By Mandy Mair of @productivedoodling Hey everyone! It’s Mandy here, better known as @productivedoodling! I have been bullet journaling for a little over two and a half years. Every year when the new school year rolls around, I use my bullet journal to plan and stay organized. This year, however, is a little different because I am going to be starting my freshman year of college! I am super excited but also overwhelmed with new responsibilities and commitments. In order to adapt my bullet journal planning to these new responsibilities, I have designed some new spreads. Today I have prepared 3 essential spreads to share that are my personal key to staying organized while planning for the new semester! 

Semester at a Glance Bullet Journal Spread

My first essential spread is my “Semester at a Glance” setup. The idea behind this spread is to give yourself a visual time chart for an average week in school. This spread really helps me manage my time because I can see the blocks of time each day that I am in class and then other blocks where I am free and can use that time to check off other things on my to-do list! To create this spread, I divided up a single page in my bullet journal into 5 columns in order to represent each day of the school week with my  Zensations Technical Pen. I love the dark, crisp lines the Zensations Technical Pen creates when creating these columns. Then I divided those 5 columns into rows and assigned each row to an hour of the day. Afterwards, I assigned each of my classes a color using the Zensations Colored Pencils and colored in the grid to represent my classes. To add the last finishing touches, I used the Zensations Brush Pen to add the word, “semester” in calligraphy. I would recommend this spread to any student out there because it is so nice to have a visual outline of my weeks to refer to throughout the semester. 

Monthly Log Design

The second spread features a monthly log that overlooks the semester. To set this spread up, I simply drew out monthly calendars for August through December with the Zensations Tect 2way 1000 Technical Pencil and Sarasa Grand Retractable Pen. I love the fast-drying ink and turquoise color barrel of the Sarasa Grand. Then, I used Sarasa Clip Gel Retractable Pens to label each month. From there, I went through each of my syllabi for my classes and highlighted any test, presentation, or concert dates. I referred to my color code from my previous spread so that I would be able to keep each class’s events separated. Some may ask why I would make another future log when I already have one at the front of my bullet journal. My reasoning is that I don’t want to clutter my full-year future log with schoolwork notations. I’d rather save that space for personal events. 

Large Monthly Calendar Spread

The final spread that I want to share is probably nothing new to you all. It is essential for me to make a large monthly calendar spread when I am setting up each new month in my bullet journal. I love to use my calendar space to track assignments and plan my months out. When each new month rolls around, I refer to my semester future log and fill in any of the events coming up so that I stay on top of things. Thanks for checking out my back-to-school planner tutorial! For more bullet journaling inspiration, check out Fatimah's 3 Summer-Themed Bullet Journal Layouts tutorial.