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This week I wanted to give a tutorial on how to draw my favorite weekly layout in just two minutes. Instead of dailies, I prefer a weekly spread with hourly schedule and lots of space for to do -lists, trackers, meal plans, and more. I keep separate notes for projects and tasks, so everything in my week fits well to this weekly spread.

The spread is done in my Leuchtturm1917 A5-notebook, which has dotted pages.

The photos have a bit weird color – It’s so difficult to photograph in the middle of the evening. Let’s not bother about that.

I often do not have the time to spend a lot of time preparing the layout, so I have noticed that using a triangular ruler works great. I normally do not use a pencil at all, but I assume a lot of people like to do that, so this time I started with a pencil. After sketching the basic layout I add my colors and text on top of it.

What is essential here are the guide lines in the middle of the ruler.

I also wanted to use a super short list of supplies here to show you that bujo really is not about the supplies (although decorating and pretty supplies can be so much fun). I find that beginners often aim at pretty bujo spreads like the ones they see on Instangram or Pinterest, and they postpone starting before they have hauled a lot of stuff… Those pretty and/or useful pages are achievable without any particular supplies. So, let’s start!

Drafting the layout base

Step 1: Draw the upper horizontal line across the whole spread.

Decide how much space you need for the header section of the layout. It depends what you like to include there and also how much space you like to have on the bottom of the page. I left 6 rows / 3 cm blank above the line.

Step 2: Draw the bottom line for your weekly schedule area.

I want to have 1 row for writing the weekdays and numbers on top of each day-column. Then I want to have a row for each hour starting from 6 am until 10 pm. Thus the height for my schedule columns is 8.5 cm (8 cm from 6 am to 10 pm, plus one row for heading). The triangular ruler has lines to measure distances from previous line and draw the line straight, making it easier to avoid mistakes.

At 11 pm I should be getting to bed, and most importantly I should not be planning anything that needs to be completed at that time. (Parties start earlier, so this should not be a problem to the party animal type of readers.) Nevertheless, if you feel like your needs are different, this is easy to adjust.

Step 3: Create columns.

First draw a line to separate the table from the left margin. Then, taking advantage of the helping lines of the ruler, measure 4.5 cm from the previous line to draw the column, and repeat the step. This way, your columns are 9 squares wide.

Note that this method works well in a ruled or blank journal too, since the ruler has the super handy guide lines.

Repeat the same procedure for the right page, starting from far right.

Step 4: Separate weekend days in the rightmost column.

Measure 4 cm (8 rows) from the top and draw a line across the column. Then, draw the next line 0.5 cm from the first one. This creates two boxes of equal size, leaving a blank row in between.

The is the base for the schedule is now ready. My pencil lines are very faint as I intend to draw on top of them.

Step 4: Add columns for the to do -list and notes on one of the pages.

I typically need two columns for my to do’s since I do not use dailies, but the columns could be used for meal plans and trackers too. My third column is called next week, so it makes sense for me to arrange the columns from left to right, but you might like using the left page for trackers and the right for tasks.

I also draw a line for the headings of the paragraphs.

Step 5: Add a box for the monthly mini view on the top header.

Step 6: Add tracker boxes or lists or a motivational quote on the header of the right page.

I prefer locating trackers in this area either in table or list format.

The layout base is now completed, and you can start filling in the week details and decorations.

Week details and decoration

As I wanted to keep the list of supplies short, I picked only one highlighter marker and a couple of black roller ball ink pens. The highlighter I use is Zebra Mildliner in blue, but any highlighter works. I have used even basic neon yellow Stabilos from the office and in my view all highlighter look pretty here. Moreover, if you prefer black and white, just leave out the highlighter.

At this point I stopped using the ruler, because hand drawn lines are pretty and I want to avoid any aim at perfection -type of mood with my bujo. I might be filling in things to my schedule in a hurry with whatever pen I can grab and horrible handwriting, so there is no need to aim at perfection here.

Feel free to use these ideas, or simply unleash your creativity and do whatever you like.

Step 7: Use highlighter to create columns for hours and week number in the monthly mini.

Step 8: Mark the week number and a colored base for the heading, if you like.

Step 9: Add numbers for weekdays.

Step 10: Add headings for lists and trackers too.

Step 11: Add days and write the mini monthly using a pen.

I used Pentel Energel 0,7 mm black roller ball. It is great to write with, and true black, but it smudges easily even after drying.

Step 12: Write hour numbers to columns.

I only write even numbers to save time. The columns could be divided to morning, afternoon and evening as well, if hourly rows are not needed. I used 0.4 mm Pilot Maica roller ball ink pen, which is very fine to write with. I accidentally kept going adding numbers to Saturday column as well, oops. So I decorated it with some black dots to cover my mistake.

Finally, I added a weekly challenge tracker. I constantly find myself using more time in Facebook than is necessary, and much of this time is wasted. I am not sure if I would be able to do a full social media fast, so my challenge is to spend maximum of 10 minutes with Facebook per day. That should be enough to check things that you really need to know but not enough to get lost in the digital world.

If you try this spread, please leave comments below and link to your Instagram post or blog if you have one!