Hello friends! My name is Kelsey and I am a 31 year old mother living in the Midwest United States. I work as an accountant in the film and production world, and I am also going back to school for my degree in criminal justice. Having a busy life suits me, and it has led me to fall in love with planning and bullet journaling. I decided to go back to school for criminal justice to pursue my dream of helping those who have fallen victim to domestic violence. I am a PTSD survivor and bullet journaling has truly been a positive outlet for my mental health and recovery. I use my Instagram platform to promote the use of bullet journaling and planning as a mental health tool. I would love to connect with you through @kelsey.doodles. I have also recently started a youtube series called “Calligraphy and Crime” where I share true crime stories as I create bullet journal set ups. That link can be found here. Come say hello, and let’s talk about true crime, mental health, and bullet journaling! 

Five-Year Journal

I came up with the concept for a five-year journal when I started memory keeping. I use my daily bullet journal as a memory keeper which means they fill up rather fast. Because of this I realized that I don’t really have an area for long term memories. So the idea of my five year journal is to have a place where I can keep these precious lists, and they are not lost among the pages of my daily journaling. 

Supplies Used: 

Notebook: https://www.archerandolive.com/collections/travelers-notebook/products/travelers-crescent-moon-dot-grid-notebook

A & O Pens: https://www.archerandolive.com/collections/individual-acrylograph-pens/products/0-7mm-acrylograph-individual-pen-warm-fall-collection

A & O Pens: https://www.archerandolive.com/collections/individual-acrylograph-pens/products/0-7mm-acrylograph-individual-pen-cool-fall-collection

Stickers: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperMintyStudio CODE: DOODLES10

The concept is pretty simple. I started by creating an Index. This gave me the structure to decide which lists would be running for five years and which lists I wanted to break down by year. Because this is more of a memory keeper with my husband and family in mind,  I decided that things like places to travel, a bucket list, and favorite restaurants would be perfect for that length of time. I also settled on the idea that this would be the perfect place to keep my birthday tracker since I will use it monthly. 

After getting the initial pages set up, I decided which categories I wanted to break down by year. For this concept I chose things like books read, tv series watched, and of course unforgettable true crime cases. Each month I will add the things I have done throughout the month to these lists. At the end of the year, I will create my lists for the next year, and they will be sectioned out until the journal is full.

*It is important to leave blank pages towards the beginning of the journal, that way if you go over your initial list space, you have an area to create more. *

Other Spreads I Included:

Favorite Meals

Book Tracker

Series Watched

Date Nights

Bucket List

Restaurant Tracker

Movie Tracker

Watch me create all these spreads here:

When I was finished creating my set up, I decided to add tabs to each section as well as page numbers on the index page to make it easier to flip through this journal. I am so happy with the end result. This journal will live on my nightstand until it is complete! If you decide to make your own journal like this, I encourage you to use the hashtag #myfiveyearjournal on Instagram! I would love to see and share your work with the bullet journal community.