Setup Bullet Journal Spreads in Record Time: Take Advantage of this Unexpected Tool

When Setting Up Takes Too Long…

Anyone who keeps a planner or bullet journal knows that it can be time-consuming to get ready to use. At least a planner has some sort of structure within, but it’s not always exactly what you need. And a bullet journal? Total blank page.

I know your time is valuable, otherwise why would we bother to try and wrangle our tasks and to-do’s into something more manageable? In this post, let’s talk about my secret weapon that really reduces the amount of time I spend setting up my bullet journal spreads. Because the less time I use setting it up means there’s more time to get those tasks and to-do’s checked off.

The Best Unexpected Tool for Fast Setup

Stickers! Stickers are everywhere, but so many of them are purely decorative. There’s nothing wrong with that! Decorative stickers add a lot of creativity and color to your pages, and they save time too since you don’t have do draw something out, worry about getting it perfect, and then picking the right colors.

And don’t get me wrong: that’s a fun process, but that’s only if you have to time to spend doing it. So what about when you’re running short on time? The beginning of the month or week doesn’t wait up for you, and that’s when functional stickers ****come to the rescue.

Don’t know what I mean by that? Functional stickers are stickers that aren’t there to be purely decorative, they have a purpose, a function. They don’t have to be pretty, they just have to get the job done. Most time functional stickers are a support to decorative stickers anyway, so you’re not really losing out on aesthetic by using functional stickers too.

By using a combination of decorative and functional stickers, you can setup your bullet journal spreads in hardly any time.

Decorative Stickers

Let’s talk about decorative stickers. These stickers are meant to be pretty and add decoration to your spreads. They come in two forms: sticker sheets and die cuts (sticker flakes or individual stickers). It’s really your choice what form you go for.

At Tablet & Quill, all of our decorative sticker sheets have at least 31 stickers and at least 6 unique designs. This means you can use one sticker per day if you wanted, or spread them out in bunches or groups. Either way, our sticker sheets give plenty of stickers to choose from.

Most of our die cut sets were designed to perfectly match with our color sticker sheets. If you find a sticker sheet you like, there’s a matching sticker set. Each sticker in the die cut set is larger than what you find on our sticker sheets, so you’re able to have larger decorative elements.

By using a combination of sticker sheets and die cut stickers, you’ve got your decorative elements ready to go-without spending the time to draw something out then color. Easy peasy!

Colorable Stickers

Colorable stickers are my ultimate best tool when setting up my bullet journal spreads. Every month, I include a mood log and aesthetically, I prefer a cute doodled setup instead of a table or chart. These colorable stickers are so perfect for a mood log since each sticker sheet has at least 31 stickers, meaning there’s enough to have one sticker per day!

By using these stickers, I’m able to set up a really cute mood log without spending a ton of time drawing everything out. (Starting to see a theme here?) There are other ways you can use colorable stickers, I went over my 5 favorite ways to use them in this blog post.

Calendar Stickers

Next up in my bullet journal spreads setup is my habit tracker on the page right after my mood log. Habit tracking can be done in a bunch of ways: mini calendars, tables, chart, circular trackers, and more.

My preferred way of habit tracking? The mini calendar because it lets me see an overall pattern much better than in other ways. For example, at work I always have my water in sight so I end up drinking a lot more water during the week when I’m working compared to the weekend, where I sometimes lose track of where I’ve left my water. That’s a pattern that’s harder to pick out in a different form.

But I don’t really enjoy drawing mini calendars, plus it’s time consuming to draw out all the little boxes. So I just don’t! By using a blank mini calendar sticker, my habit tracker gets setup in about two minutes flat. And because these mini calendars come with either 10 or 12 blank stickers, I can use them over a couple of months.

Since these blank mini calendars don’t perfectly fit the calendar, I either cut out the extra days at the beginning/end of the month or just color them in black.

Vertical Number Stickers

When setting up my daily highlights section, I’ve tended toward using these vertical number stickers. Not only do I have different options for the font these numbers are in, I can make sure I’m numbering correctly and in a straight line. I’ve definitely zoned out while writing out numbers and skipped one (or two… oops!).

Since each of these sticker sheets come with 10-12 strips of stickers, I’m able to use one sticker sheet throughout most, if not all, of a whole year!

Weekday Stickers

My favorite kind of functional stickers are the days of the week stickers we offer. At the time of writing, all six of the different styles we offer were handlettered by yours truly. You won’t find these anywhere else! There are more handlettered styles and font options in the pipeline too, so keep an eye out for that.

Weekday stickers allow me to quickly setup my weekly spreads so that it looks lettered and consistent. I do enjoy practicing my lettering, but sometimes I just need to get things setup and ready to use.

Yearly Stickers

Every year in my bullet journal, I set up a Year at a Glance spread, and these last couple of years I’ve set them up in minutes using yearly stickers. Available in both Monday starts and Sunday starts, I’m able to just stick down the months without worrying about whether I’ve missed a day and messed up the numbering for the whole year.

These stickers would also be great for setting up a Future Log, a Yearly Challenge, or even for a particular habit you’re tracking for the entire year. There’s so many ways these stickers could be used!

Your New Time-Saving Tool

Stickers are everywhere as decoration, but it’s time to think of them not just as decoration but as a functional tool designed to make your bullet journal spread setups quicker and easier.

Whether you’re needing to track habits, write one line a day, or have your weekdays look consistent and handlettered, functional stickers have got you covered.

Do you already use functional stickers in your planner or bullet journal? What other kind of functional stickers would you like to see? Leave a comment to let me know!

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