Today, I am sharing my January Bullet Journal Setup 2023. I went with a champagne theme (which I am hoping is foreshadowing for the year to come 😆). The colour palette is something I thought would be fun to use but it was also more colours than I’m used to working with, so more challenging than I anticipated. I also decided to change up my normal, go-to layouts for something more functional. Not that my other setups weren’t functional, but this one is just different. As always, you can watch the setup as well, but let’s get into it!
January Bullet Journal Setup 2023 Supplies
- Archer and Olive B5 Dot Grid Notebook (NML10 for 10% off – affiliate link)
- Tombow Dual Tip Brush pens in colours 291, 379, 761, 800, 845, 946, 990, 992 and N15
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen in black
- The Pigeon Letters Studio Monolline pens in sizes 01, 03, and 09 (affiliate link)
- Tombow Mono Permenant and Removable Adhesive
- PaperMate Liquid Paper DryLine Micro
- Archer and Olive x Simply Gilded Washi Tape (no longer available)
- Generic Pink Washi Tape
- Natasha Miller Letters Champagne stickers (digital images available for free for a limited time for email subscribers)
- Ruler, pencil, and eraser
January Bullet Journal Setup 2023 Layouts
As I mentioned in my 2023 Bullet Journal Setup, I am using a Makselife Goal Planner which has a planner portion with it. I want to give it the old college try and use it like they intend. Of course, this raises the question of what am I going to do with my bullet journal. I have mentioned before what the true purpose of my bullet journal is for me, so not bullet journaling isn’t really an option for me. For at least the first 3 months, I will be using my bullet journal for work. Currently, I use these little paper pads I got from the Dollar Store that were $1.00 for 3. Needless to say, I have enough journals to start my own shop, but somehow this is what I use! So my bullet journal will be for my contractor/freelance jobs and my Makselife planner will be for my goals and family stuff. There will be some overlap so that I can keep track of deadlines and events I need to attend, But we’ll see how it goes.
Stayed the Same
Moving into 2023, I kept my hand-lettered cover page (free to email subscribers – for a limited time), my illustrated and header page, and then my calendar page. My calendar page has seen many variations and versions which I can share in another blog post with you. For this month, I have included important dates – to have them stand out from the calendar clutter, as well as what’s coming up for the next month. I ended up adding a small notes section to capture March dates or just for adding whatever comes up.
For my cover page, I love the hand-lettered cover page but hate the illustration. It was cool when I was creating it, but printed out, it just looks dated. Plus, I had MAJOR printing issues with my Silhouette Cameo where the quality was terrible. I tried reprinting it but I’m still not happy. So the image you see is glued in with removable adhesive. Thanks to my procrastination, it’ll probably stay like that!
Kicking It Old School
When I started bullet journaling – along the lines of “back in my day” 😆 – doodle challenges were a big thing. I feel they have fallen in popularity but I used to consistently do them. My drawing and illustration skills flourished to where I am now. A year or so ago, I decided I want to do surface pattern design. When designing, it is so helpful to have a collection of images to pull from. These doodle challenges are perfect for practicing, and creating themed collections of doodles and illustrations. So this year, I am bringing it back. A couple days after I decided to do these challenges again, Bonnie Christine (essentially the queen of surface pattern design), created a year of daily art prompts (almost like she heard my silent plea for something like this!). You can find those here if you are interested in following along. Every month, I will create a few grids to use to capture these prompts. I may even art journal some for extra practice.
A New Type of Dashboard
This month, I created a dashboard to capture my monthly to dos, goals, deadlines, and a section called looking ahead. I don’t remember my thought process for adding this block, but I imagine adding March deadlines just to keep in my line of sight. And then I added another notes page. Since I intend on using this journal for my contract/free lance work, I hope to use this page for my meetings.
Hybrid Weeklies
I created a dutch door for my weeklies. I will be using this in a combination of Plant Based Bride’s rolling weeklies and the original bullet journal method way of recording tasks for the day. Again, this is to capture my to dos. I have this electronically too but I find the task list can get buried easily and sometimes it’s just nice to have it written down.
I finished setting up weeklies for the whole month. My husband and I are travelling and I wanted to make sure I got everything done (plus I’m aiming to have my February setup out earlier 😬). I created the same layout throughout the month, changing colours, and stickers here and there.
January Setup Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on this setup aren’t the most positive. While I look forward to using these layouts, I hate the theme and colour palette. My intention was to use this palette for a pattern so I’m really happy I could take it for a test drive and change my mind. Might retire this one… for now. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out, either here or on socials @natashamillerletetrs on YouTube and Instagram, and well, everywhere really.
Thank you for an amazing 2022 and wishing you all the best for a wonderful 2023!
Talk soon!
