October is almost here, which means Halloween is also on it’s way! Here in South Korea, we are finally transitioning into fall–we just had the Autumn Harvest Festival holiday last week, called chuseok, and recently the weather has turned rather gloomy and rainy. Before diving into Halloween festivities, I first had to set up my bullet journal to prepare for the upcoming month.
Instead of going the traditional “spooky” route for my monthly theme, I decided to go for something more whimsical and cheerful. Seeing as the 1997 Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Brandy and Whitney Houston is one of my all time favorite films, and I personally find it very in-line with Halloween overall, I thought this would be a great theme to use for October. A Disney princess musical might not seem very Halloween-y but think about it: there’s a magical fairy godmother, various animals get turned into humans, there’s a disguise and a midnight ball, and a giant pumpkin for crying out loud! And the entire film is rich with color, whimsy, and sparkle, so it really evokes a magical atmosphere that is perfect for the fall and Halloween season. And another thing – October 1st is the 50th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World! I didn’t realize that until after I had set up my bullet journal, but what a lucky coincidence! I’m a major Disney parks fan so I’m happy that during this pandemic I could incorporate some Disney magic into my life, since we’re not able to travel at the moment.
Since August I’ve been bullet journaling digitally on my Samsung Tab S6 in the Samsung Notes App. It’s one of those freebie apps that comes with Samsung devices, but it’s honestly such a powerful tool that I’m surprised it’s free! As you’ll see in my spreads below, it really packs a creative punch. I also incorporated lots of design elements that I downloaded for free from rawpixel.com, and I designed part of my setup using Canva, which I’ll explain in just a bit. Overall, I’m really satisfied with how this setup turned out and I’m excited to share it with you today!
Monthly Calendar
The first page is pretty self explanatory – I included a fun quote and picture from the movie as well as a simple box calendar. I really dislike when calendars take up six rows, since it feels like such a waste, so I brought the last day of October up into the top row to save space. I really wanted to capture the spirit of the movie so I incorporated many gold elements, as well as this vibrant shade of violet which is a callback to the ballroom scene where Bernadette Peters and many of the dancers are dressed in blues and purples.
To-Do List (Brain Dump)
The next page in my setup is a To-Do List page. I really dislike the word “dump” so I don’t like to write it in my bullet journal, but it is essentially a brain dump page for October. It’s a very straightforward checklist, but the decorations are what make this page one of my favorites. Since it’s a list of to-dos, I themed it after Cinderella’s step-family since they are always bossing Cinderella around and giving her a bunch of tasks to complete. Kind of clever, right? I included a fabulous photo of the 3 talented actresses from the film, a quote of one of their many demands, and some peacock feathers to represent not only how flamboyant they are but also to callback to the peacock statues outside of their house in the movie. I added some giant golden swirls because they remind me of the swirly golden fairy dust that appears when Cinderella’s godmother casts her magic.
Youtube Planner
Here is another collection that could have been rather simple and straightforward, but instead I transformed it into a visually appealing addition to my setup. On this page, I will be tracking my subscriber count for my channel and also keeping a list of my video ideas for October. I chose this pumpkin quote to inspire me to keep working on growing my YouTube channel.
Habit Trackers
The great thing about planning digitally is the ease with which I can create and duplicate my habit trackers! After setting up the first one, you can easily select, copy and paste the entire tracker as many times as needed. This month, I’ll be tracking 9 different habits. The first four are related to my health and fitness goals. After that, Korean and Spanish are currently my target languages, so I will try to study a little bit every day. As for Instagram, I don’t think I actually need to post every day, but I’ll just keep track of when and how often I post there. Finally reading and keeping a diary are two of my night routine habits that I sometimes skip, so I’m trying to stay on track with those.
Daily 10-minute Tracker
I really love all the pages I setup for October, but this one I am particularly proud of. I actually designed this template myself using Canva! I think it’s super functional, streamlined, and nice to look at. Obviously the day planned here is just an example! It’s a really jam-packed day but I just wanted to show how one could possibly plan out their time, or track their activities after the fact. Another thing to mention is the goal, reward, and meals sections. For the goal and reward, I can either write a small daily goal (read 1 chapter) and reasonable reward (eat 1 cookie!) or, as I’ve shown below, I can write a long-term goal and long-term reward to keep myself feeling motivated as I work. As for meals, I can either plan my meals in advance, or log what I eat as I go.
I’ve never shared any digital/printable sheets before so I don’t know if anyone would be interested in my designs, but I’m pretty proud of this one and I think it could be helpful to others! Leave a comment and let me know if you are interested in getting this template for yourself.
End-of-the-month Reflections
At the end of every bullet journal setup, I always include a place to write out some reflections for the month – what went well, what didn’t, gains, losses, what to improve going forward, what I’m looking forward to next month, etc. I included a deep violet tulle background that reminded me of the ballgowns from the movie, and of course, a glass slipper!
I hope you enjoyed this in-depth look at my Cinderella-themed bullet journal setup for October. It was really fun to put together, and equally fun to share it with you! If you’re more of a listener than a reader, you can check out my YouTube video down below. I added fun music and some images and gifs from the movie to explain my inspirations.
Are you excited for Halloween or the Walt Disney World 50th anniversary? I can’t wait to celebrate both!
Thanks for reading!
itsveronicaguys 