October Bullet Journal. Did I fail my planning this month?
Hey friends, I don’t know about you but for me October and Halloween are my absolute favorite time of the year. I live in Arizona so its not a typical fall for us, I think we hit under 90 degrees the week of Halloween and it was mostly at night. So not typical at all, but what I think is a little typical is the sense of overwhelm in this month. October for many is the Official Start of the Holiday Season, getting Halloween ready in September (which for me was very full with fun stuff for my husbands birthday- check out the September post for more on that) we start by taking out all of our decorations from storage and find time to start setting them up. Seeing what is broken if anything, for us nothing was broken when we started our set up so that was a major win. For us anything that doesn’t cost a ton is a win, especially since the end of the year is a little tighter on the budget with the gear up for Christmas (I know you have a stash already put away my friend) saving at any step of the process is helpful.
However, once October got started I totally lost track of my planner and I’ll tell you why. I try to make my sketch for the month coming up around the end of the previous month, on the months I get my video out in the first week of the month that means that I was able to sketch out most of it before even finishing the filming of the month that is. So to have gotten October out on time I would have had to spend time on my husbands birthday week (which was packed) to sketch out instead of doing the family activities we had planned. Once October started we also had a lot of fall family fun planned out and if your trying to make holiday fun days happen, I highly recommend making it happen. So I picked family over my bullet journal with that aspect, this has been one of my goals to spend more time with my family so I took my chance. It was a win for my family time goal and I wouldn’t give it back.
Then when It came to filming the video, sometimes I will just stay up late but I was so overwhelmed with out outings in October to be able to stay up much later than I was. So when I was finally able to sit down and film it wasn’t until the second week of the month at least that I was able to make time early in the morning, as you can see I had some toddler hands in spots and to be serious I think she took my bear eraser and put it in her toy box (I guess that’s what I get for having cute erasers) because the one in the video I haven’t been able to find since. Then, my ring light went out. Now in all honestly the rig I have is about 5- 6 years old, and it was cheap when I got it. So for it to last as long as it did, I’m very happy with it. I have my C-Arm now and I will be using the natural light and top lighting until I’m able to get a new one or find my little light clip that came with an old microphone. As I mentioned above, we did a lot of family outings in October, going to some Halloween fairs and Trunk or Treats. My kids had a blast and I’ll tell you something crazy… I didn’t take many pictures at all. I know crazy right. I had been having some moments of high stress and due to the crowds, very high anxiety. So what I did was make a mental picture and mental videos from the events. I was truly in the moment, even if I was using my breathing techniques every other minute. I’ll tell you, post Covid events have been so crazy and above all, packed! It has been fun watching the looks on my 3 year old’s face, she has not known crows to be this big where as my oldest was used to this before Covid and she’s more able to adjust. So coming home from those events, no matter how fun they were, I was very drained and prioritized my sleep and self care over trying to stay awake. Practice what you preach right, why would I tell my client to do something I wouldn’t do?
As I said in the video, “We aren't cats, if we cant fit into the box lets get a new box” So, I have created a plan to make the next two very busy months work for my needs and my planner style. So the question of did I fail when planning my bullet journal in October can be summed in in a yes and a no. I failed in the aspect of I didn’t finish my set up before needing it, I was able as I mentioned in the video to use some spots from September to jot down what I needed in October then I used the non set up pages in the original bullet journal method. So I had the space and I was able to shift how I was inputting to work for me. That’s what I always say when working on my bullet journal, the set up needs to work for you, not anyone else. If all you want is a calender page and a page for notes, than give yourself a calender page and a page for notes . If you want it to be very decorated, make it decorated. If you want to leave spaces for a mood meter or gratitude journal, leave those pages. It’s your journal and it needs to work for you, why put in pages you won’t use.
So even if I failed this month, I’ve set myself up for success next month. I’ve given myself grace, I’ve examined what my “road blocks” were, and above all I looked at what worked for me. What I was able to accomplish and the feeling attached to those accomplishments. Remember, even if you “failed” there was something good that came from it to be thankful for. You did good today friend, you didn’t fail.
Many Blessings.
