How to Design a Bujo Spread

In bullet journaling, a spread is any page in your notebook that is dedicated to a certain use. In this post, I'm going to share with you my process for creating your own bujo spreads. It may sound tricky, but I promise you, it's not.

1. What is the purpose?

Each spread you include in your journal has it's own specific use. Weeklies are for your daily to-dos. Habit trackers help you stay on target with things. Cleaning spreads help you remember when you last cleaned the coffee pot.

Not to say that all spreads have to have a super useful purpose. You can make a spread for anything. Favorite song lyrics. Color swatches. Disney movies you've watched. It's fun to create pages dedicated to things that you love or enjoy.

When creating a new spread, you just need to keep in mind what the point of making it is. It could be to help you with something. Or it could be for fun. It's all up to you.

2. Look for inspiration

The first thing I do when I decided to add a new spread is look to see what other people have done. It's the most helpful trick I can think of. Pull up your Pinterest, Instagram, or Google, and search for the type of spread you want to create.

Sometimes you may not find anything, but you'll be surprised at how many other people have the same ideas as you. For example, this month I'm doing a Disney theme, so I searched for Disney mood trackers and found quite a few.

These ideas you can either copy exactly (no shame in doing that), or use as inspiration for your own. You can take several ideas and combine them to make the spread you need. You could even sketch out some various ideas if you want.

3. Decide size and style

Once you've got an idea in mind for your spread, it's time to actually start designing it. To do that you need to make a few decisions. First off, how much room do you need for this spread? Sometimes it can fit fine on one page, or sometimes you need a full two pages or more.

You may also want to decide what sort of style you want. Simple and functional? Extra doodly? Only text? Lots of boxes? It doesn't really matter what you do, as long as you like it and it works for you. That's the whole point of bullet journaling.

4. Sketch it out

I almost always draw my spreads out with a pencil first. If I don't, I always seem to end up messing something up. If you're confident in your drawing skills, or just don't want to use pencil first, then please go ahead and jump in.

Pencil is also great because it allows you to play around with layout and lettering without having to start over. I find it especially helpful with headers, since I always seem to be running out of space.

5. Finishing touches

With all those details behind you, it's time to go in and finally use your pen. Create your spread, use those markers, and do whatever you need to make something functional or fun.

Of course, you don't have to do any of this. You could just sit down and jump right in. This is the way that works for me is all I'm saying.

Do you bullet journal? Have any tips to add? Tell me in the comments.

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