2023 Digital Bullet Journal Set Up!

Welcome! So if you follow my YouTube channel you may have already seen my videos regarding making the switch to Digital Bullet Journalling. If you haven’t, in October I made the switch and have been loving it so far! I was becoming very unmotivated with my physical bullet journal. It was becoming less of a tool to track and boost productivity and more of a hinderance to it. Having to go to my desk, get out all the supplies and write/draw out everything and then pack everything away was just becoming draining for me. I’ve also always had the issue that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I found that if I didn’t end up liking how a spread turned out I’d be less likely to utilise that spread. Swapping to digital though all the issues I was having have been rectified. I can sit in my lounge or in bed and journal. I don’t need any supplies besides my iPad and my Apple Pen which is in the case of my iPad. There is no setting up or packing down. I just grab my iPad and get into it. AND the biggest thing, I can fix mistakes easily. If I don’t like something I just press undo or erase and fix it. If I get sick of how something is looking part way through the month I can just change it. The lack of permanence with digital bullet journalling has been a huge thing that’s helped me. I’m finding myself actively using my bullet journal every day. As well as using it a lot more productively.

I made the decision to go into 2023 digital and if, down the track, I feel the need to swap to physical, well I can do that. I do have a couple blank Archer & Olive journals on hand for that purpose but I also think I’m going to utilise one as more of a scrapbook/memories journal throughout 2023. That way I’m still utilising some of my supplies as I have a tonne of pens, washi tapes, stickers, etc.

That’s enough rambling! Let’s check out my 2023 Spreads! Also, in case you can’t tell my 2023 theme is mountains!

Image Description:
Title: 2023
Drawing: A Snowy mountain with a moon above, trees and a snowy landscape with a small hut with a green roof in the foreground all in a circle with an ombre background behind the circle

Quote at the bottom: There are 365 pages of this story. Write a good one.

Image Description:
Title: Goals for 2023 with the G in goals resting in a moon
Headings of New Habits, The year I want to, Health, Life & Dusk Angel Store with lines below to write. There is also a simple range of mountains drawn at the bottom with a stay sky in the background.

Firstly we have my cover page. I went with a pretty simple mountain design in a circle but added a cute little hidden Hagrid’s Hut to it. I did a HP theme for Dec 2022 so I just pulled my drawing from then and coloured it. I also recently saw the quote:

Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.
Brad Paisley

on Instagram and I loved it but adapted it slightly and used it on my cover page.

Then is my goals page. This is the second year I’ve done a goals page & I’m hoping to actually use it this year as I didn’t in 2022. I broke it down into a couple sections inspired by other goals page spreads I found when scrolling through Pinterest. So I have New Habits & This year I want to on the left and then a place on the right to set goals relating to Health, Life & Dusk Angel Store, my online store.

Image Description
Title: Things to Check Out
This page is split into four with each corner of the page having its own mountain scene. The top left has a simply mountain range. Top right has a single mountain with trees in the front and a moon behind. Bottom left has a large moon in the top right with an ocean in the front and a single mountain on the horizon. Bottom right has a snowy foreground with trees and a mountain range behind. Each section has a box to write in and a title for each section. Sections being Recipes, TV Shows, Movies & Podcasts.

Image Description
Title: Then & Now.
Drawing of a mountain range with an ocean in the foreground. The mountains are also reflecting in the ocean and there are fluffy clouds in the sky. At the bottom is a list of items with a space on the left & right to write in the answers at the beginning and end of the year. List includes Food, Movie, Song, TV Show, Book, Recently Tried, Bad Habit, Want to Try, Looking Forward to & Accomplished.

Next I have my Things to Check Out spread which is basically a place where I can list what I want to check out. I have 4 categories which are Recipes, TV Shows, Movies & Podcasts. This is helpful to have a place to dump all these things so that when I feel like watching a movie, for example, but don’t know what to watch I can go to my list and see if there is anything on there that peaks my interest.

Then we have Then & Now spread. This is my first time using this one and I got the idea from JashiiCorrin on YouTube who is one of my fave Bullet Journalling YouTubers to watch. Basically at the beginning of 2023 I will write in my current fave food, what I’m looking forward to, a recent accomplishment, etc and then at the end of the year I will do the same. I thought it would be a fun snapshot of what’s going on now that I can look back to at the end of the year.

Image Description
Title: 23 23s in 2023
Background includes a single mountain with a line of trees in front and a large bright moon is rising from behind the mountain. This spread has a grid 23 by 23 with numbers up the side and a list of tasks along the bottom. As a task is completed a space on the grid will be filled in. Please find the list of items in the text below.

Image Description
Title: 10 Books to Read in 2023
Background includes a mountain range with a moon setting between the mountains. A book fanning opening is in the middle of the spread where vertically there is a space on each fanned page for each of the 10 books I am challenging myself to read.

This is another JashiiCorrin inspiration. The 23 23s in 2023! So basically you choose 23 thing that you would like to do 23 times in 2023. I went with a combination of things that will be easily accomplished and others that will be a little more challenging. In case you can’t read it my list includes:

Movies Watched
Book Series Finished
TV Show Seasons Watched
New Foods
Trips Away
2L Water Days
Restaurants Tried
Automotive Events Attended
Work Free Days
Videos Posted
Blog Posts Posted
$100 Saved
No Spend Weeks
Podcast Episodes
Awake by 7am
Books off my TBR
New Products Launched
Asleep by 11pm
Plants Sold
Wash Roxy
Wash Car
Change Sheets
Digital Art

Then I have my 10 books to read in 2023 list. I haven’t populated this as I only decided on those books last night (at the time of writing this post). So I will add those in and when I have completed a book I will colour in that section.

Image Description
Title: Reading Tracker
A Mountain Range in the foregound with a stary key behind and a crescent moon in the middle. To One side is a grid where is there is a square for each day of the year with months along the top and dates down the side.

Image Description
Title: Best Book of 2023
Background is a single mountain with trees in the foreground and a moon rising from the left side of the mountain. Along the top is 12 spaces to fit book covers of my favourite book each month. Every two boxes has a line leading to a box below where I will put the cover of which book out of those two is the winner. Out of those 6 winners there is also a line from every 2 boxes to a box below for that winner. Leaving 3 boxes. Out of those 3 a winner is chosen and there is a large box at the bottom to put the winner of the Best Book for the whole year.

Next we have my reading tracker which I’m realising as writing this I still haven’t gotten around to putting the Key in that will mark what colours equal what number of pages read each day but I’ll get to it. Basically for this one I will colour in a square each day so signify how many pages I read that day.

Then is my Best Book of 2023 spread. So this is how I decide my favourite book of the year. Each month I choose my favourite book for that month & will add the cover into that spot. Then at the end of the year I do it battle of the books style to narrow it down to my favourite. Keep an eye out for my Best Books of 2022 post which will be coming soon to see how I use it.

Image Description
Title: Genres Read
A simple mountain range background with a grid of numbered boxes up to 156. A key is at the bottom including: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Contemporary, Dystopian, Horror, Thriller, Anthology, Historical & Non-Fiction with a colour assigned to each genre

Then we have my Reading Trackers. So these are where I track different aspects of every book I read. I have space for 156 books but if I end up reading more than that I can just add more space as needed. Every time I finish a book I will fill in what genre it is, what star rating I gave it, what format I read it in and how many pages it has. This gives me a visual representation of my reading for the year. I do track this on my Reading Tracker Spreadsheet but I like having the visual too.

Image Description
Title: No Spend Challenge
A snowy mountain scene at the bottom with scattered trees int he foreground. 52 white numbered boxes in a grid at the top

Image Description
Title: Savings Challenge, $50 a week
A Mountain Range at the bottom with a misty ocean in the foreground. A grid at the top numbered 1 - 52 for each week of the year

Now moving onto my money/spending challenges spreads which I have 3 of. Firstly my No Spend Challenge. This one I have divided into 52 squares, one for each week of the year. Each week I don’t spend money I will colour in. Obviously this wont include bills, food, fuel, etc. but my goal is to not spend extra money in order to save more. Which leads into the Savings Challenge. This will be a physical money box where I will put $50 in each week. Every week I complete that challenge I will colour in the box for that week.

Image Description
Title: Save-Opoly
Dark Ocean scene with a mountain on the horizon and a large moon in the top right corner. Over this is a Monopoly looking board with all the text removed and in each space is a $1 amount starting from $1 up to $40. Also a small grid with 52 numbered spaces in the top left

Image description
Title: Last Time I
A Mountain Range with an ocean in the foreground reflecting the mountains. A full 2023 year calendar in the middle and along the bottom is a key featuring: Gave Roxy her Allergy Tablet, Worm the Cats, Changes my sheets, Washed Roxy, Watered Frangipanis & Cleaned Out Front with a colour assigned for each task

Then the last Savings spread is my Save-Opoly. This is a bingo board where each square corresponds to an amount to save. I will roll the dice and make my way around the board and put the amount I land on in a money box. I’m thinking 2 or 3 rolls a week. The aim will be for 3 rolls but depending on where I am on the board and if I have other bills or anything to cover that week I will let it be just 2 rolls. I also put a little calendar up the top left so I can colour in each week I do it so I don’t lose track.

Next is my Last Time I… spread and I don’t remember which Bullet Journalling YouTube account I got this idea from but it could have also been JashiiCorrin. I will link below some of my fave accounts though so you can check them out! This one is basically a habit tracker but instead of being used to track doing something every day it’s more to keep track of when you last did something. I find when I get super busy and am travelling for events and such I lose track of how much time has actually passed since I did a certain thing. So this gives you a place to record that. I will be able to go on and see the last time I washed my dog or changed my sheets for example to determine if it needs to be done. Also things like my dogs allergy tablet & my cats worming where I do have reminders set for but it will be good to have a space to say yes I did that rather than just. Crap did I remember to do that when the reminder went off… I may add more prompts to this as the year goes on but for now I’m just tracking those 6.

Image Description
Title: Highlight Reel
Snowy mountain scene with scattered trees int he foreground and falling snow. Two strings are across the page with with two polaroid picture looking shapes pegged to each string. The name of the month is listed in the white section at the bottom of the polaroid. This one features January to April.

Lastly we have my Highlight Reel or Year in Pictures as some people call it. This is a spread I’ve been doing for a few years now & originally got the idea from AmandaRachLee. Every month you simply add a photo from your favourite memory of that month. Last year I left spaces for 2 images per month in my journal but for this I’ve left one spot so I can add as many photos as I like. Maybe do some doodles or other decorative bits and make it a bit of a collage. Will see what inspiration hits at the time.