Back-to-School

I'm a life-long resident of Michigan. School starts after Labor Day. Well, some school districts in the Great Lakes State are taking a hard look at whether waiting until after the holiday is a good idea.

Michigan has a law on the books to prevent classes from starting until after that first Monday in September to promote tourism as long as possible for seasonal destinations. But, there are ways to get around it legally.

Since my spawn have all graduated from high school--and I've retired from teaching--I don't really care. I just want to take advantage of office supply sales.

And, when I say office supplies, I mean sticky notes, washi tape, good colored pencils, and fine-line markers that won't bleed through my Bullet Journal paper.

As matter of fact, I'm doing my September set-up in my spare moments (read: 10 or 15 minutes here & there, when I'm shifting gears).

September 2019 Bullet Journal Monthly Spread. Fall theme with hand-drawn to-go coffee cup with a little spill, a Mac laptop, vehicle, 'Fall is...', acorn & colored leaves across the bottom. A tree trunk is 'behind' the date boxes.

 I'm finishing up my current lined Bullet Journal and then I'll be switching to a dot-grid format. This is a B5-sized lined book, and it fits a fabric batik-looking cover purchased from a colleague--which increases the number of pockets for stickers!

Bullet Journal from March 2019. Washi tape dividers and stickers to accent. Weekdays (Friday) is a full page and Saturday & Sunday are on one page. 

Back in March, I was using Washi tape like it was the best thing since sliced bread (it is...). But, I learned over the course of the year, that the Washi made my BuJo thicker and the front cover started peeling away. The new dot-grid BuJo is spiral bound, so we should prevent that from happening. And, I'm drawing instead of using Washi as dividers.

Bulled Journal spread. Each day gets its own page because I wear so many hats. 

What I like most about using a Bullet Journal is that I can customize it for me. Any appointments I have for the day go in the top section. The second section (where there's writing) is for my dayjob tasks.  I track editing I need to accomplish for others in the third section. Sometimes--if I don't have any editing projects happening--I use that space for notes about a story I'm working on or other ideas. The fourth section is for my writing tasks. I found stickers on Etsy that have a box for Word Count and I add those daily.

The bottom section is for health tracking. If I have a particularly painful day, I make notes of sleep, eating, exercise, and weather to help track the ups and downs of the rheumatoid arthritis. I'm the first to admit this section doesn't get as much love as it should. I'm working on integrating something more artistic in the upcoming months. 

How do you stay organized?