In October, one of the things I did was begin to track my daily writing. It was a lot of fun to see how far I could get in some sessions, and to see how a whole month of work comes together. Since then, I’ve continued to keep track of my daily progress, as well as some other monthly goals/events that I enjoy seeing compiled. It’s also helped me with my 2026 goals and keeping them in line.

A few months ago, I had an article all about my book journal, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock to find out that I’m a fan of bujo, or bullet journaling. I’ve been keeping track of assignments and habits and the like since 2021. I’ve done a lot of different fun trackers over the years, like water intake and daily moods and remembering my retainer and all that, but I would struggle to do super consistent daily up-keep.

The main thing I kept up with was tracking my books. Goodreads wasn’t my tool of choice back then. It was all in my little bullet journals, which is the only reason today that my Goodreads tracks back through 2021. And look how darling these spreads are.

Another tracker I actually used fairly consistently was recording my monthly interests. Things that I was watching or reading or keeping up with consistently. That’s how I know I was obsessed with the Dresden files for six straight months in 2023, and how I can check when I was playing too much Stardew Valley.

I fell out of bullet journaling in 2024 as I neared graduation. I think I started my specific book journal around that time, which occupied that itch to scrapbook and decorate. My bullet journal sat untouched from April of 2024 for over a year, until I picked it up again in November of 2025.

I made a chart in October for my writing goal of 15k words in my book journal, but decided I wanted to save that one just for books. I dusted off my bullet journal and decided to bring it back, this time a little differently.

My old one was mainly used for tracking assignments, but I don’t have due dates or too much to do outside of work to warrant the dedication (thank goodness for that!). So I narrowed my journal down to four things I want to track each month: How many words I write, how many submissions to publishers I make, how many books I read, and what my monthly interests are.

It’s been really nice to get back into bullet journaling. I love designing patterns and making new spreads. So much so that I’ve already worked myself to July of this year. It’s therapeutic, and one of my favorite things to do when I have downtime at work.

So today, I want to walk through my last few months of spreads and share some of the highlights from each month. I hope you enjoy my spreads, and maybe get some inspiration for your own book or habit tracking techniques!

November

In October, I sucessfully hit 15,000 words, so I added an extra 5k for November. I’m happy to say that I just barely hit 20,000, which is still a win in my book. You’ll see a trend over the months where I write almost nothing on the weekends, since I tend to have plans, be away from my computer, or several hours deep into a cozy farming sim. In October, I didn’t do any submissions, so reaching eight in November was really great. I feel like I usually read between five to eight books a month, so six in November was right on track for me. Also, I binged a ton of the Great British Baking Show for some reason, and it even made it’s way into a short story I wrote around this time.

December

December is a hard time for goal keeping. I added another 5k to my writing goal, bringing it to 25,000. Looking back now, this was way too much to attemot, considering Dragonsteel and the winter holidays were going to eat up a lot of time. I still reached 17k, so not bad, even if was quite a bit less than in October and November. I added seven more submissions to my repertoire (and started getting almost weekly rejection letters!), and read five more books. The highlight for my reading was definitely finishing the first trilogy of Red Rising.

January

For some reason I still kept my writing goal at 25,000, even though I had yet to pass 20,000 by more than 85 words. Holiday weekends and burn out brought me to 19,636, which still isn’t bad by any means, but not at my potential yet. I went CRAZY with the reading and submissions, though, submitting to 12 places and reading eight books. I can blame that on the new Dresden Files book being released. I also got some very exciting news regarding a submission at the end of January, which you hopefully will get updates on soon.

February

Last month was interesting. More burnout going on, lost motivation for projects, and overall seasonal melancholy. Once again, I was well under the lofty goal of 25k, barely reaching 17k for the month. If it weren’t for a new project Ava and I started within the last week, I doubt I would have passed 12k. I did one submission at the end of the month, which I can blame on the news I got at the end of January, which has paused my poetry submissions. I still read six books, so not bad, and I spent a lot of time with finishing my first book journal! All of my reads from January 2024-November 2025 are completed, and I’m so excited about that.

March

And that brings us to today! Writing goal is finally back to 20,000. When I can be consistent in reaching 20k, I’ll go back to 25k. I’m happy to say that within the first half of the month, I’ve written 10k words, so I’m on track to meet my goal for the month! I’ve finished four books so far, but I’m in the middle of a few that I should finish this week, so I hope to get to eight again for the monthly total. I also hope to do at least a few more submissions before the end of the month as I work on final edit for my big secret news.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little tour of my process! I’ve been enjoying this format and hope to keep it up. Maybe I’ll give an update later on in the year. Until then, I hope you enjoy!

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