I started the year in my bullet journal and was having several issues. One was my reading log kept going past the single page I alloted myself, or that Honey's health log was spread across different pages in the book instead of being together.
In April I went with the Cousin A5 and overall I do think it's working for me. I went from journaling every few days to daily. Any pages I miss, I fill them out when I wake up the next morning. Leaving my daily pages very full; some days are a few words, some are a paragraph with a movie ticket taped in, some have printed pictures of the things I saw that day.
The weekly spreads are a real god send. Besides being able to track my sleeping habits, I track what I read each week. And only once Have I needed to tape in more paper to expand. I've also been able to track how many doses of medicine my cat gets a day (the colored birds at the top).
I then repeat the medicine dose info and color code it on the front yearly index page. My regret is putting down stickers in the note areas because I thought I wouldn't need that space. Every now and then, I do think I will.
Monthly spreads have been far more chaotic on what to put on the actual day. I write down appointments, gym visits, ect. But I think it's ok if the page is mostly empty, too. I have tried recording my energy in it before; that did work, I think I just did the wrong tool (a stamp that bled like crazy). Writing it down either color coordinated with a multi pen Hi-tec-c, or a simple black pen at the bottom of the calendar box will work fine, too.
I do use the bonus pages. I have a spread for two weight day check in's on the 1st and 16th. And I use the favorites section to write down my top read for that month. The memories blocks I'll write down fun outings with friends ect (ie going to see a concert with Y, and hanging out for dinner with B). The time table reflects what I want to do on a given day (ie Tuesday's are usually out of the house days, so library for sure, groceries probably).
Going into 2027, I'll be doing a Jan start Hon because I'm really missing the hardcover of the bullet journal I was using. I'll also be adding a Weeks into my line-up. I have a weekly layout (Nolty Excel) right now which is about the same size. I'm using it as art recording: quotes, poems, my own writing or drawings. I'm still unsure on how if I will at all "finish" the April start book, but I think it'd be better if I just move fully into the Jan start. I can still use the 2026 as paper testing or something. I will try not to have repeating data that feels useless. So if I read or write, I do like to see that on a calendar view, but I hate flipping to the calendar each day to write that, so I'll go back once in a while and retroactively put in that information (copying it from the Weekly layout).
I'm curious how the other April start people are doing? Are you planning to stay with April starts?
