2022Bujo – Metropolitan Muslimah

July Bujo Setup; I Plan: 30 June 2022

In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Most Merciful.

Determined not to repeat the mistake of setting up my bujo halfway through the month, I have prepared next month’s setup. Tada!

This month, I decided to do a full spread of the July calendar for easier reference. I tried to copy the design by the following journaller:

She used paint so I used water colour pencils. Of course, her design is nicer and she chose to do a cover and then her monthly log. I found that I do not need the bird’s eye view of the month. I just need a calendar I could easily refer to. After all, I had the yearly log set up earlier in the 2022 section of my bujo.

Then I did my weekly spread in the way that I feel will work for me. I amended certain aspects because I realised that not all tasks take the same amount of time. I learnt this the hard way when I did the blog post on Peaky Blinders’s pilot episode. I took 5 freaking days to complete it! Then that just knocked out my ability to keep up with my MITs and everything just went out of the window. That is why I have created a ‘Duration’ column for me to realise which tasks are mammoth and may need to be repeated on the following days before I can mark it as completed.

However, after looking at my design now, I realised I left no room for me to write down events and notes for the day. I think I will need to dedicate each day’s spread to an entire page for future days.

I should probably make some sort of attempt to make my daily spreads more pleasing but for now, I think my focus is on trying to create something that works for me.

And Allah is Ash-Shakoor, The Most Appreciative. – MM

June Bujo Setup; I Plan: 20 June 2022

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Ha! I am 10 days away from the end of June and I am finally posting my June bullet journal setup! Lousy!

Anyway, now that I finally managed to do so, I think I like the look of the second weekly log. Seems most fitting with the theme of fast food because it had the menu vibe to it. I might revert to it but with better aesthetic. I am getting way too lazy for my own good.

Yes, I am experimenting with the weekly log layouts and I seem to be zoning into daily log layout at this rate. I am not sure what works best for me: to-do lists, time-framed schedules, side trackers, and more.

Today has mostly been unproductive but as you can see, I have started to kick my butt a little with just taking the initiative to start something. Be it cleaning or journalling or even blogging, I think I just got to get in gear by just starting something somewhere.

I think listing 10 most important things to do is tiresome. I think I will stop using the current layout and create a better one for Wednesday onwards. It is not as functional for me as it may be for others, I reckon. Maybe I will revert to time frames or copy a pre-existing layout on the web. There are so many to choose from.

Just a side note: I discovered the joy of doodling. I just wish I had more patience to doodle. I think my cola and fries doodles will definitely turn out better if I had the willpower to make them aesthetically pleasing. Those are pretty easy to doodle so you may want to try them out if you feel like doing easy ones.

And Allah is Al-Haleem, The Most Forbearing. – MM

Setting Up May 2022; I Plan: 1 May 2022

In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Most Merciful.

Firstly, Happy Labour Day! I hope that all you hard workers out there, some still working today, will have a blessed day ahead!

Secondly, I almost forgot to set up my May bullet journal!

Very simple designs this time round. I realise that I need variable space for my daily logs so I decided not to go for the fixed weekly spaced kind of template. I did, however, try to draw inspiration from artists online and found this particularly interesting doodle. So of course I had to try it out but I did it in my own style!

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The inspiration

Hers definitely look lovelier now that I am looking at her reel again. I only had one look at it a day before doing my May setup. Explains why mine is pretty off from the original. Poor memory!

Yeah, my art and design skills still need a lot of work. I am happy to keep practising through my bujo though!

And Allah is Al-Lateef, The Most Gentle. – MM

Setting Up April 2022; I Plan: 30 March 2022

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.

Hello! I broke my promise to you! I did not manage to set up some pages of my bujo in preparation for April last week. So this is me making up to you!

Before starting on it, I need some inspiration. My kiddish art skills could definitely use some help.

One of my favourite bullet journal designers is AmandaRachLee. This is her 2022 bujo setup:

Alright, now let us see how I miserably try to incorporate or rather, kinda learn from copying her ideas.

Hahaha! Yeah, I added my own spin to it but you could see where I tried to imitate.

I think I should write more legibly for goals instead of writing in cursive because it just looks like I am not taking my goals seriously enough. I took a different approach because I have already kinda mapped out my goals in this manner.

Slightly different spin but you could see me imitating some parts here.

I kinda dig the folder idea she used. Unfortunately, I was tryna squeeze three months into one since I am only starting my bujo in April. Or else, I would have gotten a more consistent look.

I skipped a lot of the collections she did. I would probably add on if I have time to do so.

Next, I need to set up the monthly log. I visited https://www.archerandolive.com/blogs/news/monthlies-what-are-they-for-and-how-can-you-customise-them for some ideas. This is how I executed the first inspiration showcased on that webpage:

I got the proportion all wrong and I just cannot get the shading right. LOL. But hey, I tried to maintain the general look that was inspired by AmandaRachLee.

My estimation is way off. I do not know how much space I need exactly for each day. If this layout does not work out, I will give more space for the rest of the weeks.

And there you have it. My April setup for my bujo! I am really glad I did this. It has been a while since I get to do any visual art and this was a great outlet. My drawing skills definitely need improvement but I am happy that I beat my laziness, firstly, by doing bujo and by forcing myself to draw something difficult. Secondly, I am happy that I am learning to carve out some time to do this. To do art. However badly it may be. Hahaha!

And Allah is Al-Khaafidh, The Reducer. – MM

Resuming Bullet Journalling; I Plan: 18 March 2022

In the name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful.

I gave up on Bullet Journalling after doing it for a year. I started in 2019. Tried to continue in 2020 but dropped the ball. Tried to continue it again in 2021 but failed yet again.

Well, it might be a little late to continue bullet journalling this year but, heh, why not? Since the years for 2020-2021 were never completed, beginning in the month of April for this year seems fitting enough. These kinds of things can probably drive perfectionists crazy but I am not perfect and I am broken so whatever comes out of me remains imperfect and broken.

Anyway, let us have a little review of what my 2020-2021 bujo (short for bullet journal) looks like.

On the spine, we have 2020 written on it. I will need to add on the years 2021 and 2022.

So this is how the cover looks like. I will need to add on 2022 to it.Looks like I will have to write it in an even smaller font. Haha!

I pasted the key symbols of a typical bullet journal here to remind myself how a bujo works in case I forget. I mean, I only did one full year of bujo and most of the entries were done on a catch-up. So to date, I do not really have that pure bujo experience.

Why waste a good pic? That is me in all of my honourable glory at my old workplace.

My 2020 cover! Right about now, you would have already established that I have nooooo sense of artistic talent whatsoever.

And on top of that, my handwriting is simply atrocious. You can see that I added on 2021 to the incomplete 2020. So I will have to add 2022 below the incomplete 2021.

Ha! Can I just stop being weird? I don’t even know who that lady is anymore. Really seems like a lifetime ago. Now, I am goalless, dreamless, focusless, and affirmless. I do not even know if I used the correct words. Just kidding. We have already understood that I do have goals, dreams, focus, and…well, maybe I do need more affirmations.

I kinda like how this looks but I acknowledge I lack the finesse to make this look really good.

I tried to make a spread that shows the different designs for each month but clearly I dropped the ball halfway. Also, I was only able to enrich my little mind by a little bit through reading four physical books from the library. Sad. No wonder I am still not smart.

Hmm. I should probably print out some 2020 photos to fill these pages.

I was trying so hard to use various art tools here. Water colour, colour pencils, markers, pens, and shiny pens. Epic failure.

Clearly, I have not been doing any house chores since 2020. Sighs.

I just realised that this is like a very kiddy version of Blue Lagoon. Embarrassing.

Ooh, my first ever Batam trip! With my husband to boot! After COVID-19 had hit mostly China the month before but have not overcome Indonesia and Singapore! Fond memories.

My art is worse than a child’s. I honestly think it is because I lack practice and that I just got lazy and decided to rush my art.

OMG. First meeting and jam ever with now drummer, Teck, and pianist/guitarist, Shike. What a ball. I cannot believe our friendship has only been two years. It feels like we have been playing music since forever.

Yes. I just got incredibly lazy and it does not help when I lack energy and time to do this shit.

Wow. I still remember that last day of operations in my old workplace. We all had to close down due to the first strong wave of COVID-19. Our very first nationwide lockdown. And yet, I simply did no house chores during the entirety of the lockdown. The irony.

At this point, I am pretty sure I had given up but I still forced myself to create something. Because something is better than nothing.

Haha! Forced annual leave (ANL). I really held a grudge there. But it was better than not having money to eat. A lot of people lost their jobs due to the lockdown. 😦

Yeah, even when I tried to continue in the following year, it just was not happening for me.

Ah. The studio project. It was a huge accomplishment.

What is design? Who the hell has time for designing nice layouts in their bujos? Why was I so busy?! Oh, the tasks were actually a few just that they took up a lot of time and wanted to squeeze in the prayer timings because, you know, I have a problem with not praying on time. Yes, you read that correctly. Present tense; I still have the problem.

If you were to do a psychoanalysis on me, I think it is pretty safe to say, I am quite mental.

I could probably wish all of these July birthday babies a Happy Birthday in one email. LOL.

And so this was the last page of my condemned bujo.

The reason why I want to get back into it is mostly because I want to have more content on this blog firstly and secondly, I need a lot of practice with my art. I have zero art skills and talent but we all have to start somewhere if we get very interested in learning it, do we not? I think doing this is a perfect opportunity to not only finish an incomplete book but to train myself to finish things I had once set out to do.