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A bullet journal spread is a page in a dot grid notebook that has been created for a purpose of beauty or use. It often includes some kind of planner layout, but that is not necessary. It could also just be a decorated page with a quote, or a page designed for journaling.

Some examples of bullet journal spreads.

There are so many possibilities when it comes to creating spreads for your bullet journal. Here is a little list of what could be considered a bullet journal spread..

  • Yearly cover
  • Yearly overview
  • Future log
  • Memories
  • Book review
  • A year in pixels
  • Yearly health tracker
  • Monthly calendar
  • Mood tracker
  • Habit tracker
  • Daily gratitude
  • Weekly planner
  • Daily journal

You will be able to think of many more, I am sure. Basically every page that has been designed in your dot grid notebook can be considered as a spread. That is why you will get people looking for ‘spread ideas’, it is basically people looking for ideas for what to create as part of their journal or planner.

Here is an example of a habit tracker spread:

Picture of a habit tracker in a bullet journal. It shows an example of what is a bullet journal spread

This is one I created quite a few years ago. But you can see here that there are six boxes that each have a month in. You write what you want to track and then you mark off each day that you do it. Throughout the month you now have 6 things tracking and you can visually see how you are doing by the end of the month.

Do you need more inspiration? Check out lots of bullet journal spread ideas here.

How to make your own spreads?

This is the real meat of the meal here…we want to know how to do things, so here is my advice for making your own bullet journal spreads.

What will YOU use?

When you start looking for inspiration, there will be so much. It might actually get overwhelming. So the very first step is:

DECIDE HOW YOU WANT YOUR BULLET JOURNAL TO FUNCTION.

There is no point making bullet journal spreads and not using them, it wastes paper, and as you know, I’m not a lover of that.

So, is your bullet journal going to be a journal, a planner, a scrapbook? If you want it to be a planner, will you use a mood tracker? [I know I don’t] Do you want to track health, do you want to focus on events and time or on personal development. Will it just be for work tasks?

You get the point…think before you create. What spreads will you actually use?

Get creative with layouts.

So you have a little list of the page ideas you want. Now..

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX WHEN IT COMES TO LAYOUT IDEAS.

Here is an example:

Four different bullet journal spreads. Four different ways of doing a monthly calendar layout

This is a monthly calendar done four different ways. Many will automatically do the one in the bottom right corner. But I’m asking you to get creative and think about what kind of layouts appeal to you. Do you like things to run horizontally or vertically?

Many people struggle with layout ideas so please stop and think and use your imagination. This is the true beauty of a dot grid notebook.

Try using pencil before the pen.

This is one of my biggest tips, especially if you are a bullet journal newbie, or beginner. I have many times gone straight in with a pen, only to regret it when I made a mistake.

START BY DRAWING YOUR DESIGN IN PENCIL FIRST.

This way you can see if the spread is going to work for you or not. You can then play around, if you decide you don’t like it that way. It will still be changeable while ever it is in pencil.

By the way if you are a beginner you might want to check out this blog post:

Lastly, decorate your spreads to inspire.

This is the final step:

AFTER THE LAYOUTS DECORATE WITH YOUR PERSONAL STYLE.

There is a big reason I included the point there ‘with your personal style’. There are very many talented people doing beautiful art pieces in their bullet journal spreads, but you don’t have to copy them.

It is ok to keep things simple, or to have a completely different style. What is in your bullet journal spread should work for YOU.

Please do share with me your creations, I love to see what planner pages you create. Happy bullet journaling!

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