Bullet Journal Setup

Just a heads up this may be a bit of a long post so you may want to grab a tea of coffee and get comfy! 

This year I made the decision to use my standard size TN as my planner. This has been one of the best decisions I have made this year!! The size is perfect for planning. 

After getting back into planning in a TN, I started watching more videos on YouTube and following more IG accounts. Doing this, I found Boho Berry! Her videos and IG convinced me to finally try bullet journaling. Up until this point, I knew what bullet journaling was but it didn't seem right for me. Her bullet journals are so pretty I couldn't resist trying it out... and I am glad I did. 

I have fallen in love with this method of planning. It has helped me be less particular about how things look and actually use my planner. Don't get me wrong! My planner is still pretty and colourful, but I am learning that if I make a mistake it isn't the end of the world haha. 

On my IG account Stephanie.Emmiline I have had a few requests to do this post about how I setup and use my bullet journal! So lets jump right in! 

In my TN I have my actual journal, followed by my bullet journal, a book where I keep permanent lists (non-permanent ones go in my bullet journal pages as a collection), and a zipper pouch. So this post will just go through how I use my bullet journal insert, what I keep in it, and how I set it up. 

When I open my BuJo, the first page is my index. I don't log everything here. Basically, I log any pages that are not daily pages, and then when I start the month I write that in and leave a space to write where the daily pages end. So April is entered as 5 - ___ April 2016. This means that my monthly spread for April begins on page 5 and then my dailies start after that, when I get all my dailies done I will put the last page number after the 5. That way I don't waste my time entering every day into my index. 

The next spread is inspired by boho berry (to be honest my whole BuJo is inspired by her lol). This is my future log. Here I drew mini calendars of each month from where I began BuJo-ing (April) and left space to write next to each calendar. This is my way of future planning. If I have an appointment in September I will write it in here and then when I begin planning for September I can come back to this page and see what appointments I have. This way I can schedule things and not lose them! 

Also in my future log I shade in the day on the calendar so appointments or other events stand out. I use my colour coding system from my previous post to correspond with whatever the scheduled event is. For example: appointments in orange and birthdays in dark green! You can see my colour coding post here. 

The next spread is my bullet journal key and my weight loss tracker. For my BuJo key I just wrote out what I had on the card in my last post. This page is nothing special. 

For tracking my weight loss I decided to go with a dot graph because I can see my ups and downs, and it is a more accurate picture of my progress. So on this graph I chose three colours (blue = no change/starting point, green = weight loss, red = weight gain.) based on whether my weight has gone up, down, or stayed the same I place a dot on the graph in the corresponding colour. I weigh in on Monday's so I only track my weight on here those days. 

The next spread is my month overview for April. This month I used a combination of things I have seen in Boho berry's however, I am planning to make a few changes next month! So First I have the days of the week vertically down the side, followed by 4 columns (all day, morning, evening, and goals). Then I have next months calendar (on here I colour in specific dates where things are scheduled or planned). 

On this spread I plan on changing some of the titles next month. So it will be All Day, AM, PM, and Monthly Tasks (instead of goals). 

Following my monthly spread I have my April tracker. Here I put in a list of habits or tasks I want to track and each day that I accomplish these tasks I colour in the box. To the left of the tasks I have a single blank column where I am planning to use one of three colours to colour it in when the month is over. These colours will be red = poor, green = good, and yellow = okay. I am planning to use these colours to determine what I need to keep on my tracker next month and what I can remove from my tracker because it has become a habit for me. 

Then I began my daily pages. Since I began on April 1st which was a Friday I used a single page for those three days.

Following my first daily pages I made a collect listing how to store particular groceries and how long they should last (too often food goes bad in my fridge so I hope this will help!!). 

This information was found on pinterest

Then we get into my first full week of BuJo-ing. This is where I will explain how I actually use my daily pages. 

Each week I have decided I am going to stick to a single type of banner because I like the cohesiveness of this look. So here I used a banner from (you guessed it!) boho berry's banner tutorial video on YouTube. Under the banner I wrote the month day and year (Example: 04.04.16). Following the header I drew a time tracker that runs from 1am to 12am. I use this to colour in how I have spent my time. So I colour this in at the end of the day of after I have done something (rather than using it to plan what I want to do). Then I draw in my weather symbol for the day and write out my to do list and appointments (I use the symbols from my BuJo key in my to do list as well). 

I only draw a day at a time, I don't go ahead. So today is Tuesday and I only have up to today drawn out. Before bed or when I get up in the morning I will set up Wednesday.  Everyone does this differently so if that doesn't work for you, you could always draw out your week ahead of time. You can also make your pages more or less structured. Be creative and change things up! That the best part about BuJo-ing. 

Following last weeks spread I put in a spread for my University Graduation, then the following spread is this week! 

I hope this was helpful! If you have any more questions feel free to comment here, or DM me on IG (linked above). Thank you so much for reading! If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Happy planning!! 

My "Bullet Journal" Key

Since I have switched back into my standard size traveler's notebook for planning, I decided to incorporate some elements I have seen in other peoples planners and bullet journals. Personally I don't bullet journal the way it is intended to be done because having to draw everything and not be able to future plan would just not work for me. But I have incorporated some of the bullet journal ideas into my TN. 

The main bullet journal element I added was a list of bullet points and symbols. My "bullet journal" key is made up of five sections:

1. Colour Code
2. Time Tracker Code
3. Task Symbols
4. Signifiers
5. Weather Icons

To have my key accessible to me no matter what section of my planner I am working in, I took some patterned paper I purchased at Michaels and cut it down, rounded the edges, and folded it in half. On the inside I wrote out the information for my bullet journal key. This way no matter where I am working in my TN I can just pull out this card and double check a colour or symbol (not that I need to do that often anymore!) 

The first section is labeled Colour Code. This is the colours I use in my weekly pages, my monthly calendar, and my monthly tracker. 

Next, is my time tracker colour code. These colours are mostly the same as the previous section except I have added in yellow to represent sleep, brown represents health as well as fitness, blank means unscheduled time, and dark green represent errands/household chores (only on my tracker). This tracker is inspired by Boho berry's time tracker in her bullet journal! I will talk more about my time tracker in my upcoming post about my weekly pages! 

My third section is task symbols. This section shows what each symbol used in the check boxes mean. A blank square just represents a task, one line inside the square means the task is started, completely shaded in means complete, an X means cancelled, and > means migrated to another day. 

Following the task symbols I have a section called signifiers, this section explains what different symbols I use mean. I use a circle to represent events, a triangle for appointments or meetings, a dot for notes, a star for anything urgent/important, a heart for personal things, an arrow (that looks like a computer mouse) for online things, and $ to represent paydays. 

Finally, I have my weather icons. This section was unnecessary to add, but I included it because I thought the symbol I used to represent windy looked odd (its the same icon used on the iPhone). This section is self-explanatory and inspired again by boho berry. 

I will show this in more detail in next weeks post about my weekly inserts. Hope you enjoyed this post and found some ideas for your own planner! If you enjoy my blog please follow and share with a friend! Also you can check out my IG account that is dedicated to my traveler's notebook, planning, and journaling. My username is Stephanie.Emmiline. 

Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful day!

Happy Planning!! 

Planner Setup 2016

Over the past few years I have tried out multiple planning systems trying to find something that works for me. I have not been happy with the size, or the insert, or the way I organize my information in my planner. For a while I considered giving up on paper planning, and just making a to do list on my iPhone. Before I actually went through with this I decided to give my standard size dark chocolate heirloom from Ray Blake... Well I have fallen in LOVE!!

I always thought this size would be too big, but it turns out I was wrong! It is exactly what I needed. I started using this planner with the same type of system I have always used and wasn't completely satisfied, but after looking at blogs, IG, and YouTube I got some inspiration and I now have a planner that is working for me! 

So lets jump into my setup! 

My traveler's notebook has four interior elastics (you can find my blog post about it here). I have four inserts, and a zipper pouch. 

On the front cover of my TN I have a gold binder clip that holds my year long monthly calendar. This sounds confusing but basically it is my interpretation of the calendex that I have been reading about a lot lately (for more information on the calendex you can check out boho berry's blog here). I don't need to be able to reference specific page numbers so I did not need that part of the calendex system. I ended up creating this chart to help me  reference important dates, without taking up a ton of space. 

Monthly calendar that covers all of 2016 and replaced my insert

Next, I have an insert for monthly tracking and monthly planning for my blog. Basically I made this insert out of graph paper and will just draw out my monthly tracker as I need them. 

Next are my two weekly inserts. The first one runs from January to April and the second one from May to August. Here I write in all my to dos, appointments, etc. I will do a more in depth post about my bullet system for this section, and my colour code, etc. 

Finally I have my notes insert. I use this insert to keep different bits of information that I may want to reference any time. This notebook will probably remain in here until it is full and I need a blank one. As of now it has notes on things such as, yoga routines, books I want to read/ have read, etc. 

Then there is my zipper pouch. In this I just keep sticky notes, stickers, my stencil, and some photos. 

My system has simplified and is much more organized now. I think I may have found the elusive "planner peace"! 

Hope you enjoyed this post and found some ideas for your own planner! If you enjoy my blog please follow and share with a friend! Also you can check out my IG account that is dedicated to my traveler's notebook, planning, and journaling. My username is Stephanie.Emmiline. 

Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful day!! 

Happy Planning!! 

Heirloom Edition Traveler's Notebook

Hey TN Lovers!

Today I am going to give you an overview of my standard size heirloom travelers notebook from Ray Blake. I choose the dark chocolate colour, which is even more stunning in person than it is in photos! I decided on 4 interior elastics and asked for all the elastics to be black. Here is a photo of the outside cover and the interior (without inserts).

Front Cover (BTW that is a coffee cup charm)

Inside (W/O inserts)

Outside laying Flat

The person I ordered from as I said is Ray Blake from the blog my life all in one place (www.mylifeallinoneplace.com). You order by emailing him and he is wonderful to work with. This edition is the special heirloom edition which comes in four different colours: café au lait, dark chocolate, maroon, and mustard. The leather of this travelers notebook is extremely smooth and beautiful. While it holds its shape well, it is very pliable! Great for those who don't like really stiff leather, but also do not want a TN that flops open when they are holding it. I should also mention that this TN lays flat with very little to no training.

 This particular TN is slightly more expensive than the others, costing £35. However one of the really great things about buying from Ray is that he does not charge shipping!

I am absolutely in love with this Travelers Notebook! So much that I decided to use it as my EDC! I never thought I would use a standard size TN as my planner and EDC but I can't help myself because it is just that amazing :)

Also super excited because a family member has decided to purchase another standard size TN (from Ray) for me to use as my journal!! Of course as soon as that arrives and is set up in May I will be posting about it!!

If you enjoy my blog please follow and share with a friend! If you are interested in seeing more of my TN's and planner stuff add me on IG! My username is Stephanie.Emmiline. I post photos of my planner pages, my TN's, my journal pages, and my dogs! Would love to follow your TN IG's back!

Talk to you in my next post!

Xo, Stephanie Emmiline ✒︎

My Traveller's Notebook Collection

Hey Everyone!

I'm back to show you all my collection of Traveler's Notebooks. When I say collection I am referring to four TN's... which is not a lot in comparison to some people, but I am a poor student so that's all I can afford at the moment! :)

I will show you all four and tell you where they are from and how much they cost. I will do separate reviews on each one individually, so if you are interested in that keep an eye out for those! So lets begin:

My first travellers notebook is a standard size from Ray Blake. It cost about $70 CAD or £35 GBP. I use this one as my journal, and currently also have a recipe book in it as well.

My second TN is another from Ray Blake. It is a field notes size and cost about $43 CAD or £21 GBP. I use this one to track my health issues, keep notes, and I'm still trying to decide what else should go in here. This one use to be my planner and is well used! I like that this one scratches easily!

Next is my Field notes size ButeoBunker (found on etsy). This one cost approximately $59 CAD. I am using this one for tracking information such as online orders, books to read, etc. I am at some point add in bill tracking, or a food journal to this one, but I haven't decided yet.

Finally I have my baby. My personal size ButeoBunker. This is the TN I use as my everyday carry. It contains my planner (MO2P and WO1P w/notes), routine tracker, and "common place" book and a folder.

Hope you enjoyed this post. My next post will be a review of one of my travellers notebooks. So if you want updates when new content comes out please follow. If you like what you read please share with a friend! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments below. Thanks so much for reading!

Stephanie xo

Blog Update!

Hey everyone! 

So a little update for you all. I am guessing at this point you have noticed the name change and are thinking what's up with this? I didn't follow this blog. I change the name from the Filofax lifestyle to The Traveler's Notebook Lifestyle because I have found a new love! I have traded out my Filofaxes for Traveler's Notebooks and I have truly found my planner peace! 

The set up and content for this blog will basically be the same, just using TN's instead of Filofaxes. Hopefully some of you will stick around because a lot of the items and methods I use in my TN's will work just fine in a Filofax, and who knows maybe I'll convert some people!! :)

Anyway if you are new to my blog welcome and if not thanks for sticking around! As always thanks for reading. Follow for updates and if you like what you see share with a friend! 

P.S. New post will be up shortly! 

Stephanie xo

How I Use: DIYFish Weekly Chart

DIYFish has many different versions and styles of planner inserts and not all look the same. I personally use the personal size version 3 style 1.

Personal size V3S1 includes:

• A monthly chart
• A monthly calendar
• Week on 2 pages
• A weekly chart 

The weekly chart included in these inserts is much smaller than the one that comes with other versions. I really like the size of this one. It is incorporated into the weekly page but there is still tons of room to write things. 

Personally, I use the weekly chart for things that I want to specifically focus on that week. For me it is not meant to track things for future reference. I use this chart to make sure I am getting specific things completed in the week without having to assign them a date. For example, sticking to my cleaning zones for the house, this is not something I necessarily care to look back at months from now to see if I was consistent, but it is something that needs to get done during the week that does not have an assigned time to be completed. 

As always thank you so much for reading. If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Stephanie xo

How I Use: DIYFish Monthly Chart

DIYFish inserts are some of the most unique inserts I have come across while using Filofax. When I first purchased them I was unsure of how I would make use of the monthly chart that came with the set. From January to March I barely used that section except to track sick days from school. 

Now I have figured out what works for me and I use this section for two reasons:

1. To track tasks I want to do monthly 
2. To see how often I do certain things or to see patterns in what I do 

As you can see below I colour code this section to match the rest of my planner and because I am slightly obsessive about how my pages look I try to group the colours together because each colour represents something (Ex: Pink is for my dog).  

Not everything on this list is a daily task. For example, Plan week is a task I want to do on Sundays so I use this chart to see how consistent I am with planning my weeks. 

Some things I like to track on my monthly chart include: 

• Exercise (one to four times a week)
• Tracking my diet
• When I weigh myself (once a week)
• Wearing my retainer
• Planning the following week (once a week)
• Grooming my dog (once a month sometimes twice)
• Brushing my dogs teeth (few times a week) 

As always, thanks so much for reading. If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Stephanie xo

How I Use: DIYFish WO2P

I have been searching for planner peace since I bought my first Filofax in May of 2013. I have tried many different inserts and many different methods of planning. However, I think I have finally found something that just works!

After almost giving up on ever finding the perfect inserts, I stumbled across DIYFish on Etsy. I figured I would download the 3-month trial version and see what I thought. I mean what could be the worst that could happen? ... I wouldn't like them?

After a week of using the V3S1 inserts I fell in love! If you want a full review of these inserts check out my previous blog post here.

I have decided to break up this post up into four parts:

1. Part 1: WO2P
2. Part 2: Monthly Chart
3. Part 3: Weekly Chart
4. Part 4: Life Mapping System/Colour Code

I use the monthly fold out calendar (note this is different from the monthly chart) to write important dates and appointments. My colour coding is used across all sections of these inserts, but I will discuss that in a later post. Also on my monthly calendar I track birthdays and anniversaries by colouring a small triangle in the bottom corner. 

Next to my monthly calendar is a blank column, which I use to write birthdays and anniversaries. I write them there instead of on my monthly calendar because they don't take up valuable space in the small boxes. 

Next to my birthdays/Anniversaries column there is a to do list column. Here I write out all of the items I can complete from my monthly calendar. This includes items such as, appointments, tests, assignments, events, etc. I do not write important dates here (ex: no school) because they are not tasks or errands I can complete. This may seem redundant but it allows me to see what I have accomplished that month in one location. 

The following page is just blank grid paper. For a while I did not have a use for this; however I have decided that for my spring semester at University I am going to use this page to make a master list of all the school related tasks I have to complete that month such as, reading, papers, assignments, exams, forum posts (for online courses), etc. 

After this we get into the week on two pages. Here I write out my to do lists in detail for each day. I will break tasks down into steps if necessary, I list appointments, exams, reading, errands, and even notes on these pages. For school I will take items off the previous master to do list and assign them a date when they need to be completed. I do not keep a separate to do list, everything goes on my weekly pages. 

As always, thank you so much for reading. If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Stephanie xo

Filofax Personal Original Review

Recently, I purchased a Fluoro Pink Filofax Original in personal size. I had hear many negative things about this line of planners, but still wanted to test one out for myself because I love the way they look. In the past I would never have considered myself a minimalist, but as time has passed I have come to like a less cluttered, minimalistic look. The Original is perfect for this! 

The outside cover of the Original is very simple. It is very plain, with a button closure. The stitching around the planner is a light tan colour which stands out on the fluorescent pink. Personally, I think this is very appealing. 

These planners are made of a solid piece of leather, which means there is no cardboard insert. This means the planner lays flat much easier and quicker than most others. I have had no issues with my Original laying flat (no matter how long it is closed). Keep in mind this makes the planner a little floppier than others. If you like a stiff cover you may not like this planner. 

When you open the Original there is an elastic pen loop on the inside cover along with two card slots and a full length pocket. The elastic pen loop is divided into three sections: a large pen loop, a place to put sticky notes or a smartphone (my iPhone 6 can fit in this part of the elastic without a case), and a smaller (much tighter) pen loop. The card slots are literally slots, they open up into the pocket behind, so you may want to keep that in mind when putting important cards in them. That being said, these two slots are fairly tight so there shouldn't be much issue with normal sized cards slipping out. The full length pocket is great for storage, but it is a little stiff. However, since it is made of leather it may loosen up over time with use. 

The Original has standard sized rings for a personal: 0.9" (or 23mm). 

The back cover of this planner has another full length pocket along with two slots one at the top and one at the bottom which can hold a slim notepad, which comes with a new Original. Again, this pocket is somewhat stiff, but still useful. 

Overall, I have fallen in love with this line of planners and cannot imagine using anything else. A lot of people dislike the pen loop being on the left; however, that does not bother me as I don't really use it. Instead of using the pen loop I use a zipper pocket because I carry multiple pens. As for the lack of pockets, it helps keep your planner decluttered! 

In my opinion, if you are looking for a really nice planner that feels good, looks good, and is simple this is the planner for you! However, if you like lots of pockets and big pens this planner probably isn't what you are looking for. 

As always, thank you so much for reading. If you liked this post please follow and share with a friend! 

Stephanie xo