Many bullet journalers see the need (and I'm one of them) to track things. Be it medication, exercise, hydration, or something else, tracking certain details can be immensely helpful in keeping one's life in order. Often a simple tracker will do. But many times something more comprehensive is needed. Unfortunately these expanded trackers can quickly become a burden to construct and maintain, as the typical tracker is something that has to be built repeatedly. If you want a simpler way to deal with comprehensive trackers, welcome to the Triple Tracker system from Universal Journal. In the Universal Journal style, minimal effort is as important as minimal design. The  Triple Tracker  is a PDF document made to print, cut, and paste in your journal. Its circular layout combines 3 tracker designs into one. Its minimalist design leaves plenty of options for customization. Intended for monthly use. The Triple Tracker includes: 1 ten-degree level tracker 2 monthly ...

A lot of bullet journalers like to keep things minimal, and I'm one of them. But this can pose problems, such as where do you put stuff if the minimalist design leaves very limited space? That's the intersection between design and technique: how you layout your journal vs how you actually use it. This is the second in a series on the amalgam of these two things. (see the first installment on a future log workflow ) In Ryder Carroll's introductory video you'll see a minimalist monthly spread. It's pretty much the monthly spread I still use today. So if you want to keep things simple, how do you this and still keep it functional enough to accommodate real life? Easy: short hand. In this monthly spread you'll notice my calendar printout in the upper right hand corner of the right page. Beneath that I put a task list for the month. This is a bird's eye view of the month. Nitty gritty tasks or multi-step tasks are handled elsewhere. The printout and task...

The Universal Journal is an ultra-streamlined style meant to get as much productivity out of the bullet journal with as little time and effort put into it as possible. Therefore, one of the goals of this style is getting multiple uses out of the limited real estate of the page. Monthly Spread Set Up The (incorrectly named) dutch door monthly spread posted last month shows a "door" flap in the monthly spread. But nothing was done with the interior of that door at the time of the video. In today's post we'll look at one way to use that space. As you'll see if you watch the video, my current monthly spread includes the following: door calendar thumbnail printout monthly schedule page with separated weeks task list page The door itself has both sides used, both of which are trackers. On one side I have a general habit tracker, and the other focuses on a wellness tracker. Both trackers share the 30/31 day column created for the monthly schedule ...

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. 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 i...

Possibly the most popular and sought after bullet journal layout is the monthly spread. My own minimalist recommendation includes 2 trackers with a door feature. But perhaps you'd like to see some other ideas as well. If you're looking for monthly spread ideas for your bullet journal, Michaela from Between the steps offers a video of ten layouts. Several of these go beyond the scope of "ultra-streamlined" but you never know what might work for your journal. And you probably won't know what works for you unless you experiment and try some things . Let Michaela get you started. Also check out the latest  streamlined monthly spread . What ideas do you like for your journal? Comment here and be sure to subscribe!

This month's spread combines some features mentioned here before. The ultra-streamlined monthly spread with habit tracker is combined with the small Calendar printout , and this month a new feature is introduced: the Dutch door. The Dutch door has some variants which include cutting out a portion of the page. In this ultra-streamlined style, the door need not be cut. It serves as an extension of the page spread. Making the door This Dutch door is as simple as it gets: fold one page in half along the vertical center, into the binding. With the door, the spread now uses three pages instead of two. But in page turning and numbering it still acts like only two. Using the door This particular photo shows the Dutch door featured in a monthly module. It can extend both pages of the spread independently. On one side the door extends the calendar from the left page, hosting the habit tracker on the right. But from the right page, the door extends anything else. Perhaps ...

In part 1 and part 2 of our Ultra-Streamlined bullet journal series we looked at a minimal effort approach to the Monthly Module. In this installment we'll look at horizontal design found on the official Bullet Journal website under the entry Top 5 Bujo Ideas in 2017 . In this horizontal timeline we still see ample space to write what we need, but perhaps in a more spacious design. In the Ultra-Streamlined style, if we take this horizontal design and try to keep effort to a minimum while still including everything needed, how would we do that? Here are some suggestions. Placement We all wear different hats from time to time. Our personal and professional lives are two of the most obvious examples. Add a side business, school, or any other category to the list, and you see how a journaling system of any kind can get messy. With this horizontal design, placement can help your calendar stay organized and easy to keep up with. An efficient technique can make all the differenc...

Continuing with the Monthly Module set up from the previous post, which focused mainly on the left page of the monthly spread , let's tackle the habit tracker on the right page. Style Basics A quick recap of the principles of the Ultra-Streamlined Style: avoid using unnecessary tools (extra tools require extra time to use) avoid drawing lines when space can be used instead write no more than necessary (purely functional use) If you need a full page or even full spread for your habit tracker, this approach isn't for you. For those who could benefit from a smaller habit tracker, this technique combines the monthly module with the tracker to avoid redundancy where possible. Setting up the tracker In keeping with the recommended monthly module as described at BulletJournal.com , which includes a tasks list, this Ultra-Streamlined Style makes room for a habit tracker on the task list page (the right page of the monthly spread). In this technique, the right pa...

This first installment on the ultra-streamlined style will focus on the monthly module. It can be set up and filled in 10 minutes, focusing on a minimalist variation of the standard monthly module. (see the updated set up in this Plan with me video ) This technique features: one-time writing of the days of week and month  extra space for expanded descriptions calendar items  habit tracker  standard monthly task list Style Set Up One of the ways of reducing set up time for your bullet journal is to avoid unnecessary rewriting. In this case, a habit tracker is included in the monthly set up, rather than creating a tracker separately. Habit trackers typically require setting up the days of the month and/or week separately from the normal monthly calendar - duplicated effort. Here is a summary of the ultra-streamlined monthly module and a visual example. weekly/monthly dates on the right side of the left page dashed lines separating weeks calendar on the left...