bullet journal spreads – Keeping it creative

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Monday Matters: Creating a personal curriculum by starting small (with just one topic)

Posted on Jun 8, 2026Jun 5, 2026 by Laura

I’ve seen a lot of YouTube vlogs recently about creating your own personal curriculum, and, as I consider myself very much as a lifelong learner, I was eager to give it a go. However, with limited free time, a variety of goals in progress, and a vision board that identifies my priorities for 2026, I wanted to start really small by focusing on just one subject and a particular element I want to learn more about. If, like me, you already have a busy life but want to carve out some time to learn something new (and enjoy benefits such as enhanced brain function, improved emotional and mental wellbeing, personal growth and increased life satisfaction) read on to find out how I designed my personal curriculum for Summer 2026. Also, if you’re not sure what a personal curriculum even is, I’ve also covered this below too.

What is a personal curriculum?

A personal curriculum is a self-designed and self-lead learning plan that enables you to create your own educational journey, developing your skills and knowledge in an area which interests you. Unlike at school, college or university, you play the role of teacher, selecting your own subjects, assignments and, if you wish, learning objectives. You also get to choose how many topics you will cover (I would suggest no more than two or three to get you started), your methods of learning (e.g. books, videos, movies, podcasts, trips, experiences etc.) and the time scale for completion (e.g. one month, one season, one term or one semester). You can also plan study times around other commitments and think about how deep an understanding you wish to have by the end of your ‘module’.

The topics of your personal curriculum can vary greatly but could include academic subjects such as environmental sciences, philosophy, British Classics, Fine Art or Creative writing, hobbies such as baking, photography, knitting or watercolour painting, practical skills such as budgeting, gardening, basic car maintenance or computer literacy, or personal development such as time management, mindfulness, communication skills, learning a new language, emotional resilience or goal setting.

Choosing my focus for my learning plan

I have many, many hobbies an interests which made it difficult to decide where to start and what I wanted to work on. So, I figured that it might be a good idea to make a list of things I enjoy doing in my spare time. These are what came to mind straight away:

Creative journalling and memory keeping
bullet journalling
walking in nature
vegan cookery
drawing
watercolour painting
photography
blogging
fitness related including yoga, Pilates and Zumba

Some of these topics, I feel like I know quite a lot about already and so I’m happy with my current explorations of them and how much time I dedicate to them. Others, I want to learn more about but tend to explore them every now and then when I feel like getting creative (e.g. watercolour painting and drawing. The topic that I decided that I really want to focus on learning about right now was DSLR photography. However, as I’ve done a beginners course focusing on basic techniques and Photoshop, I wanted to explore a very specific type of photography which would uplevel my skills. I know I would love to concentrate on wildlife photography but I’m very aware that suitable zoom lenses and a camera upgrade would be required and I don’t have the finances for this at the moment (if ever!). What I do have though, is a macro lens which I really haven’t got the hang of yet and a love of photographing insects and flowers so I’ve opted for a module on Macro Photography as a good starting point.

What do I want to learn?

I grabbed a piece of paper and brainstormed all of the things I wanted to learn about the topic of macro photography. Then I worked in my bullet journal to made a spread called An Introduction to Macro Photography finalising my ideas by identifying a rough order of action points. I started with the theory behind this style of photography, including tips and tricks, then moved on to practical experiences and opportunities to evaluate my learning and progress. I kept it pretty simple, using stamps and black ink, but if you wanted to, you could set out learning objectives or expected outcomes at each stage and go to town with the decor.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Finding resources to support my learning

There are plenty of resources online about macro photography so I made the decision to stick with web-based information for the whole of my ‘module’. I don’t want to buy books on my chosen topic as these can quickly become outdated or might involve equipment which I haven’t got (e.g. the newer mirrorless cameras) and, although I could go to the library, I like the idea of dipping in and out of online resources when I have a spare few minutes and don’t want to carry heavy books around with me.

To ensure I (almost) always have access to the wealth of webpages, blog posts and YouTube videos I’ve come across, rather than writing them down in my bullet journal, I’ve opted to paste the links into Notion so I can click on them whenever I want, and as long as I have my phone or my computer accessible (which is pretty much all of the time), I can do some self study. Now, I’m not an expert on Notion, so it’s not a fancy set up with items pertaining to different aspects of my curriculum but the titles in the links are enough for me to gauge what the pages or videos are about helping me to establish when they might be useful, and that’s enough for me!

When choosing your resources, it’s important to firstly establish what type of learner you are. Learners can be broadly categorised into the following (bear in mind that you’re likely to be more than one type):

visual learner – prefers images, diagrams and charts
auditory learner – learns best through lectures, discussions and audio materials such as podcasts and audiobooks
kinesthetic learners – prefers hands on learning through physical experiences and practical activities
linguistic learner – excels in reading, writing and verbal communication
logical learners – enjoys solving problems and logical reasoning
social learners – thrives in group settings and prefers to learn through collaboration
solitary learners – prefers to study alone and is self-motivated to learn, keen to independently reflect on own learning

Should I record my learning?

Whether you take notes on what you read or explore is entirely up to you, but for me, writing and journalling is part of the fun, so I absolutely want to do plenty of recording even if it’s just me writing that I spent ages trying to get the perfect shot of a butterfly and just as I fully depressed the shutter it flew off to pastures new and left me feeling a tad frustrated. Also, as a stationery lover, it was the perfect excuse to go notebook shopping! I got three slim notebooks for £3.50 and as long as I ignore (or get over) the fact that the word ‘notes’ is slightly off centre (grrr), I’m sure I’ll enjoy using one of them for my Macro Photography learning!

Now I just need to decide which design to use. I’m thinking the bright and sunny yellow colour?

Top tips for keeping it fun and interesting

Now you’re no longer studying at school or college, you get to choose exactly what you focus on and the pace of your learning. To ensure you have fun and maintain interest in your personal curriculum, I have the following suggestions and tips which should help:

embrace fluidity Whether your employed, run your own business, or are currently not working, there will be times when you have lots on your plate, times when you have a lighter schedule, times when you’re full of energy and times when you simply need to rest rather than adding more to your to do list. For your personal curriculum to be successful, I think it’s really important to ‘go with the flow’, accepting that your learning can and should flow with the rhythms of life rather than being a rigid set of actions to be completed at a set time or by a set date.

give yourself grace Similarly, if you do carve out a specific time to do a specific activity such as reading a chapter from a book, watching a video or making notes on your learning, if it doesn’t get done, don’t be hard on yourself, instead, spend time considering and questioning why. Maybe you got distracted by social media. Perhaps a more exciting opportunity presented itself that you didn’t want to miss. Or maybe you had low energy that afternoon and didn’t think it was a good time for you.

release perfectionism Strive to do your best with your personal curriculum study rather than demanding flawless results. When you were at school or college, you had particular grades to aim for and may have felt like other people were placing high expectations on you. However, you were probably also told that ‘as long as you try your best, that is all that matters’. Embrace the present and recognise that you are doing the best you can with the energy and resources you have available and that is totally okay.

avoid comparision The term ‘personal curriculum’ is a bit of a buzz word or phrase at the moment and there seem to be plenty of people talking about developing one and often sharing theirs on social media. I’ve seen examples where individuals have picked about four or five topics in a single month and set around six learning objectives or foci for each. Just the thought of doing this, my part time work, housework and spending time with family and friends (which is also a big priority of mine) stressed me out. But, then I came to realise that, although looking at what others are up to can get your creative juices flowing or give you ideas about the scope for your self study, it can also be pretty dangerous for your own wellbeing to compare yourself to others. If, like me, you want to start slowly and dip your toe into setting yourself a personal curriculum, you could try picking a single topic of study and a small part of what might be a vast and open-ended subject. It’s also worth remembering, that these same people who have been sharing their in depth curriculums, might not have done half of what they set out to do, and might be drowning in their own self-directed learning program behind the scenes and wishing they hadn’t set themselves such lofty goals! Remember, learning in your adulthood should be fun and light-hearted and if it stops being these two things, it might be time to reconsider your choices.

Ultimately, when designing your personal curriculum, ‘you do you’ as the saying goes, choosing your own resources and learning styles rather than adopting ideas from others that you’ve seen on social media. And remember, the beauty of learning as an adult, is that you can always tweak bits along the way or completely miss out parts where you feel like you’re not enjoying yourself or that it’s all getting a bit too academic (or formal) for your liking!

Wishing you lots of happiness in your learning, whatever you choose to do,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, Setting goals and intentions

My Summer 2025 Bucket List is good to go…

Posted on Jun 1, 2025Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

This is my second year of making seasonal bucket lists and, so far, I’ve managed to make them all quite different. I’ve been looking back at Summer 2024’s spread in my bullet journal and quite a few elements of it were related to our holiday in Wales. This year, however, we’ve had our main trip last month and we haven’t decided where we might go for my birthday in August yet. Today, I’m sharing my finished Summer 2025 bucket list spread in my current BuJo. I’m starting to work on the items already as I follow the meteorological times, beginning on June 1st and finishing on August 31st rather than the astronomical calendar. And, although we had a bit of rain earlier, it’s bright sunshine and blue sky out there now so it certainly feels like the summertime has arrived.

Creating my bucket list and turning it into a bright and colourful spread in my BuJo

Last year, I went into detail about how I develop my list and then turn it into a double page board in my bullet journal and you can read all about my process here. This time, as I’ve noticed there tends to be quite a bit of ink transferal, if I use lots of black, I opted for a lovely, bright pink for the bucket list items. It’s still really easy to read and hopefully, I won’t spend the season erasing smudges!

A couple of items that I chose are common to most of my bucket lists, such as doing a seasonal jigsaw and reading a book set in the particular season but the rest are all something new and different.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my Summer Bucket List spread and it has inspired you to create your own. You don’t necessarily have to make it a creative exercise – just writing one on plain paper and putting it up somewhere prominent such as on a cupboard in your kitchen will be enough to help you make the most of the season. You could even turn it into a family activity where you each contribute some ideas of seasonal favourites or things you’ve always wanted to try. And if you get a bit stuck, you can always turn to AI to generate ‘Fun things to do this Summer’ or your own show me phrase.

I would love to see your finished lists if you would like to share, so feel free to upload it to Instagram and tag me in your post with @ljdesignsne

Hope your Summer is great fun and you create lots of happy memories!

art, Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, creativity, goal setting, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my bullet journal for May 2025: Primrose / primula theme

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Laura

This month, I’ve again taken inspiration from our garden. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to add more colour out the front of the house, so we went to the garden centre to look for a set of six bedding plants that should come back year after year. I opted for primroses (AKA primula) as there was already one out there which pops up each spring and was obviously set before we moved in over a decade ago. After the flowers had settled in – they went a bit floppy when we first installed them – I took some macro photos to use as inspiration for my spreads. It’s taken me ages to sketch out, draw and colour in all of the images but it was such a lovely, mindful activity that I found it really therapeutic. As I write this, it’s the 2nd May and I still haven’t finished all of the decor but I have drawn up my calendar, finances, goals and first weekly so I can actually fill in events and tasks. I hope you like my finished pages and they inspire you to give florals a go to practise your drawing, colouring or maybe painting skills.

Front cover

The calendar was the last page I finished and took me a long while to complete. I used a photograph of a plant pot of primroses for reference which I found on Google. I used mainly my Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils and blended a few shades together to get a nice peachy colour. I also used my blending pencil to mix up the colours and to create a smooth appearance. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll pen in a size 10 to draw lines inside of the Pigma Micron as the actual primroses had a very thin white trim.

Monthly calendar

I added the decor to my calendar second, after I did the image for my finances record, and, as it had taken me such as long time to finish that one, I opted for a more sketchy appearance to the primroses you see here. I held my fineliner really lightly and tried to create a slightly wobbly appearance so the plants looked more natural. I’m really happy with how they turned out and the colours look so cheerful. I made good use of lots of my coloured pencils and also used my blending pencil to blend out any harsh lines.

Finances record

As well as the pack of six small primrose plants, we also purchased a much larger one for our back garden. The flowers are a lovely, pale pink but I didn’t have a coloured pencil which matched so I’ve gone for more of a peachy colour. I initially did just the flower in the centre but decided there were too many leaves and not enough floral bits so I added the other two and made them a little more washed out so the central one stood out.

Monthly goals

Last month I (yet again), picked far too many goals to be in with any chance of achieving them all. So, for May, I’ve really, really restricted myself and opted for just 5 (go me!). And, I’ve already achieved one of them as I made bread for the very first time yesterday!

Rather than adding some more primrose illustrations, I opted to add some stickers to make the set up much quicker. Some, I’ve made myself and others are from my ever increasing stash (you can never have too many stickers – right?). However, I have just started a new BuJo this month and a not to do goal of mine is to add plenty of my own illustrations straight into my notebook rather than overloading with stickers and making my journal super bulky (my orange one would barely close by the time I finished it!).

Weekly plan

I’ve been using this same style layout for quite a few weeks now and it really works for me. It gives me enough room to write events and add a few to dos underneath each day. I can then add a small illustration at the bottom if I want to, or use the full space for recording. This week, I’ve done some small primrose illustrations but I may not do any next week as I have lots of sessions at the university so I’ll be super busy.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like my finished spreads. I think they look really colourful and provide a great reminder of our new plants and all of the other bright colours of primrose which you can get. The flowers seem to be thriving at the moment but as we haven’t had any rain for weeks, they require daily watering as the soil is getting so dry. I’m hoping they’re going to stay looking good for a least another month and continue to make me smile each time I get in and out of my car!

Wishing you a marvellous May,

Much love,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, Hand lettering, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, productivity, Setting goals and intentions

Setting up my Bullet Journal for April 2025: April showers, umbrella theme

Posted on Apr 2, 2025 by Laura

I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine if you have it and making the most of the warmer Springtime weather. This month, for my BuJo, I’ve opted for an April showers and umbrellas theme. It’s something I did before back in 2021 but my set up is quite different so I don’t mind repeating it. I’ve used coloured markers (Tombows, Crayola Supertips, Pentel sign brush pens and Pigma microns) for all of the doodles and I tried to stick to some kind of colour palette to make the pages cohesive, although I deviated at times! I hope you enjoy seeing my set up and don’t forget to let me know what theme you’ve chosen for April in the comment section.

Front cover

After writing a small title using a blue Pentel brush pen, I filled the page with different umbrella doodles using a combination of oranges, pinks and blues. I then added raindrops to finish things off.

Two Page Calendar

I like to draw up a nice, big calendar so I can add the main events of the month straight into it. I also like to put reminders in such as when I need to order my medication and when our hamster, Aggie will be getting her monthly full cage clean (an event that my husband and I always look forward to – not! ha ha!).

I enjoyed adding umbrella doodles in the surrounding spaces and some more raindrops.

Monthly finances

I always like to keep track of my finances each month so my outgoings don’t exceed my income. I fill in my spending each week so the task doesn’t become something too onerous. I remembered that I had a stencil sheet in my collection which had an umbrella outline as part of the shapes, so I used this to create uniform images across the bottom of the page. I used a Tombow and the Pentel sign pen to create a sketchy feel to the colouring as I didn’t want it to be too perfect.

April goals

I decided to try to limit the amount of goals I set for this month as there are a few from March that I’m still working on. I picked out eight which I still think is a few too many, but some of them are relatively quick ones such as planting our chard seeds outside and trying out a couple of new plant based recipes.

Final words…

I would share my first weekly, but I haven’t got around to decorating it yet and I’ve added some personal information to it which would need blocking out. I might share the weekly plans on Instagram at a later date – you can find me here if you want to see my content.

I had fun doodling lots of umbrellas this month but I really must remember to be careful not to smudge the marker colours as I had to use some whiteout pen to hide a couple of smears! This is part of the joy of being left handed – can anyone relate?

That’s all for this month. Wishing you an amazing April,

goal setting, mindset, personal development, planner girl, productivity, Setting goals and intentions

Monday Matters: Taking simple goals and turning them into SMART goals for the month – a mini guide with real life examples

Posted on Feb 3, 2025Feb 3, 2025 by Laura

For the last five months, I have been setting a number of monthly goals which I aim to have met by the end of the month. Today, I thought I’d share my process using my actual list for this month as an example. I also want to explain how I make sure that each of them are SMART, even if the original goal is rather loose and unspecific.

Before I share my goals for February, here’s a quick reminder of what the letters of the acronym SMART stand for.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Relevant

T – Time bound

Now, obviously, all of my goals are time bound as I aim to have achieved them by the end of the month, but how do I make sure my goals meet the rest of the criteria? Well, here’s an image showing my simple goals laid out in my bullet journal and I’ll pick out two of them to consider in detail so you can see my thought process and actions I take to prepare.

My actual goals for February 2025

Image credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Let’s take the first one:

Learn how to use my diffuser to create ~~perfect~~ nice curls.

I’ve made this goal specific by explaining exactly what I hope to achieve by learning to use my diffuser. I haven’t just said ‘learn how to use my diffuser attachment’, I’ve also stated what I want to use it for.

My goal can be measurable as I’m currently clueless on how to use the diffuser correctly, whereas when I’ve achieved my goal I should be able to use it to create nice looking curls. I’ll deem them to be nice enough if I would be happy to leave the house for the day with them looking like they do!

The goal is achievable as I have the resources required to work towards it, i.e. I own a diffuser attachment for my hairdryer and I can select video tutorials on YouTube to watch to learn the techniques involved. And, you’ll notice I’ve crossed out the word ‘perfect’ – this was intentional as I’m saying that the curls don’t need to look as perfect as they would when I step out of the hairdressers, but need to look nice enough to show them off with confidence.

The goal is a particularly relevant one for me as my hairdresser has been curling my hair with with a wand or straighteners and, although they look beautiful at first, I’m always frustrated with the way they drop out in less than an hour so, I’ve armed myself with curling gel which should help to hold the curl better. Also, I’ve always wanted to be able to create bouncy curls so this is a good objective.

Now, I know I said earlier that the goal is time bound, but, for me, saying I’m going to get all of the above goals ticked off by the end of February leaves too much opportunity for failure, so, I like to get super specific and dedicate a block of time to each project, activity or task involved in my monthly plan. For example, I might decide that on Wednesday 12th February in the morning, I’ll watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube that have been liked by lots of viewers (more likely to be good quality) and then have a go at curling my hair in the afternoon. I’ll also dedicate another 2 or 3 hours to perfecting my new skill until the curls look nice enough to go out with.

I also want to talk about the very last goal in my list:

‘Do two watercolour exploration exercises’.

I’ve picked this one to explain about, because I had something similar for one of my January goals, but I didn’t achieve it. In fact, I didn’t achieve a single part of it because I wrote ‘Do some watercolour exploration each week, using ideas from Painting Calm’ and, although I did a small amount of watercolouring just before the end of January, it wasn’t using ideas from my new book (which I have barely looked at yet) and it certainly didn’t happen every week!

To be completely honest, my goal was far too ambitious as it demanded a lot of time, something that I didn’t have enough of, especially with all of the other goals I’d set for that month. Therefore, it didn’t fit the achievable element of a SMART goal. So, this time, I’ve reduced what is expected of me, and I’m going to write into my monthly BuJo calendar, exactly when my watercolouring sessions will take place. I’ll also pre-pick the ‘watercolour explorations’ I’ll be doing so I can get prepared before I start. They can also be activities from my new book or ones I see in social media if I fancy trying them instead (they’re specific but not too ridged).

So, for my final goal (i.e. the one at the bottom of my list), although ‘Do 2 watercolour explorations’ might seem a bit vague, it can easily be developed as a SMART goal. It is specific as it states the kind of art I want to do and explains that they’re explorations so basically just me trying out a couple of techniques. It’s measurable as I’ll be able to see the evidence of two exploration style activities on watercolour paper or in a sketch book. It seems to be much more achievable – as long as I don’t get COVID again! It’s relevant, as exploring with watercolour is on my vision board for 2025 and it’s time bound as I plan to do both activities before the end of the month with my sessions identified on specific days (recorded in my BuJo) and time blocks drawn up on the actual day, based on how long I would like to spend doing them.

Final words…

I hope today’s post has been helpful for you and will assist you in turning your simple goals into SMART goals to increase your chance of achieving them. I see so many examples of incredibly unspecific goals when people share their monthly spreads and then, when they come to review their progress, they talk about how they only achieved a small number of them or, more often than not, had forgotten what they had said they wanted to do! As well as making your goals SMART, you should also remember to check back in with them on a regular basis. This way, you can pick out two or three for each week of the month and then outline your plans, first in your monthly set up, and then in your weekly.

I would wish you the best of luck with your goals, but really, what’s required is hard work and paying attention to what matters to you so I’ll just say I hope you’re ready for action and are focused on what you want! Go get em!