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Ultra-Streamlined Style for bullet journal

I might have a little time here and there to do creative designs with my journal. But usually I just need it to help manage the day. What's the fastest way to manage a bullet journal? As with many things in life, it depends. Let me offer an overview of the Universal Journal ultra-streamlined style.


The Universal Journal style intends to help you spend as little time as possible setting up and using your bullet journal. It's counter productive to get burned out on a tool that's supposed to help you avoid burning out. This graphic recaps the basics. Check out some other posts on the topic. Bullet Journal Ultra-StreamlinedEfficient workflowDecluttering your JournalStreamlined Color CodingPrintables
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Plan with me: July 2018 ultra-streamlined

The July 2018 version of my minimalist monthly spread for the bullet journal method. The layout combines a weekly log with monthly log and includes a Dutch door variant, as well as two trackers.

bullet journal plan with me minimalist ultra-streamlined

I wanted to write out the dates of the month only once since the Universal Journal style seeks to avoid repetitious writing. In this set up, the Dutch door provides the space to prepare two separate trackers (habit and wellness) which share the same dates column with the calendar page. The result is a sleek 3-in-1 integration. Check out this simple 8 counter sytem I created for hydration tracking on the wellness tracker.

With the dates column down the center of the page, the calendar could serve as a normal calendar or a combination monthly spread with weekly spread. It depends, of course, on how much space you need for either of these. I might still shift to using a separate weekly spread but I haven't need that as yet as my daily logs are doing well so far (which is a long standing debate in the bullet journal community).

The Dutch door interior is empty in this set up and can be used as you see fit (here's one idea). It isn't covered here in the video but you can see more on a 3 color approach I use in bullet journaling which helps me separate brain spaces in the monthly and daily logs.

This set up is very simple to do. In just 8 steps you can have a sophisticated monthly spread with minimal set up time and materials.
  1. Dutch Door
  2. Calendar Printout
  3. Dates: Center Column
  4. Weekends in Red
  5. Sectioned off Weeks
  6. Habit Tracker
  7. Wellness Tracker
  8. Tasks
Watch the video to see how it all works together.


Stuff used in this video (affiliate links):
Notebook: Universal Journal Slim
Pen: Evolt 2+1
(black refills, red refills)
Free calendar printout
Double-sided tape

Got any questions on this set up? Comment here and I'll be happy to answer. And please subscribe!
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