November is here and that means that there are only two more months until the end of 2021, can you believe it?!

This month is always my favourite month because it is my birthday month! While that means that I am turning older (A fact that I am not as happy about compared to as a child), I love to see and learn how much I’ve grown in the year so far. I also look forward to catching up with my friends and family. Hopefully, this year can be the same.

Hence, I’ve opted to have a birthday party theme in this month’s spread! I’ve decided to also change things up a bit, which you’ll see as you read along in this post. As always, it is inspired by countless creators on Pinterest, Instagram and 小红书.

WHAT I USED IN THIS SPREAD

I decided to keep it relatively simple in this spread with a pop of colour.

• Mechanical Pencil (Pilot 2020 Super Grip 0.5) and Eraser for draft work
• Pigma Micron (01 & 03)
• Uni-Ball Signo DX 0.38 in Black (My favourite pen of all time!! I always carry one everywhere I go)
• Colleen colour pencils (Mainly using the Yellow, Light Pink and Cerulean Blue (Anyone caught this reference?))

This month, I’ve also chosen to go without the ruler. Getting even more brave and bold, I know.

1. COVER PAGE

This month theme as mentioned is the birthday party theme. This month’s cover page is an invitation card. My November’s spread is much more fun compared to the other spreads because I’ve decided to add more colours to it, beyond the black and white theme. Mainly, Yellow, Light Pink and Cerulean Blue.

2. PRIORITIES

One of my new spreads this month was inspired by a creator (戴西 Daisy) on 小红书. It is also known as the 平衡轮法 Life Balance Wheel (Not too sure what the actual translation is). It focuses on goal setting for the month and helps with the user to focus on the priorities laid out. A highly useful guide.

How to use this spread is simple.

1. Simply write out the 8 areas to focus on. The areas are categorized as below:
   • External: Personal Growth, Self-fulfillment, Career, Finance
   • Internal: Social Relationship, Family, Entertainment, Health
   • The original way the author drew, was in a circle but I prefer to draw it in a rectangle so it’s easy to write later on.
2. For each area, list down 3 points to focus on. If you have to go beyond that, go no more than 5. This has to be something that you must do for the month. It should not be forced.
3. Finally, put these points into your calendar so you’ll get to completing this goal. Do Ensure that it does not coincide with other plans. Is it reasonable and actionable? It would be a pointless exercise otherwise. And always remember to leave a day empty so you can handle the impromptu plans in the week.

Let’s have an example. Under family, you may list down call them once a week. Then you’ll want to incorporate that by allocating it straight into your calendar.

3. CALENDAR

The calendar for November is back to its enlarged form because plans have changed since the last spread was done. This month, I hope to put a bit more details (taken from my priorities section) in the calendar.

I’ve opted to add some buntings at the top, which you’ll be seeing more in this spread. I coloured the flags, alternating between Pink, Blue and Yellow.

On the side of the calendar, I have some additional space left. So I decided to put in some birthday wishes which says “Hey me. Happy birthday to a self-willed, strong and beautiful lady. It is with great pleasure and happiness that I’m turning another year older and I am grateful for that. It has been a crazy year but I am so proud of what I’ve achieved so far in my life. Now, I hope that each year, I can still learn and grow as always.”

4. 30 DAYS CHALLENGE

This month, I’ve decided to list down some things which I hope to focus on daily for the month. These are some of the things which are also taken from my priorities as a reminder as I start to build my habits for this month.

Some of the challenges that I hope to sustain this month are:

• Spanish. I had hoped to continue on my Solo Spanish learning journey. So keep a look out for a few posts which I may try out in Spanish as practise. Also, I am on a search for a Spanish speaking/learning buddy, so do drop me a DM if you’re interested in joining me on my Spanish learning journey. Doesn’t matter if you are native or learning, I’ll love to meet more people interested in the language.
• 小红书. A Chinese social media which I am wanting to be more active on to brush up on my Chinese writing skills.
• Book. This is not so much of a 30 day challenge but I wanted to focus on reading at least 1 book each week.
• Workout. This month, I’ve come up with a whole new plan for my work out regime.

While it does feel like there is a lot on my plate this month, but I prefer to have more “habits” so I would do at least one of them than none of them.

I’ve also allocated the colours to the headers based on the legend below. Morning (Light Pink), Afternoon (Yellow), Night (Cerulean Blue).

5. HABIT TRACKER

You might have seen this habit tracker in the spreads from the last few months. However, I still use it as I love how compact it is. This is why this month, nothing has changed help except for the design. In this spread, I’ve added the buntings at the top and added some colours to separate the Monthly, Weekly and Daily Habits.

These are some of the things I wanted to track based on their frequency.

MONTHLY:

Period | Change Sheets | Research | Review my month

WEEKLY:

Blog Post | Read 1 Book (One of my priorities) | Job Applications | MBD (I’m back to working on my business which you can check out at mondayblossomdesigns.com)

DAILY:

Diary (As frequent as I can write) | Water Intake (At least 1.5 litres ) | No Snack (after 9 pm) | Workout (15 minutes stretches) | Words of Affirmations | Productivity (which refers to tasks which I’ve set up accordingly to the time on my Google Calendar)

6. WEEKLY

Super excited for this spread because it is the first time that I am doing a dutch door! I’ve opted for a very simple layout this time around, focusing on the space for the banner on the top of the spread, mixing shapes in the three colours that I’ve using this month.

For the days of the week, I put boxes for each and coloured the days in three colours. On the left side of the page, I’ve included the calendar of November and left some spaces so I can write down any notable events or tasks for the 2 weeks. On the other side, I’ve included some festive balloons. Did I mention how much I love the combinations of these three colours?

I simply love how this dutch door turned out and can’t wait to make more of such spreads in the future!

7. MEMORIES AND MUSINGS

Finally, the spread that I always look forward to filling up, the memories and musings. This spread is made simple with the buntings in circular shapes on the top of the page. At the bottom, I drew lines so that I can fill them up easily. This month, I was going for a more journalistic style of reflection. I also highlighted the lines with the colour pencils to give it more colour and brightness to the spreads.

And there you have it, November’s spread that was mainly about fun at a birthday party. I’ve tried so many new spreads and added more colours to them. What do you think about it? I hope that this theme has inspired you to get your journals and start creating!