41 easy bullet journal layouts for beginners you need to see

A blank page can be intimidating for anyone. Use these bullet journal layouts for beginners to inspire you to choose designs that work for you.

The great thing about this is once you find the layouts that work for you, you will be on your way to finding the perfect system that works for you.

A bullet journal is a blank notebook (preferably dotted) to make your layouts specific to your needs.

The reason why a dotted journal is so functional is:

• Makes drawing layouts easier using the dots as a guideline
• You have the functionability similar to lined and grid paper without it being apparent
• Taking pictures of your spreads will look amazing as you can barely see the dots

The journal we love and recommend is from Archer and Olive. They have beautiful covers with thick paper that have minimal bleed through and ghosting.
Please read our full review here: The Best Bullet Journal Notebook With Amazing Customer Service.

For a 10% discount on your order for all our readers, use this link (affiliate code): Archer & Olive.

bullet journal first page

The first page of your bullet journal planner can be daunting. You have a beautiful notebook, and you want your spreads to turn out perfect.

Here are a few ideas on what you can add to your first page:

• Letter the current year you are planning
• Your name
• draw doodles that make you happy
• add a quote that is meaningful and motivational to you
• Add a word of the year that will inspire you throughout the year
• Now decorate with washi tape, stickers or stamps
• Add photos to make it more personal

Don't forget your first page will compare to your last page. So it doesn't have to be perfect. You can then see all your progress in your lettering and drawing.

So make it personal to you, and it doesn't have to be perfect!

Yearly layout calendar spread

The next page to add is a yearly calendar to mark down the main dates of the year. I currently use an A5 size journal, so each monthly box is eight by 8. Then you will have the bottom section to write down your dates.
You can mark the dates with different color coding to section birthdays and other events.

To make your layouts easier to make, use a cheat sheet that can cut time counting dots every time you want to make a spread. Then you have access to this free cheat sheet printable from the resource hub.

Tip: Printing and laminating the cheat sheet will make it durable for years to come, Also use it between pages or even draw straight lines if you don't have a ruler on hand.

Bullet journal Monthly cover page

What better way to welcome the new month with a monthly cover page. Choose a theme that you are inspired by or makes you happy and have fun creating!

The top spread is a watercolor painting inspired by fall, with the corresponding page lettering 'N' for November and a simple border.

For August, I went for aesthetic vintage vibes, used different scrap paper and some washi, and drew a vintage pocket watch with yellow flowers.

If you're looking to spice up your bujo pages, try adding black paper or use a blackout journal. The colorful background on the July monthly cover page is blending ink stamps with a blender tool. It is a direct effect to achieve, and it looks stunning. Plus, it does not affect lettering or drawing on top.

The rest of the illustrations were painted on watercolor paper, cut out, and pasted.

Tip: If you want to letter or draw on color paper, then gel pens will be your best friend. Another option can be the Acrylograph pens (affiliate link); they work excellent but are on the pricier end.

I chose a floral dutch door layout for January.

A Bullet journal dutch door is when you cut out part of the page to create a 'door' or 'tab' design to the following page/pages.

So in my January cover page, I cut around the floral wreath, so you have the calendar in the middle when you turn the page. I then drew more florals on the other side of the cut-out to complete the design. Now, the dutch door allows the Kraft paper to show on both sides to add notes if I need to.

Bullet journal monthly calendar layouts for beginners

When making your monthly calendar spread, you need to consider a few things:

1. How much space you need for jotting down events

2. Would you somewhat have separated sections for:

• Notes
• Birthdays
• Goals
• To-do's
• Gratitude
• emails
• highlights
• content planner
• stats

and so on...

So check out the different layouts for inspiration to find something suiting to your needs and personal preference.

These layouts have minimal spacing for writing. Choose this type of spread when you don't need much space to write, and if you enjoy the artistic side of your journal, you can also keep it relatively minimal. Totally up to YOU!

June setup

In this setup, The June cover page is on the left with a small calendar on the right, allowing room to write only the essentials. Each box for the days is four by four compartments. I completed the spread with some dessert stickers that we made from this fantastic collection you can purchase and print on sticker paper.

Tip: We love to purchase collections like this for our bullet journal. There are fonts, drawings, borders, patterns, and so much more.
We then print them on sticker paper and use them instead of ordering and waiting for delivery. Another plus is that you can change the size of the sticker depending on your page.
You can make so many designs, and the options are endless. On top of that, you are supporting another artist, which is always great!

December calendar spread

This layout is excellent if you need more room to write. Each day is made out of 6 by five boxes, allowing extra space on the side for notes.

If you have extra white space you want to fill in, try adding a small quote.

July Monthly Calendar

For all you art lovers out there, this layout is for you—draw a scroll on the right side of the page featuring the monthly calendar. The left side is a full fairytale-inspired illustration with fairies and mushrooms and a small section for notes.

October Calender Overview

This Calendar overview is the perfect bullet journal layout for beginners. Just write the days of the month vertically and separate sections on the right for goals and notes. Super easy and quick because you don't have to draw separate boxes for each day.

May Calendar

A simple Calendar on the left, with a content planner on the right. If you love to draw florals with fine tip pens, then be sure to check out the entire setup here:
How to draw peony flowers – make a stunning bujo theme

Vintage Clock Theme Monthly Overview

I added weeks for this monthly calendar and a vintage clock drawing with florals in the background on the left. Then, on top of the drawing, there was space for writing down different lists for the month.

Bullet journal layouts for beginners

Scrapbook themes are perfect for beginners because you get to have fun with different papers for sections or draw your boxes. Then decorate your spread with washi tape, stamps, stickers, and small doodles.
There is not much planning for these layouts, making it less overwhelming, and your spreads still turn out beautiful.

How to make an envelope style spread using washi tape

• Draw a basic shape of an envelope with an opened paper with a black marker.
• Cover the whole envelope with washi tape evenly alligned.
• Cut out along the outer shape of the envelope with an exacto knife very lightly
• Remove the exess washi tape
• Now draw some doodles as if they are coming out of the envelope (optional)

Make a patterened background with doodles

If you aren't great at drawing, try drawing simple repetitive doodles as a background.

Blackout bullet journal layouts for beginners

Using a blackout journal needs some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you will have unique spreads that are outstanding.

• Use a dot grid black paper journal makes all the difference for guidelines that barely show (affiliate link)
• Gel pens are amazing for black paper journals, the most we use are the white and gold from Sakura
• If you like to paint, guoache is the easiest medium to work with and the colors show really well
• Fix any mistakes with a black fine liner
• When using a pencil, be sure to press very lightly so you can easily erase
• Some rubbers leave marks, we find using black earsers work the best and rub lightly

Weekly Bullet journal layouts for beginners

There are so many weekly layouts to choose from in your bullet journal. You can experiment with different designs till you find the one that works for you. Here are the tips and materials we recommend for using a blackout journal:

But there are also things you may want to consider:

• Do you enjoy spending more time creating layouts that are more artistic?
• The functionability of the layout
• Do you want to add tabs to make accessing your spreads easier?
• Do you like a scrapbook style where there isn't much structure in your layout (such as equal sections for each day)
• How much planning space do you need for each day?

So these are the bullet journal weekly layouts for beginners or even bujo experts.

Floral dutch door weekly layout

Want to make a creative dutch door layout? Then these are the steps to making a spread similar to this:

• I painted the flowers twice on watercolor paper
• Then, cut around each flower
• I wanted the flowers to overlap each other in a way that when you looked at the first spread you can still see them
• Once I was happy with the layout, I began to paste each flower on each page. So the flower that I wanted to show on top would be on the first spread and so on.
• I then cut around each flower to create a dutch door
• Now stick the same flower I painted twice on the other side of the page
• When all the pages where closed it looked like a bunch of flowers

For a more in-depth tutorial on creating a design like this, check out the entire setup here:
Bullet Journal Flower Theme-How to make a floral dutch door

Although the paper differs in these two spreads, the layout is similar. You first decide how much space you want for your drawing/doodles.

Then, mark out two even boxes on ontop of each page and two at the bottom.

This spread is both functional and creative. You get the best of both worlds!

One-page weekly bullet journal layouts for beginners

A one-page layout is excellent when you are not in a creative mood or don't have the time. Write the days horizontally on one page.
Depending on how much space you need for the planning section, this page into six or seven parts.
I don't have much to write on the weekends, so I will only need six sections many times.

You can leave it empty on the corresponding page for extra notes, a quote page, or go for a drawing!

Two-page Weekly layouts

Adding a small calendar to your weekly spread is excellent for highlighting what week you are in the month. Try making it in the center of the page with a simple wreath doodle.

The top layout is unique and different and you can achieve this look by aligning each day of the week at a slight angle.

Finish with a short quote and a small calendar.

You add a more organic earthy vibe to your bullet journal by adding Kraft paper. And the second spread is a vertical layout which is great for writing lists for your dailies.

The layout is the same for two different themes. Here's how to do it:

• Make six even boxes on each page
• On the left page combine the first and lower box
• This box is for your mini calendar and a small doodle
• The box below that will be for the first day of the week
• On the second row, allow two boxes for the two more days and the third for a doodle
• Second page- The first three boxes are for the weekly days
• the second row - add your last day of the week
• Combine the bottom two boxes into one
• Add a short quote and a doodle to comple the spread

Weekly layouts using stickers and washi tape

The first spread is perfect for beginners. First, divide each page into four sections. Then, add a small calendar and a doodle in the first box. Finally, decorate to your taste, or leave it as minimal as your heart desires.

The second spread is made by dividing it into ten equal horizontal sections. Now you can combine two weeks into one and save time.

You can see the first week only has four days in the layout, so I added it in with my second spread.

I cut around the leaves in this spread to make a dutch door. Now, the first page has the first four days of the week and a to-do list. then, when you flip the page, you have the second page.

Weekly layout spreads using a blackout journal

This entire spread has a painting going across the middle of the page. And the best part is, it's so easy to mix different gouache colors to achieve a marble effect.

The second layout has the bottom section for many Halloween doodles with small areas if you don't plan that week.

The top layout has to be one of my favorites. Starting with the left side of the page is where I have a to-do list, a calendar, and a section for ideas to jot down.
Then making an easy one-page weekly spread on the next page.

The second layout has an arrow illustration with a quote incorporated in the drawing.
This arrow theme was straightforward and so create to do.

Want to see the entire setup, head over here next:
How to make an easy bullet journal pink arrow theme

So that's it for my bullet journal layouts for beginners, and hope it helped out and you found some inspiration.

And as always, 'Happy journaling, everyone.'