Flexible Bullet Journal Daily Spread Layouts

The bullet journal daily spread is the most precious spread for many people. Rachel Wilkerson calls it “where the magic happens.”

The insanely simple daily bullet journal spread that I keep coming back to works for most days. It also grounds me so I don’t spend too long staring at a blank page in the morning. It’s a great layout for bullet journal and journaling beginners, intermediates, and experts. It can be minimalist or art deco. It’s classic, and relies on the magic number 3 to help your memory.

But bullet planners spreads need to be flexible, and we’ve all faced the day that just won’t squeeze into a template. Here are a few real life bullet journal daily spreads that have served me lately by flexing to my chaos.

Bullet Journal Daily Spread: The Tada! List.

It was the end of a long day. I got interrupted during my daily meditation and quiet time, so I stared at a blank page. Now it’s perfectly acceptable to turn the page and start over tomorrow, but once upon a time, after looking through my Amplify planner and realizing I had some record of life on every single page, I have since tried to write something each day. If not a to-do list at the beginning of the day, then a memory at the end.

However, I was too tired even for basic memory keeping, so I tried a great fall-back, the Ta-Da list!

I wanted to remember the color of this day, and the things I spent my time on, so I wrote them down and checked them off.

Then I went with the brain-flow and wrote down a “pending” list as well. These are all the things that are important to me. Yes, I do try to trick my brain by constantly changing the name of the to-do lists.

Bullet Journal Daily Spread: The Custom Timekeeper

I’ve used this one a few times lately, because it’s so dang versatile.

On the left half of the bullet journal daily spread, I made a little custom timekeeper of the day, and on the right, I was able to do some lettering, some real-time “as it happened” notes, a journal entry, and a task.

I really liked jotting down things as they came up next to the timekeeper of the day. It felt classic or spy-like or something. Or scrappy and creative.

And I liked the white space and minimalism.

Bullet Journal Daily Spread: Currently Reading.

Technically, a “currently reading” is not a bullet journal daily spread, but it is such a very nice use of the daily pages. And though it usually takes me a few days to fill my “currently reading” spread, it looks beautiful with these lafloral stickers, and it provides a deeper look for me later on into the inner life that was steering my outer life. Of course, if you do get to read all day, lucky you! Maybe when the kids are in college.

The inclusion of reading quotes also brings to life the “commonplace book” side of my journaling, recording quotes, thoughts, ideas, and miscellaneous like favorite city locations or recipes.

Bullet Journal Daily Spread: The Same as Signature, But On Two Pages

Here I still did agenda on the left, but I designated the right page for reflection, which meant I had ample space for tasks and gratitude on the remaining portion of the left page. Two pages always feel so luxurious to me.

Bullet Journal Daily Spread: Totally Freestyle

You don’t always have to have a plan. With bullet journaling, for me anyway, it’s about finding the balance between plans and life, recording the past, organizing the present, dreaming of the future.

The bullet journal daily spread below happens to be one of my favorite, and was made on the day of one of my favorite memories. I remember drinking coffee with my daughter, a weekly tradition we’ve started since she came home from Colombia.