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Future Logs

The Future Log is a great way to log all the important and fun events you have going on in your life. It keeps all of your future events in one place. Anything that occurs in future months such as birthdays, holidays, trips, meetings, and more would go in the Future Log. It’s a simple and easy place to flip to when you need to check when a specific event is happening.The Future Log is located at the front of your Bullet Journal. If you grab an official Bullet Journal notebook, the Future Log is titled towards the beginning to help you get going.

You would set up a Future Log at the beginning of each Bullet Journal starting with the following month. For example, if it’s May, you would start your Future Log for June since you’d be setting up a May Monthly Log. Each month you would refer to the Future Log to write down any relevant events into the Monthly Log. Update the Future Log as needed.

Here is a curated selection of many useful and clever ideas to help you future plan!

Ryder’s Method

The super simple and easy method to get the months down so you can write in events happening in the future.

Ryder Carroll's Future Log solution

Ryder Carroll

With all 12 months 

If you want to have all 12 months at a glance, here’s one way to go about it.

Calendex

@craftyenginerd

With mini calendars

If you need to see the months at a glance, draw out some mini calendar and rapid-log the events as usual.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @blackinkjournal

@blackinkjournal

 

Bullet Journal Future Log by @blackinkjournal

@bullet.journal.love

 

Color-coded

Need to distinguish between events? Color-coding is a planner’s best friend. Add a simple key at the bottom to know what the colors represent. Bask in the glory of seeing all the occurrences of holidays, birthdays, meetings, and more with this simple visual cue.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @cardicreates

@cardicreates

Bullet Journal Future Log by genspen on Tumblr

genspen

Vertical Future Log

Similar to Ryder’s except it’s vertical in a list format.

Future Log solution by @honeyrozes

@honeyrozes

Vertical Months With Dates

If you prefer to write down all the dates of the month at once and log in events later, you can easily do that.

Vertical Bullet Journal Future Log by @lindaplans

@lindaplans

With Mini Months

Who doesn’t love mini months? This is a simple way to see the month and the events directly underneath.

Future Log solution by @journalspiration

@journalspiration

If you fancy a bit of decoration.

Bullet Journal Future Log

@pages2plans

With Mini Months and Color-Coding

Same as above but with the addition of mini months at the top. To jazz it up visually, you can also toss in some color-coding.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @bluelahe

 

@bluelahe

All Mini Months

If you can’t get enough of the mini months and love the idea of writing down events underneath them and want to see the whole year at a glance, this spread is for you.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @wineorbread

 

@wineorbread

Or this spread, to see four months at a time.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @howpeculeah

@howpeculeah

Here’s the whole year with the events to the right done in a few different ways.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @gothamhaus

@gothamhaus

Bullet Journal Future Log by @black.tea.books

@black.tea.books

Alastair Method

A very clever column solution to make it easy to rapid-log events and see which month it falls under.

Alastair Johnson's Future Log solution for the Bullet Journal

Alastair Johnson

Sideways

In case this view works better for you.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @raehaus

@raehaus

Color-coded

Because color makes it easier to focus on what kind of event is happening when.

Color-coded Alastair Future Log method in the Bullet Journal

Unknown source

 

Alastair and Mini Months

Some handy columns to jot down events and highlight when the events occur. This makes it easy to see how busy your days are.

Alastair and months Bullet Journal Future Log by @themollyspace

@themollyspace

 

Calendex by Eddy Hope

A powerful solution to help you naturally write down information about an event on any page and then log that page according to the event day. For example, if you’re on page 93 and need to write down information about an appointment you have on the first of February, you can write down the number 93 on a block on the first of February as you can see below. When that day rolls around, you can flip over to page 93 to see the details about that event.

Eddy Hope's Calendex - Bullet Journal Future Log Solution

Eddy Hope

 

Color-coded Calendex

Adding color and symbols to your Calendex can massively increase its effectiveness in your life. Adding color can help you see vacations, meetings, and more at a glance.

 

Bullet Journal Calendex Future Log. Photo by @bohoberry

@boho.berry

Color-coded Calendex Bullet Journal Future Log. Photo by @christina77star

@christina77star

Ryder-Calendex Hybrid

An idea is to have the Calendex on one side and Ryder’s method on the other. Having these two formats may make sense depending on your needs. Here is December through March in the Calendex and April through July with Ryder’s method.

Ryder-Calendex Future Log hybrid for the Bullet Journal by @sunshine.and.stationery

@sunshine.and.stationery

And a colorful version, of course.

Bullet Journal Future Log by zunzunblog

zunzunblog

Calendex-Alastair Hybrid

You can use a hybrid of the Calendex and the Alastair into something like this. Here I placed the exact same months on the left and the right, in their respective formats. The Calendex will help you see what days you’re busy at a glance and the Alastair method will allow you to see the details of the events. Instead of writing down the page number (which you still could) in the Calendex, you would simply add an open circle or signifier (or color-code) for the event to indicate that you’re busy that day. This way you can easily glance at the Calendex to see when you’re busy and you can use the Alastair side to see the details for those events. 

Calendex-Alastair Method Future Log hybrid by Kim @tinyrayofsunshine

@tinyrayofsunshine

Alternatively, you could also place different months on each spread if you prefer a continuous approach and don’t mind flipping pages to find the details for the Calendex portion.

 

Bullet Journal Future Log Calendex-Alastair hybrid by @bohoberry

@boho.berry

More Variations

The months laid all around in a quirky way.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @bujosis

@bujosis

Brainstormed Future Log.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @plannersimplicity

@plannersimplicity

A circular Future Log for birthdays and holidays.

Bullet Journal Future Log by @plannersimplicity

@passion.themed.life

Someday Log

I designate one of the pages in my Future Log as a “Someday Log” because it is a future type of Collection so it makes sense to write down things I’d like to do someday here.

Tiny Ray of Sunshine Bullet Journal Someday Future Log Collection

@tinyrayofsunshine

Bullet Journalists are full of creativity and innovativeness when it comes to their Bullet Journals and the Future Log is no exception. 

For more Future Log inspiration, please follow the official Bullet Journal Future Log board on Pinterest.

Hope you enjoyed these ideas!

How do you future plan in your Bullet Journal?

About the Author:

Kim Alvarez is the creative behind Tinyrayofsunshine.com, where she writes about the Bullet Journal, productivity, planning, and other creative pursuits. She runs a sunshiney Etsy shop with stationery goods that will bring a smile to your face at tinyrayofsunshine.etsy.com
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8 Responses

Cherith

Cherith

May 15, 2017

I’ve been using my own version of the Alastair method (which I didn’t even know existed) for a few years now and I love it. I use something similar for a FUTURE future log — things coming up in 2018 for example, so I have a head start when I find out about recurring event dates for the next year.

Charles Tsai

Charles Tsai

May 15, 2017

After trying to different methods of future logging, I found that the simplest and easiest method is to create six monthly logs right at the start of the journal for the following six months. (I chose six because that’s how long it usually takes me to fill up a journal.) Any future event can be logged in the appropriate month – either as an event (left side) or a task (right side).

jeffwllms

jeffwllms

May 15, 2017

I was doing something similar, but the issue became when i got to month 3 I was having to have a space to log 3 months out from there. For example if I did Jan – June originally. When march rolled around I needed July and Aug. So know my future is basically just a rapid log which I use to migrate items into a digital calendar. Still looking for a way to get it back into the bullet journal.

Cathy

Cathy

May 15, 2017

This is great! I love the way you wrote the description of each method then showed a picture. It made it so much easier to wrap my head around what they look like. I love my Bullet Journal and now I can decide on a future log and begin to implement that as well. Thanks!

zvi LikesTV

zvi LikesTV

May 15, 2017

What if you created a second future log with the next three months when they came up? You can thread the logs together.

Charles Tsai

Charles Tsai

May 15, 2017

Yea, like I said, this works if you are pretty sure how long it takes you to fill a journal. For me, I always seem to need a new journal every six months so that’s why I create six monthlies at a time. If by the end of March it doesn’t look like you will finish your journal by June then just create a few more monthlies with the next set of blank pages.

jeffwllms

jeffwllms

May 15, 2017

Then there just seems to be a lot of unused pages. What I have played around with is on my monthlies I have started added 3 months out. And just roll the the future log into each monthly. Kind of works but also a little cluttered.

Charles Tsai

Charles Tsai

May 15, 2017

I guess what I would do is to have a Future Log page for July and beyond. If those items start accumulating too much then I would just start a whole new journal with monthly layouts created for the next six months. I assume the reason you created Jan – June is that you will most likely have to start a new journal by July. If so, then just create that new journal when it becomes necessary.

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