I’m in.  The basic concept for One Book July  – one book, one pen, one month – appeals to me tremendously.  If you’ve not come across this before, then search YouTube for Rhomany’s Realm, Carie Harling and Miss VickyBee, and you’ll find plenty of introduction to the idea.

The Concept

In essence, July is the month to either get back to basics, or to try something new.  There are, as Rhomany asserts, no rules, just guidelines.

The three guidelines suggested are:

1. one book, one pen, one month
2. one book, one project, one month
3. #gobigorgohome – whatever you want that to be

I’m heading towards a variant of the first guideline.  I’ve opted for one book – a Moleskine notebook – and I’ll mostly be using a Muji 0.38 pen.  But I’ll be adding highlighters and a bit of washi to make navigating through the month simpler for me.

The Starting Point

I wouldn’t say my current set up is complicated, but it does run across more than one book.  My daily carry is a Kate Spade ringed planner, in which I use a version of bullet journaling symbols.  This also contains my monthly budget pages, my meal planner, fitness targets, and my house renovation and cleaning schedule.  In addition, I have a Ban.do planner which I use to plan this blog, and a Kate Spade bound planner which contains the household challenges.  I could probably fit all this into my ringed planner, but it would be well stuffed, and heavy to take out of the house.  As it stands, my blog planner and household planner don’t need to leave the house, so I can reduce the weight of what I carry.

My Set Up For One Book July

I have a hard cover Moleskine that I had been using as a TN, and that’s become my one book for July.  I love the paper quality, and the size makes it wonderfully portable.  Having used the book already, I had some idea of what I would need for the month.  I set that up this week ready to go.

Finance Log: Saving elsewhere to fund some holiday spends

So far, my One Book contains:

• the month schedule
• task lists for each week – I already know what I will need to do for most of the month, so that’s gone in up front
• health & fitness  – a schedule for walking and biking through the month
• my reading record
• financial record
• meal planner
• organize my house challenge by week
• monthly house project page
• the clean machine – household chores page
• social page – fun to have
• blog pages – brainstorming posts, maintenance, posting schedule, weekly tasks
• holiday – we’re away, so I have pages for our destination, a packing list, and space for travel journaling
• writing journal – it’s a Camp NaNoWriMo month, and I’ll be attempting to finish a draft I started in November.  So I’ll be in need of braindumps, word counts and some notes.

July’s Monthly Log #OneBookJuly2017

Flexing the Challenge

The premise of One Book July is of going back to basics and simplifying.  I’ve therefore started with one book and one pen, both of which work well for me.  To make it work even better for me, I’ve added in some highlighters and some washi tape.  I use these two items as navigators to help me scamper around the One Book more quickly in pursuit of specific pages.  .

It may only be July 1, but so far I’m loving the set up.  It seems really useful to have everything together, and in a book that I can slip easily into a pocket or a bag.  I can see that I am going to need to add a future log, or I’ll be in danger of double-booking myself after July ends.  But at the moment, I can see that this set up could last longer than a month.

You can see more how I chose my one book here.

Author: Bernie