Plan Your Bullet Journal Spreads for the New Year

New Year, New Journal, New Possibilities

The new year is right around the corner, which means a 2026 bullet journal setup for the new year is also nearby!

There’s something that feels so fresh at the beginning of the year, so this is the perfect time to do some 2026 bullet journal planning to figure out how your journal can support you this year. If you’re starting a new bullet journal setup for the first time, read this blog post first to get an intro on what is a bullet journal and then come back to make your bullet journal setup the best it could be.

In this blog post, we’ll explore bullet journal goals, how to brainstorm spreads for your setup, and how to plan your bullet journal’s structure for the new year.

Make Your 2026 Bullet Journal Ready for the New Year

A bullet journal setup for the new year means fresh pages and an opportunity to create new spreads that will be a part of your routine for the coming months.

Step 0: Pick a New Bullet Journal Notebook

When selecting a journal to use for your 2026 bullet journal, having the right one can make all the difference. There are a million journals out there for you to pick for a 2026 bullet journal, so here are just a few A5-sized journals that I think work well for a bullet journal:

• Archer & Olive (affiliate link): These 160 GSM journals have 192 pages. The thick pages allow for no ghosting and can even take paint (when used with little water). With beautiful cover options, there are lots of colors and designs to choose from. However, these journals are a bit pricey.
• Leuchtturm 1917: With 251 pages, there’s plenty of space to grow with your journal. These journals are available with hardcover and softcover options, but with no cover designs; they are solid colored. However, with pages in the 80-100 GSM range, markers and pens ghost through the page.
• Artist’s Loft from Michaels: These 120 GSM journals with 180 pages are my favorite budget option for bullet journals. There’s little ghosting, and these pages can take paint well (when used with little water). However, they’re not perfectly A5-sized as they are slightly wider and slightly shorter than an A5 journal. They also don’t have a wide variety of cover options.

Step 1: Reflect and Brainstorm What You Want from Your Bullet Journal in 2026

If you used a bullet journal or planner last year, you already have an important tool to help you with your new bullet journal setup. Your previous journal! If you don’t have a previous journal or planner to refer to, you can still reflect on these questions and see if you can answer some of them.

Take your bullet journal or planner and flip through the pages. While you do this, on a separate sheet of paper, take note of:

• What spreads were helpful, and which spreads did you use often?
• What spreads were abandoned or didn’t get used at all?
• What stopped you from using certain spreads?
• Consider the journal itself: did you enjoy writing on the pages and using the journal?

These questions will help you pick out a new bullet journal for the new year. You can organize these notes using a productive brain dump method.

Once you’ve looked at your past bullet journal spreads, it’s time to look to the future. Ask yourself the two important questions below:

• What do I want my bullet journal to help me with this year?
• Do I want to focus on productivity, creativity, memory-keeping, or self-care?

Got an idea for answers to these questions? Let’s move on to step 2!

Step 2: Define Your Bullet Journal Goals for the Year

Now that you have an umbrella goal for how you want your bullet journal to support your goals, it’s time to narrow them down into something more concrete.

Think about the focus you came up with during step 1 and write down specifics to help you maintain that focus. Since that focus will be different for everyone’s bullet journal setup, let’s go through what that may look like.

If your bullet journal goals include productivity…

Make spreads that include goal planning, habit tracking, planning for time blocking during weekly or daily spreads, etc. Think about how your bullet journal can support your productivity goals and look up or make up bullet journal spreads that allow you to do that.

If your bullet journal goals include creativity…

Prioritize layouts that track projects and decorative elements to make your layouts stand out. You can be creative in your bullet journal even if you don’t think you are artistic!

If your bullet journal goals include self-care…

Create pages that help you keep track of how often you’re doing self-care tasks. You can use a Year in Pixels style tracker to log how many times you do a certain self-care habit, like skincare or exercise. You can also create something like a self-care bingo, so you have different activities to aim for.

If your bullet journal goals include memory-keeping…

Have spreads that help you write down what you want to remember. Something like vertical number stickers is perfect for One Line a Day style journaling. You can also use themed stickers in conjunction with pictures and ephemera to create scrapbook-like spreads.

Whatever new year goals you pick to focus on for the year, the spreads you create should support those goals. Figuring out and writing your goals in your new bullet journal setup is the first step in helping you accomplish those goals. This is a key part of any bullet journal setup for the new year.

Step 3: Map Out Your Bullet Journal Page Count Before You Start

Our next step is figuring out how to calculate the pages needed in your bullet journal setup and what spreads we want to include in our 2026 bullet journal. If you’re more of a go-with-the-flow type, you may not want to calculate how many pages you’ll use up.

For the more Type-A folks (like myself), decide how long you want your bullet journal to last. Since everyone’s process will look different, I’ll take you through how I figure out my page count.

When I do my bullet journal planning for 2026, these are the facts I’m working with:

• I want my bullet journal to last 12 months
• My monthly pages take up 3 two-page spreads (these include my calendar, trackers, and logs)
• My weekly pages take up 1 two-page spread

Calculating for 12 months gives me 72 pages needed for my monthly spreads. For 52 weeks, I get 104 pages that I need for my weekly spreads. Since I use an Archer & Olive A5-sized journal (affiliate link) with 192 pages, that leaves me with 16 pages to use for my beginning of the bullet journal spreads.

However, the first page of the journal is used as a cover page, and the very last page of the journal isn’t enough for a full spread. That leaves me with 14 pages to work with. This gives me a starting point in planning out my bullet journal pages.

If calculating pages sounds more like a chore than a helpful activity, you can skip it altogether with a premade bullet journal-inspired planner.

Step 4: Plan Your Core Bullet Journal Spreads and Layouts

Now it’s time to decide which bullet journal spreads will make it into your bullet journal setup for 2026. While I’m still planning out what spreads I want to include, I know I’m certainly using these 2026 mini calendar stickers for my Year at a Glance page and I’m also using this printable bookshelf tracker for the books I read next year.

Using the information from Step 2 as a guide, I can create spreads that support my goals. For 2026, I’d like my bullet journal to help with memory-keeping and general goal support, so I’m including spreads that will help me with that.

This step is difficult to explain since it is such a personal process for each bullet journal setup. My recommendation for this is to get inspiration for spreads by looking at bullet journal setups on YouTube and on Pinterest.

Step 5: Decide the Order of Your Bullet Journal Spreads

This is the step I still get wrong! Every year, I think I do a bullet journal setup that’s in perfect order, and every year, I end up making notes where spreads should have gone in different places.

When you’re doing your planner setup ideas, there are two ways you can think about how to order bullet journal spreads in your 2026 bullet journal.

Chronological Bullet Journal Spread Setup

Think about the bullet journal layouts that go from the big picture to the smaller detail. What works for me is to create my spreads in this order:

• Yearly spreads like my Year at a Glance spread and birthday reference spread
• Yearly spreads that only need to be checked in with a couple of times (like a Then & Now spread where I record a snapshot of myself at the beginning and end of the year, and my spread to record monthly bullet journal themes)
• Spreads that I check in with more regularly, sometimes monthly or more often (like my Year in Pixels tracker and my bookshelf reading tracker)

Bullet Journal Spread Setup by Topic

Another way to organize your spreads is to organize your bullet journal spreads by topic. While you do your 2026 bullet journal setup, you can group your yearly pages, goal pages, self-care pages, tracker pages, etc., all together so they’re next to each other at the beginning of your journal.

Whichever way you do your productivity planning for your 2026 bullet journal spreads, it has to work for your brain. This means you will probably get some of it wrong! After several bullet journal setups, I still don’t know the perfect order for my new year bullet journal setup, and that’s okay. There’s no right way to bullet journal, so you’ll always find ways to improve your bullet journal setup.

Step 6: Add Personality to your 2026 Bullet Journal Setup with Stickers and Creative Touches

Now that we’ve got the functional and planning stuff out of the way, we can think about the fun part: decoration! Decorating your bullet journal spreads is in no way required, but if you’re the type of person who enjoys looking a decorated spreads to use them, using stickers in your setup process can motivate you to keep coming back.

My personal favorite stickers to use during a new year bullet journal setup are these DIY Color Stars & Sparkles Sticker Sheet because they match the color palette that I pick for the spreads setup. After that, I love to use themed sticker bundles for my monthly bullet journal spreads because they make it quick and easy to set up aesthetic monthly spreads.

Decorating your 2026 bullet journal can make the setup process feel more inspiring and approachable.

FAQs About Planning Your Bullet Journal for the New Year

What pages should I include in my new bullet journal?

Start with yearly, monthly, and weekly spreads, plus habit trackers, goals, and any collections that support your personal or creative goals.

How do I decide on my bullet journal goals?

Think about what you want your journal to do for you. Stay organized, track habits, memory keep, or express creativity? Let that guide your spread choices.

How do I plan the layout for my bullet journal?

Sketch a quick layout plan before you start. List which spreads you need, how many pages each takes, and the order you want them in.

What if I’m new to bullet journaling?

Start small! A simple planner or premade bullet journal is a great way to learn what works for you before building your own from scratch.

How can I decorate my bullet journal easily?

Use themed stickers or washi tape to add personality. Choose a color palette or theme for each month.

What supplies do I need for bullet journaling?

You’ll need a notebook, pens, a ruler, and optional supplies like functional stickers for labeling and icons.

Can I combine my bullet journal with a planner?

Absolutely! Try a hybrid approach like using your bullet journal for creativity and your planner for structure.

How can I stay consistent when using a new bullet journal?

Make it a priority. You can dedicate as little as a few minutes a day to your journal. Checking in once is better than not checking in at all. This blog post has some tips on how to stay consistent with a bullet journal.

Start the New Year with a Journal That Fits You

Planning your 2026 bullet journal setup can help make your journaling more productive and sustainable for the new year. It’s important to keep things flexible, too, though! Your 2026 bullet journal planning is likely to evolve with your needs throughout the year.

I would love to see what you come up with for your 2026 bullet journal spreads setup! You can leave a comment below or find me as TabletAndQuill on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Pin this post to revisit when setting up your next journal!