One of my most frequently asked questions is about my bar graph tracker in my bullet journal, so it’s high time I wrote up a little post about how it works!
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How To: Sleep + Mood Tiny Tracker
Modules are an amazing way to build a bullet journal spread, combat bullet journal creative block, and organize your trackers, events, and tasks. Check out this post I created for the Archer & Olive blog to dive into how to develop your own modules, plus tons of ideas for modules you can use in your spreads!
As an artist, there are few things more frustrating than being in the midst of a creative block. When that happens for me and my bullet journal, I turn to modules. Modules are a section or specific part of a layout. When I turn the page to a fresh new week and I’m feeling totally stuck on how to organize the spread, I love using these to give me some inspiration!
For this post I’m sharing some of my own tried-and-true modules and the different forms and styles they take. Feel free to borrow mine to create your own modules, or design your own! My favorite thing about modules is that they’re so versatile, and coming up with your own resource like this means you’ll always have a place to start when you create a layout…
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Journaling for Anti-Racism
There are so many resources out there for beginning an anti-racist practice. Rather than re-post resources that many others have shared over the past few weeks, I want to offer some additional tools for an anti-racist practice that relate to journaling and creativity. I am not an expert by any means, but I have been trying to integrate this into my own journaling and self-reflection practice for many years thanks to my profession (I am an art educator with a focus on social justice, and I’m white), so I thought perhaps some of these resources and journaling suggestions could be as helpful for others as they have been for me.
To be clear: This post is not a replacement for the incredible resources others have shared. This post is an addition to help you on the next step: the lifelong step of working on your anti-racist practice.
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May Challenge
May’s theme is Perseverance, and I’ve got a really tactile, easy exercise for you to try this month to remind yourself of your own strength.
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April Reflection
Well! April certainly was… a Month, with a capital M, wasn’t it? I hope all of you lovely folks reading this are safe and well!
I’ve found myself trying to stay light and positive on my Instagram captions and Stories, but these blog posts are inherently more serious, and a little more vulnerable. It’s funny to change my tone in a way that feels so drastic here, but the intention of Unfolding the Year was always to be a place to investigate how our feelings, moods, and realities affect our productivity. So perhaps it’s not surprising that these feel so different to write than an Instagram caption, after all! Still, I appreciate you being here, whether you want the escapism of minimal planning photos or are interested in digging a little deeper here on the blog with me.
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May: Perseverance
I know I said this last month, but wow, when I planned the themes for this year, I had no idea how topical they’d really be. It’s still blowing my mind!
When I first came up with the idea of a month of perseverance, I was thinking about how the past few months’ themes have been cognitively challenging: from reflecting on your inner self to grappling with the concept of holding two conflicting things in your mind at one time. Internally, those are massive steps to take towards beginning to understand yourself better and I definitely think perseverance is the last step in that process: to keep going and keep practicing reflection, sitting in the grey area, and being present. That’s when it becomes a way of life rather than a habit you’re trying to stick to. When you know yourself and are honest with yourself, you can be more productive and creative all at the same time.
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April Challenge
April’s theme is “The Grey Area”: finding the both/and, the multiple interpretations, rather than assuming something is firmly one way or the other.
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April: The Grey Area
I chose all of the themes for my Unfolding the Year: 2020 project in December, and I’m pretty surprised at how “right” this month’s theme feels for our world right now.
There’s a lot of uncertainty and scariness out there right now, and it can feel overwhelming. In addition to, of course, social distancing and staying home to protect those most vulnerable, I highly recommend you first and foremost practice self-care, whatever that means to you. It’s the best way to care for ourselves and others.
This month’s theme is The Grey Area. It’s the idea that we have to move around from binary thinking — and/or, yes/no — and into both/and.
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March Reflection
Who knew last month how important (and unavoidable, for many of us?!) reflection would be?
I hope everyone reading this is safe and well, practicing social distancing and self-isolation, and finding some small moments of joy where you can in a very stressful world at the moment.
I’m personally not up for a massive reflection–transitioning to remote work is hard, and so is trying to comprehend everything that’s happening. But I did want to share a few thoughts on the general theme of reflection before we dive into the April theme.
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March Challenge
March’s theme is reflect — and this month’s challenge will help us do just that.