite artists is Deborah Roberts and she does amazing collage work if you wanna
check her out this will be nothing like that. I cut some strips of paper out of a magazine...this
is the magazine. And it’s great for patterns which is why I bought it back in January when
we were all doing vision boards like we was gon be out the house enjoying life. So naive.
We was wrong. We were so wrong.
I’m gluing these down, arranging them in a way that pleases me. And besides the stress
of filming myself - I actually hate filming myself - this is pretty relaxing. To just
zone out and do this. Collage is kinda like a puzzle, but there's no right answer, which
I enjoy.
(music plays)
I added some drop shadow to the days of the week, colored it in, and filled in the dates
using some markers and voila - April’s calendar.
So when I set up my March spread, I realized it was better to have a full calendar instead
of the smaller ones that I did for January and February. Those small calendars weren’t
helpful because I realized don’t need to write down an event on paper - like I don't
need to write down the places I need to be. I use Google Calendar for those. But I do
need a place to chart out the processes and steps and to-do list tasks involved in completing
the tasks that I write in my brain dump section over here. So that’s why in March I changed
it up and did a full calendar spread with enough space to write down everything I need
to do in order to hit my deadlines.
Oh, and to everyone who suggested that I get those Frixion erasable pens. I did get them,
and they're actually very helpful because not when I write down my lil tasks in the
monthly calendar, when things change and deadlines shift, I can just erase and move it to the
correct date.
Now we move on to the page where I brain dump. And this is just a list of all the things
I have to do in April. It's super simple, just a lil title at the top and at the bottom
of the page, I used to have a little section for goals, like the monthly things i could
do to hit my yearly goals, you know what I'm saying. Take it one step at a time, you feel
me? But we not doing that this month, okay? Goals are overrated. How bout that? So instead
I'm gonna do a lil doodle with a quote that’s become my mantra this year “don’t be afraid
to be seen trying”.
(music plays)
I’m coloring in the doodle with a mixture of markers and colored pencils. And I actually
hated the way the little mountain climber man turned out so I just colored it all black
and now he looks like a ninja...so…
Moving on to my habit tracker. I’m trying something new this month, kinda combining
a format I attempted in March with the original habit tracker from Ryder Carroll, the creator
of the bullet journal. So I’m dividing this calendar out by week, so every seven days,
and numbering the dates and days of the month down the left side of the page. Last month,
I tracked habits on my monthly calendar, using dots in different colors to represent different
habits I’m trying to form. And every day, I’d put a dot on the day if I drank water
or took a walk or whatever it was I was tryna do to make me feel like a decent human being.
In March I also tracked my sleep. Since February my sleep was all over the place. I was uploading
a lot more videos than I normally do, so I didn't really sleep well that month. And so
in March, I was trying to just track my sleep and get a better grip on what sleep was for
me. And that’s cool or whatever, but what’s the point of tracking if you can’t also
document why you did or didn’t do the habit. Or not documenting why I didn't sleep well.
So I didn’t learn anything solely by tracking habits. But this format that I'm trying for
April allows me to indicate completion of a habit on a daily scale but also write a
little sentence about what happened that day to make the habit easy or difficult to do.
I can also talk sleep in this section.
(music plays)
Next spread is a really basic reflection type spread. This is where I journal about what
happened last month, and what I hope for the coming month. This is what it looked like
in March. See that quote “don’t be afraid to be seen trying”. It's coming up for me!
It's coming to the top! So I’m just repeating that for April’s set up. Really simple,
just some bubble letters and a lil drop shadow box colored in.
And finally for April, I’m setting up my first week. I start off every week no matter
if it’s at the top of the page or the middle of the page wherever I naturally start a week
is where I’ll write my top 3. I got the "top 3" from Erin On Demand here on YouTube.
And it's basically like "what are my top 3 priorities this week?" I write them down and
it really helps me focus, it helps me prioritize what’s actually important versus self-imposed
stress. And then because I’m a relentless dreamer, I have this little section for things
I’d like to do this week. Which of my extrovert friends should I Facetime? Who do I need to
donate to cuz folks been laid off? Which closet am I gonna declutter if I wanna get off the
couch? IF I wanna get off the couch. All that goes here.
(music plays)
And I know that April starts in the middle of the week on a Wednesday, but we starting
fresh, okay? Throw the whole March away.
Then I quickly write down the date and the day, and I can put my daily to-do list there.
And I add a little sticky thing to mark the new month for easy access when I’m flipping
back and forth. And that’s it.
Now that April's been set up, I'm gonna go back to my index which is the bullet journal's
table of contents. And I'll write down where April begins so I can reference that later.
Then I'm gonna revisit my Future Log which I still don’t really get the point of, but
I decided to use it to document my travel this year, which is cancelled. That gig got
cancelled. That gig got cancelled. That was a vacation we not finna go there anymore probably.
My cousin’ KK’s graduation ceremony probably gon be cancelled too, so…
Next I’m gonna ignore my goals we not gon too much address my alleged dreams. Instead,
I wanted to tell y’all that I’m compiling all of your anthem suggestions from my first
bullet journal video into a playlist that I will send out in my email newsletter. Just
visit the link in my video description box to sign up. It is a private playlist for my
email cousins. I still haven’t chosen my 2020 anthem because what is this year?! So
I decided to go back to that video, compile all of your suggestions, and I've just been
listening to it tryna see if something bubbles in my spirit. So that'll be included in April's
email newsletter.
And then moving over to my gratitude page, when I’m alone and feeling pensive - I'm
not gonna fill this out now - I’ll fill in what I’m grateful for in April. Balance.
Moving on, I made a video about my overwhelmed reset routine - and y’all really seemed
to like it. Thanks! if you missed it I’ll link it here in the atmosphere and the video
description box.
Next I’ll quickly fill in all the shows I been watching. Little Fires Everywhere,
Tiger King which wasn’t as wild as people said online maybe it’s because I’m from
the South, so I mean the people didn't seem that strange. The Five was really good coulda
been a tinge shorter, okay? A hair shorter. And I watched season 1 of WestWorld for the
first time. There have been more things. I have watched many more things, but they're
escaping me right now.
For my year outside spread - look at her, she's looking cute -, I’m gonna update it
for March now that the month is over. And I'm using a Polaroid zip printer I think it’s
called? The color is weird like it doesn’t match the real photo like in my mind's eye,
well in my eye eye, but I can’t find the calibration thingy so that’s why I’m lightly
gluing these down instead of peeling the back off of the photo and sticking it directly
on the paper. Because if I can reprint these later? I will. There’s a little space to
write down where I was and Ima fill that in later.
Next spread is my favorite recipes which I haven’t filled out at all this year. And
that’s because I learned that I cook when I’m hungry, so the last thing I wanna do
is take more time to photograph food. As opposed to going outside it’s like yeah take all
the pictures you want, you know what I'm saying? Look this thigh meat! You gotta photograph
the thigh meat! So i’ve been writing down the dish in pencil and hopefully one day I’ll
just cook people a bunch of food and take pictures later.
And now the final April flip through.
(music plays)
Hope this video took up enough of your time if you were using it as a distraction and
I will see you on the internet somewhere. Bye!