Good morning~ Hi friend I know many of you have been patiently waiting for this video So, I am happy to finally welcome you to my 2021 Bullet Journal Set-Up Well, kind of... Because this time we are going to begin the set up from the very very beginning of the journal's life For the year of 2021, not only will I be setting up new bullet journal spreads But I am also going to be making it from scratch Beginning by tearing 50 pages of a sketchbook and folding them in half This is going to be a lot of tearing and folding... This will be my first ever time attempting to make my own journal I invite you to grab a nice snack or a warm beverage of choice Maybe even a journal of your own to work on And you can keep me company as I embark on this journal-making adventure We'll see how this goes Creating my self-made bullet journal *a first attempt I bet you are wondering what has spurred on this ambitious idea Well, as this year winds to an end I have been reflecting on not only my goals and plans for the future But how I want to go about organizing my life for the new year This may take awhile I have been bullet journaling for about... five years at this point? On and off; I wasn't consistent for five years In fact it was only for 2020 that I completed a set up for every consecutive month I think this is probably because at the beginning of 2020 I started posting bullet journal set up videos on YouTube My waffles quickly disappeared I have only had this channel for a little under a year I have been so incredibly fortunate that my videos have garnered such a large audience within that time Because it was really out of nowhere It's something that happened so fast that I could have never anticipated it Eventually people began expecting to see these monthly bullet journal set ups from me So even during months that I was feeling uninspired Or I just did not feel that the bullet journal system would be that helpful for me I would still try to come up with themes and spread ideas so I could post these videos If you have seen my 2020 bullet journal flip through video Which I will link in the video description and the card above if you want to check that out There were a couple of months that I would pretty much leave blank Because I didn't really have any motivation to actually use those spreads and fill out my sections for it The months that I did feel uninspired in It definitely reflected in how willing I was to fill these spreads out just because I didn't really like how anything looked Usually people would just skip out on months like these And come back to their journal when they are feeling more up for it But I guess that is simply a result of choosing to share my journal online As the year progressed, I realized that it wasn't just my journal anymore But it was one that I had shared with people through my channel Not to say that any of this is a bad thing It is just something that at the time when I made my first plan with me videos I didn't fully realize what I may have been getting myself into I find that when I am filming these plan with me videos I can't really sit down and just enjoy the process as much because I am making sure to get a good angle This is actually way heavier and thicker than I had anticipated Cleaning my workspace up I have room to begin working on the cover So what I think I am trying to say is, I guess at this point I'm not sure if bullet journaling is for me anymore Journaling is something I have always enjoyed, but in terms of creating an actual planning system I think my preferences really fluctuate here Some months I do find myself wanting to complete monthly and weekly overviews because I may have a lot going on And there are other months that I may only need to keep a simple to-do list on my laptop or something I don't think there is a so-called "perfect planning system" for me Because as I am growing up and coming into adulthood I think I am starting to learn that I really like to change things up.

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? I don't like following a strict pattern or routine At least... for right now Which is probably just a reflection of my life at this point Because I am going through a transitional period I will be graduating college in the spring Which is both exciting and kind of terrifying I know a lot of people say that college is the point in life When you start to figure out your identity and your interests But for me it was almost like I had the opposite experience Instead of narrowing down my focus I was introduced to so many new things that sparked my interest Now I have a giant list of things I want to try out I think could be partly why I am so indecisive Or why I crave change constantly right now That and also probably being 9 months into a pandemic There are so many things that I want to do and try That I find myself getting bored of sticking to a set routine as of now I don’t want to stick with something because it feels safe Then constantly be wondering “what ifs” about the things I decided not to pursue Of course I’m not going to say “To hell with it” and run into the post-grad life without a plan Because my brain would never allow myself to do something like that Without having 3 other backup plans as well I think this is a roundabout way of me saying I want to be a little more free from myself and my mind in 2021 Growing up I have always been someone who was very goal-oriented Who always needed to have a masterplan for life with each step perfectly planned out Hence why I fell in love with bullet journaling in the first place It's an entire system that breaks down your year by months and then weeks Having everything perfectly organized in a straight-forward set up It was really helpful for me during school because I had such a clear set goal To finish the school year with good grades and stuff The steps to getting to that goal were straight forward as well Complete this homework assignment, take an exam, etc. There was a clear direction in where I wanted to go and what I needed to do to get there I feel like people don't talk about this functionality side of bullet journaling that much because With social media it has become a lot more about how your journal actually looks It's that side of it that, the more creative artistic side Is where I want to shift my priority with journaling At least that is what I have observed of myself over the later half of the year Right now in terms of planning I don't need a whole lot to keep me organized I only need a calendar to view how the month is set up And a to-do list I have been keeping a sort of digital, weekly checklist on the Notes app of my laptop Where I write down the things that I need to get done each day Essentially, what a bullet journal is for I find it easiest for me to plan things digitally these days It's just a lot less hassle and it's easier to move things around, you don't have to cross anything out and stuff I would much rather use my journal as a creative place to design and make cute spreads about Whatever I may be feeling in the mood for I think that is how I will use this journal going into 2021 It will be a journal for.

.. whatever~ I will mostly be using it for simple overviews of the month I think Like those calendar spreads where I can decorate it to my heart's desire And then I may do most of my actual planning digitally Of course I could easily change my mind and want to go back to doing everything by hand And that is why, well Now I have this handmade journal that I can use however I please The day is slipping through my fingers Finishing the rest of the binding after I cooked myself a pesto pasta dinner I don't even know if this can be considered a bullet journal at this point Technicalities aren't too important to me; I guess this is a free-for-all journal So yes, that was my very long-winded explanation of how I will be planning and organizing myself for 2021 I also just realized that I didn't even get to why I want to make my own journal in the first place I am so sorry! As you can probably tell, I tend to be a very introspective person And I probably put too much thought into this And into any and everything I seem to do But yes! Back to this journal One thing that I learned over the months of quarantine is that I really enjoy to make things with my hands Be that creative and artistic Or something a little more functional/useful like.

.. food If you watch my vlog videos, I do a lot of cooking and sewing I recently wanted to give bookbinding a go I was taking a book arts class last semester But I dropped it after only a few weeks because I simply had too much on my plate at the time and it was only a 2-unit course so I thought it wasn't necessary to put my time here while I have other things I need to take care of first I had some supplies with me that my professor shipped over for that class I felt horrible letting it collect dust in the corner of my room after I had dropped the class So I thought "Why not give bookbinding a shot?" I didn't actually get to binding while I was in that class for three weeks I had to some research on my own, watch a few tutorials here and there I am pretty impressed with what I came up with This took me a whole day to make and I found it to be quite relaxing Okay, folding all those pages in the beginning was very tedious Making sure they were all the same size and perfectly aligned Yeah that part wasn't particularly fun but the binding part I really enjoyed It's something very similar to sewing Something I was able to get a bit lost in I could let my hands work on autopilot as I listened to a podcast or watched a show or something I find these activities to be very relaxing and peaceful for me As a first attempt at bookbinding I am very happy with how this journal turned out :) Some of the pages are not quite aligned I definitely encountered some points where I made mistakes But when I did it was more of like an “Oh, I know how to fix this" or "I know how to.

Avoid making the same mistake next time” type of thing Learning from the experiences of life! In terms of the style with this set-up It is way more minimal than I am used to making for my bullet journal I wasn't sure what I wanted to go for with the look of it yet So I just laid down some nice pastel colors that I like And figured I could go in and fill things out whenever I please if I come up with any ideas for it I'm probably going to fill the space in with stickers and washi tape Those things I don't see changing anytime soon as far as my journaling interests go I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself this year to fill out journals I'm just going to go with the flow And see where my creativity takes me With that, we have reached the end of this bullet journal set up Bullet journal? If we can even call it that at this point I hope your holidays are going well so far, and I want to thank you for spending Just a little bit of your time with me today as I made this journal And with that my 2021 bullet journal is complete It literally took me the whole entire day to finish this journal I began working on it around 11:00 am -ish when I woke up And right now it is About 20 minutes past midnight But I'd say that for my very first time and attempt at bookbinding It's pretty understandable why it took so long I basically learned how to do this through online tutorials and research So I am pretty proud of what I accomplished today I think that making my own journal this year makes it feel all the more special and personal It did take a lot of work and I don't know if I would be down to do this every year But I feel really happy with the outcome In terms of future bullet journal videos on this channel I'm not sure what exactly I will do Maybe I will include some clips here and there in my vlogs of Different weekly or monthly set ups And maybe I will share more pictures of it on Instagram But in terms of regular monthly set up videos I probably won't be doing.

Those Thank you for sticking by me as I created and set up my 2021 bullet journal Take care friend <3.