Whether you have a busy month or just a couple events coming up, a spread to see your month at a glance is a lifesaver. Personally, this spread is one of my most used pages, as I always like to check what’s coming up in my month. It’s the quickest way to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. If you have fun things coming up in the month, it’s also a place to countdown and look forward to them. Over the past few years journaling, my month at a glance pages have really changed depending on my current work situation. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to share some different layout ideas, and discuss some of the benefits of each one! If you want to start including a month at a glance page, or you already use one but you want some new ideas, keep reading!

Recommended Supplies:

• Archer and Olive Journal – The lovely and thick pages have no bleeding or ghosting, so you get a clean start for every spread! Also, it means you can decorate the spread without worrying about it!
• Pencil – To carefully plan out your ideas so you can make sure your spread has everything you need.
• Fineliners – My favourites are the Unipin fineliners as they’re waterproof, affordable and have a strong nib.
• Decorative Touch (optional) – This could be anything from washi to gouache, or of course, nothing! I usually like to add a personal touch to my spreads so they’re more fun to use and look at.

What To Include

The first thing to consider when deciding on a layout for a month at a glance page is how busy you are, and how much you want to include in the spread. Some examples of things to include are work days, events, appointments, birthdays, deadlines etc. However, if you have steady work hours that don’t change week to week you may not need to add work here. I personally like to include everything happening in the month here in one place, even if it’s written in other places in my journal, just so I don’t forget anything.

Depending on how many things you have to include or how detailed you want to make this page will therefore impact what layout may work best for you:

Detailed Month at A Glance

This layout allows for a lot of detail/tasks in your month at a glance. Another great feature is that you can split it into sections. For example you can have a column for work and a column for personal, or whatever categories work for you.

Furthermore, there is even room to add some other components into the spread. I regularly would include trackers and a task list for the month. This layout is perfect for people with several events/appointments a day, people wanting to split their month at a glance into categories, or people wanting to make this spread more detailed.

Condensed Month At A Glance

You may recognise this layout as a typical monthly log. And sometimes, simple is just what you need. I still love using this layout! I am able to log up to two events a day (which is more than enough for my personal schedule) and I can split each side of the log into categories (usually work and personal).

Whilst I like to add a lot of decoration to these spreads, the only important part is the calendar log, which you can lay out in many different ways. I personally have started to love grouping events in the same category on one side of the log, and listing work down the other side:

This layout is perfect for people with less than two tasks a day, or people who want to see a condensed overview of their month ahead.

Upcoming Months – The Monthly Overview

Finally, this layout is a hybrid of a monthly log and future log, which I created when I needed to see a bit more than just my current month ahead. It differs from my future log, as I include much more detail, and as I am generally more often flicking through my current monthly set up, it is more at the forefront of my mind when included here.

This layout is perfect for people with multiple deadlines/events coming up. For example, as a student I may have deadlines steadily through the semester. This layout allows me to see a snapshot of the upcoming months, and as I said, more detailed than my future log. This way, I am not going to forget about a deadline I have due on the 5^th of the next month like I could if I just had my current month at a glance.

I don’t just use this layout for university either. I actually started using this layout when I was moving house. We were moving on the 10^th of the month, and I just felt leading up to move I needed to see the two months together. Especially as we had a lot of other events around this time to plan around too. And maybe you have a unique situation that would make this layout perfect for you too!

Hopefully I’ve given you some help and inspiration to include, or change up your month at a glance spreads in your journal! And if I have, I would love to see your creations, so tag me on Instagram (@hayleyremdeart) and use #hayleyremdeinspired to get the chance to get your creations featured in my stories!