One of my favorite parts of my bullet journal is my monthly spreads.  You can do so many different things with the monthly spread in your planner from documenting memories to creating a collection of doodles or even printing small photos to fit into the squares of each day.

Document Your Days in Less than 5 Minutes

I use my monthly spreads to track any highlights, milestones, or special memories that happen throughout the month.  These small little notes help me to journal for my Project Life spreads or every add snippets to my regular scrapbooking layouts.  You could create mini albums or even incorporate these notes into your art journal pages!  These monthly spreads are the juiciest part of my bullet journal for other people.  Basically - this spread in my bullet journal can give you a glimpse into our lives for that month.  In the video below, I show you a peek into how my completed monthly spread for March looks, as well as my bullet journal setup for April.

Add Creativity into Your Day

I've always been a fan of grid based art journaling.  When you deconstruct your page into a grid, it gives you multiple tiny little boxes that you can treat as small pieces of art.  A popular trend that I see on Instagram a lot is to doodle inside each day of the monthly spread for various Instragram challenges.  You can easily create a collection of your own personal doodles through this method in small amounts of time.  It's also a great way to try new techniques or mediums without "wasting" expensive materials and paper. Below is a page from an old art journal that I used this same technique with to document my memories and play with some new art supplies.

Capture Quotes and Inspiration

Another way to fill in those blank boxes of your monthly spread would be some handlettering inside each box.  This is a great way to catalog your favorite quotes or the random quotes you find on Pinterest throughout the month.  Or you could just practice lettering each individual letter of the alphabet!  There are a ton of different options for these monthly spreads if you feel like you are not getting the bang that you desire out of these pages.

As someone who doesn't have a lot of appointments that I need to keep track of, I love finding creative ways to add a bit of play and memory-keeping to my life.  If you have any other tips and tricks for being creative with your monthly spreads in your planner, I'd love to hear about them - so leave a comment down below!

Welcome to another installment of my bullet journal series. Today, I've got a peek inside my current bullet journal setup for you. A vital part of my bullet journal process is using brain dumps to empty my brain. I never realized just how true the idea of "Mommy Brain" actually was until I had my daughter. Since her birth, I literally cannot remember anything for more than a couple of minutes, which is not nearly long enough to complete any sort of action. I spend the vast majority of my time trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing. That's where Brain Dumps come into play.

Bullet Journal March 2016 from The Hippie Art Studio

A brain dump is simply writing down everything in your head.  It allows you to write down every single task, event, idea, or to-do that you can possibly think of.  Once these things are written down you can then process your brain dump into lists and take actions to start getting things done.  A very handy tool when you are just starting to do brain dumps is the GTD Trigger List.  I don't use the GTD Trigger List very often anymore, but it was definitely a benefit when I first started doing my brain dump sessions.

Basically a brain dump is a way of processing your to-do list through free writing and free association.  Some people do a big brain dump weekly, while others use this technique daily.  I often use brain dumps to figure out my priorities for the week and ways that  I can batch tasks together.  For example, if I need to create 3 video previews for the week, I know that I need to schedule an hour or two to complete those tasks all at once.  I also batch writing tasks, errands, photo shoots, and video editing and voice-overs.  Doing a brain dump helps me to process all of my to-do's into real action and progress.

Brain dumps are part of my Monday planning routine, although I continue to use rapid logging throughout the week to do mini brain dumps each day.  The brain dump that I do on Monday pretty much sets the tone for my week.  I will also migrate any open tasks from the prior week (or weeks if I haven't done it already).  This allows me to see what things I may have rescheduled due to life (and kids...).

Once I've done my brain dump, I break tasks into location that these tasks can be completed in.  For example, I may need to do one task - laundry - at home, while another task can be done in the car while I'm waiting on my step-daughter.  This helps me to accomplish my to-do's, because I spend 12 hours a week at the office, 10 hours a week in the car, and I only have a couple hours a day at home before family time starts in the evenings.  One of the reasons that I try to take advantage of each location is to make the most of any free time that occurs.  For example, I spend about 10 hours a week in the car for my step-daughter, waiting for her to finish her classes and activities.  So I like to make use of this time to work on certain projects such as planning, writing, and some lettering excerises that require few tools and materials.

Another benefit to brain dumps is that I can take note of things I need to do when my 2 year old daughter isn't around (or is napping) and things I can do when she's active (and wanting my attention).  I only have a couple hours each day that I can work on tasks while she's preoccupied so I have to make the most of this time.  Most of the time when she's napping, I'm filming videos for YouTube or editing videos or working on making art, and then I schedule the other related tasks my underutilized free-time when I'm waiting in the car.

Brain dumps also allow ideas to marinate over time for me.  A note can turn into a collection that sparks a whole series, blog posts, videos, or even art projects. That random thought that keeps popping up, but you keep forgetting or putting off gets captured on paper.  This act alone can often encourage you to finish it off so it quits nagging at you.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are on brain dumps.  Do you like to do them?  Are brain dumps part of your regular planning routine?