My April 2020 Bullet Journal Spreads - Self Care Theme

Here in the UK, and in a lot of places around the world, April 2020 is shaping up to be a strange month. In Scotland, we'll be in lockdown for at least the first couple of weeks, and beyond that, well, who knows. I don't want to turn this into an entire post about the COVID-19 pandemic, but I would be lying to say that it hasn't influenced my spreads for the month. For example, I haven't made a monthly calendar, because everything is cancelled, there's no plans to have and nowhere to be but at home. But anyway, while this month will certainly be different, I'm still approaching it from a place of gratitude and hope.

The pandemic has also influenced my theme choice for this month - I've chosen to do a Self-Care theme! Trying my best to embrace the hygge vibes of spending time at home, and allow myself time to relax, or to read or really to do whatever I feel I need to do to navigate these difficult times.

COVER PAGE

I've moved away from doing quote pages for every month, but this month, I thought I could use some words of wisdom, so I pulled one of my all time favourite quotes from my all time favourite book - The Lord of the Rings. I like this quote, it helps me stop from spiraling out and reminds me to slow down, to breathe and to just put one foot ahead of the other. Do you have a favourite quote you're turning to just now?

I went for almost a sort of flat-lay inspired layout, featuring some of my favourite activities to do when I'm in the house - and yes, I count wearing fluffy socks as an activity!!

THINGS I CAN DO AT HOME

This is a spread that is probably fairly unique to our current circumstances, but I thought it was a fun one to include. I wanted to make sure that I gave myself lots of ideas for things I can do each day, because while I will still be working away on my businessess, things have slowed down significantly, and I won't always need, or feel up to sitting down and working on SEO or something - so in a way this spread features not only ideas for other activities to-do, but also as a way of giving myself permission to take time off and actually do these things.

GRATITUDE

I took a month off from this spread last month (I swapped to a "one line a day") concept, but definitely felt the need to bring this back around for April. Kenny and I have been making a point each night at dinner to talk about some things that we're grateful for, and I think it's really helping my anxiety, so I wanted to continue that vibe here in my journal. We still have so, so much to be thankful for.

MOOD TRACKER

Given that I suffer from depression, I'm sometimes a bit wary of tracking my mood in a simplistic way like this - is a "sad" day something I could have shaken myself out of, or a bad depression day?  But given that we are going through a lot, as a world, right now, I do want to have some way to keep track of how I'm coping with it all.

HABIT TRACKER

This is a regular spread for me, but again, is probaly even more important than usual. On one hand I want to try and not put too much pressure on myself day to day, but on the other hand, I do think that keeping on top of some routines - like making the bed - will help keep me feeling more stable and "normal". So this month the habits are pretty basic, I know, but I know I'll feel a lot better if I try and do these things as much as I can.

BRAIN DUMP

I thought this might be a fun/useful spread to have in here this month! I don't know about you, but I often find that when I take time away from doing my creative work, and do something like baking or cleaning, I tend to have some of my best creative ideas! Sometimes it's a full idea for a design, sometimes it's words that I want to illustrate and sometimes it's just a vague direction or theme I want to explore - so I thought this sort of open space to work in would be great for jotting down all the ideas I'm sure to have during my extra downtime this month.

MEAL PLANNER

Here in the UK we are currently locked down and only to leave the house basically for essential reasons, so going to the supermarket is a rare, necessary trip, rather than somewhere I nip into a lot. Additionally, stockpiling and panic buying has been a real issue here, so there is currently not always a lot of choice in the shops when you do go. All this to say that I decided I wanted to do a meal planning spread for April, to help me keep on top of what needs eaten when, what recipes I can make with what I've managed to get in etc.
Breakfast isnt in here as we're pretty much just doing toast or cereal at the moment, and our corner shop seems well stocked with those.


And that's all my spreads for April! I had already mentioned that I didn't do a monthly overview because there's no plans to have - and for that same reason, I won't be using weekly spreads this month either! I have a separate Bullet Journal for my work stuff that I still keep daily to-do lists in, so for April, I'm just going to jot down the few personal things in there.

Have you set up your Bullet Journal for April? What theme have you gone for? Is COVID-19 affecting how you use your Bujo at all?