Seasonal Journaling & Planning 101
Part 2: How to set up your own Seasonal Life Binder
Happy Saturday dear ones! In today’s post, I’ll share with you …
✍️ How to set up your very own Seasonal Life Binder
📖 Seasonal Journaling & Planning
Before you start reading this post, I recommend reading last week's post about the elements included in the Seasonal Life Binder. Please read it here 👈
If you read it already, let’s move on to the practical stuff first…
⭐️ Format & Size
They make all the difference….
Decide on the format you’d like to set up your Seasonal Life Binder. I recommend A4 or US Letter format because you want plenty of space to do your work. But hey, feel free to do whatever you want!
⭐️ Binder, ring system, and pages
If you’re new to seasonal journaling and planning this means you’ll be on a discovery journey from now on. See it as a child learning a new play. In this post, I’ll lay my own system out, but it’s up to you to see and feel what flows best with you and for that same reason, you’ll want to use a binder or something with a ring system. This is because you may want to play with your pages and move things around until you find your own system that makes sense to you and brings you joy.
I started with an A4 2-ring binder, then moved to using just 4 rings and creating my own cover, to finally choose a disc-bound system, which I’m currently using.
Next, you’ll need to choose your paper:
Do you like to write in blanc, dotted, lined, or grid pages?
Maybe you like a combination of all of the above?
Decide on the thickness of your paper. Most papers out there are around 80 grams but I prefer 100-gram sheets of paper.
In the beginning, this may not be such a thing, but believe me when I tell you, you’ll soon discover if you prefer thin pages or thick ones, smooth ones or porous types of paper.
I love HP Color Choice 100-gram inkt/lacer paper.
⭐️ Color, images, and pens
If you’re a minimalist, you may want to skip this one.
But if you love to decorate your journals, work with inspiring images, and use lots of colors, then you’ll like to gather these items together, for example in a basket or drawer where you can also add:
scissor(s)
glue
optional: washi tapes, stickers, ephemera, taps, and dividers
And of course your Seasonal Life Binder
My favorite image sources are Pinterest, (Dutch) Happinz Magazine, elements and images from Canva, and online free image spaces like Pexels and Unsplash.
⭐️ Collecting data
It’s essential to seasonal journaling and planning to know when cycles start and end. For now, stick just to two cycles:
The Seasonal Cycles: When does each seasonal cycle start and when does it end?
The Moon Cycles: Do the same for the moon cycles.
I find that astro-seek.com is the best place when looking for this information. When you get to the site, you’ll see at the top an orange bar. Under “astro tools” you either select “astro calendar (monthly)” or “astro calendar (annually)” and then look for:
Spring Equinox
Summer Solstice
Autumn Equinox
Winter Solstice
For the moon cycles, just select “moon calendar”.
What I love about astro-seek is that not only do you get a lot of information - especially later on when you’ll be expanding on your cycles - but also you can enter your location and all data is suited for this specific location. This is relevant when you want to know the exact time of a new or full moon for example.
Now, let's get to work!
⭐️ Seasonal Journaling Prompts
The next section is all about setting up and working in your Seasonal Life Binder.
You can add endless prompts to all cycles but here’s a generalized list of the prompts I use in my own seasonal life binder for inspiration:
✍️This is you: start each season with a picture of you followed by a short entry about how you’re currently feeling and how you’ll enter this new season.
Are you excited for this new season?
Do you have things to look for during this season?
✍️Seasonal {Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter} Mood Board: each season has a different personal flavor for each one of us. Here you’ll take the time to collect and glue those images that represent the season the best way for you.
✍️Seasonal Calendar: On average, there are around 94 days in a season. Date the season in a lined calendar format starting on the first day, #1, with the date of the specific season, for example, the first day of Autumn = #1, 22/09/24. Do this with all dates until you reach around day #94 which is the last day/date of the Autumn Season. In this way, you’ll create three lined columns. The first one has day 1 to day 33 + date, the second column days 34 to 64 + date, and the third column days 65 to 94 + date. Make sure you leave a good portion of the lines empty so you can add important events next to the day + date.
✍️Check-in Life areas: create a Life Wheel with your life areas like body/health, family, career, money, friendships, etc. Next, check in with each area by giving it a number between 1 (awful) and 10 (amazing). Once you have done this, have a look at it and see/feel which area needs more attention and love. You can decide to bring these areas into your seasonal intentions and goals later on.
✍️Setting intentions: before setting the actual seasonal intentions I like to feel and brainstorm where I might want to set my intentions. For this, use one page to journal freely what is in your mind and heart. The idea is to have a maximum of three intentions at the end of your writing session on that page.
✍️Vision Board: now that you have a better idea of what your seasonal intentions are, create a vision board by gathering images that best depict those intentions to you. You want this to be uplifting and inspiring. Even more, you want to look at this page each day!
✍️Intention statement: create a page where you state each of your seasonal intentions by writing down your name, and your intentions in a short and clear way, and at the end of the page you’ll sign the page plus also write your name and add the date.
✍️Mindmap: you can use a mindmap for each intention to figure out what you actually need to do to become your intention. Maybe you need to set some goals or projects and you’ll probably need to list your general actions steps, and deadlines. Make sure you use one page per intention so you won’t overwhelm yourself. You can work each intention into goals/projects in a separate space by adding an action steps list.
✍️Holistic rituals: if you need to embrace new habits & rituals that will support each one of your intentions you may want to write them down. Divide your page into 4 sections or quadrants and add on each one of them the following:
Physical: daily exercise or better nutrition
Mental & emotional: using your Seasonal Life Binder daily
Environmental: seeing more or less of particular friends
Spiritual: taking time for yourself and your purpose each day
These are just a few examples!
Some healthy habits may not feel directly linked to one of your intentions, projects, or goals but you still want to embrace them during this season. Add these habits also onto the list.
✍️Seasonal Style Mood board: to personalize your binder and get to know yourself even better create “What is your seasonal style mood board”.
Do you have an idea of your own personal seasonal style?
✍️The source list: list here the courses, books, or whatever you’ll need for you to get a step closer to your intentions, goals, and projects.
✍️Home love: create lists of what you’ll organize and clear in and around your home during this season.
✍️Digital love: do the same as with Home Love but now for your digital world.
✍️Seasonal Review: this page is for the end of the season. Here, you’ll come back and review the state of your intentions, goals, and projects:
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What needs improvement?
What did you learn?
✍️For later: sometimes we get inspired with new ideas, projects, and intentions but instead of throwing our current intentions away, it’s best to write these ideas down and work on them maybe next season or later on. But for now, just write them down so you won’t forget about them.
⭐️Moon Journaling Prompts
First and foremost, you’ll need to decide which moon cycles you’ll work with during each season. You see, season and moon cycles rarely start on the same day. So which moon cycles are parallelly cycling with this specific season?
Choose the moon cycles that make the most sense to you.
Now we can do the actual work and take action on those intentions, goals, and projects we previously wrote about. Just using the season is still too abstract for our minds to grasp onto our intentions running the risk of losing sense of time or not having a sense of time management at all. Here enters the moon!
The moon cycles help us to get moving, and do the work while tracking and discovering ourselves at the same time.
Again, I recommend you to read my previous post if you haven’t already because there I explained how I ditched the month and weekly calendar to the passenger seat and now work with the moon cycle and moon phases instead.
Read the post 👇
⭐️ General Moon pages
✍️Mo(o)ntly data: create a page with the start and end of the moon cycle and also add when the moon phases will happen, thus including dates as well. You can also add the moon signs if you want to. The idea here is to know exactly when what will happen giving you a sense of where you are currently and while flowing the actual moon cycle.
I always send the Moon Forect journal page including all moon phase dates to all (free + paid) subscribers at the beginning of a new moon cycle.
✍️Mo(o)ntly Calendar: create a moon calendar for that specific moon cycle, instead of just using the month calendar, where you can write your important events, appointments, and other important information.
✍️Tracking pages: create moon wheels on each page to track the following:
your movements, aka exercises
sleep hygiene
mood/energy
Medicine, supplements, and vitamins
Tracking is important and helpful to know and understand yourself on a deeper level. With these trackers, you can see what days you are at your best and when you are not at your best as well. In the long run, you’ll know how to plan accordingly to your vitality and needs but also when (not) to work on specific tasks.
Read the post 👇
✍️Body Whispers: write one sentence a day if and when you’re feeling specific things related to your body. Think of pains, complaints, symptoms, etc. Again, these in the long run will tell you so much about yourself.
⭐️Moon Phase pages
In my intention to explain but not to oversaturate you, I’ll discuss only the New Moon and Full Moon phases as checkpoints for journaling.
✍️New moon Phase
For the new moon phase, you want to create pages for:
The collage: collage whatever is going on inside of you during the new moon
Brainstorm session: what is currently calling you? Combine these with your seasonal intentions/goals and projects.
Mo(o)ntly intentions: get clear on your intentions for this moon cycle. Combine all of the information from your seasonal pages and brainstorm page in a compact and clear way.
Action steps: list your action steps for this moon cycle.
Check-in page: what is happening right now? how are you feeling? are intentions and tasks clear?
✍️Full Moon Phase
For the Full moon phase, you want to create pages for:
The collage: collage whatever is going on inside of you during the full moon
Check-in page: what is happening right now? how are you feeling? What intentions and tasks have come to fruition?
⭐️The planning & action moon pages
Before we plan, and before taking actual action, we need to determine the moon phases. Each moon cycle has eight moon phases. I like to divide these phases into:
Four checkpoints to each moon cycle:
New Moon
First Quarter Moon
Full Moon
Last Quarter Moon
Also, four action phases that replace the weeks:
Waxing Crescent Moon
Waxing Gibbous Moon
Waning Gibbous Moon
Waning Crescent Moon
An example of how to determine each moon cycle using Astro-seek.com:
1st Winter Moon cycle days
New Moon Checkpoint: Sunday, December 1st, 2024
Waxing Crescent Moon: from Sunday, December 1st, 2024 to Saturday, December 7th, 2024
First Quarter Checkpoint: Sunday, December 8th. 2024
Waxing Gibbous Moon: from Sunday, December 8th, to Saturday, December 14th, 2024
Full Moon Checkpoint: Sunday, December 15th, 2024
Waning Gibbous Moon: from Sunday, December 15th, 2024 to Saturday, 21th, 2024
Last Quarter Checkpoint: Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
Waning Crescent Moon: from Sunday, December 22nd, 2024 to Sunday, December 29th, 2024
Sunday, December 1st, 2024 // new moon checkpoint // Waxing Crescent Moon
Monday, December 2nd, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Wednesday, December 4th, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Thursday, December 5th, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Friday, December 6th, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Saturday, December 7th, 2024 // Waxing Crescent Moon Phase
Sunday, December 8th, 2024// First Quarter Checkpoint // Waxing Gibbous Moon
Monday, December 9th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Tuesday, December 10th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Wednesday, December 11th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Thursday, December 12th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Friday, December 3th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Saturday,December 14th, 2024// Waxing Gibbous Moon
Sunday, December 15th, 2024// Full Moon Checkpoint// Waning Gibbous Moon
Monday, December 16th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Tuesday, December 17th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Wednesday, December 18th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Thursday, December 19th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Friday, December 20th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Saturday, December 21th, 2024// Waning Gibbous Moon
Sunday, December 22nd, 2024// Last Quarter Moon Checkpoint// Waning Crescent Moon
Monday, December 23rd, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Tuesday, December 24th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Wednesday, December 25th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Thursday, December 26th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Friday, December 27th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Saturday, December 28th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon
Sunday, December 29th, 2024// Waning Crescent Moon // Last day of the Cycle
Instead of using weekly spreads and pages, I use pages for:
Your Phase Ahead page: this page replaced the "The Week at a Glance" page and it's now "The Phase at a Glance page". Write here what you’ll need to prepare before the next moon phase starts. Think of your priorities, appointments, and to-do list.
Your phase pages: this is a two-page spread with 7 to 8 columns (depending on how many days for example the waxing crescent moon has) and where you write on top of each column the date, day of the week, and moon sign. Each column is divided into three sections giving you room to divide your day: morning, noon, and evening or I like to use them: appointments & home shores, work tasks, and personal tasks.
The last page, Closing the Phase: is the space to discover if there are repetitive tasks and add notes about this moon phase.
If you do this, you’ll be creating these pages for all the four “weekly” moon phases:
Waxing Crescent Moon
Waxing Gibbous Moon
Waning Gibbous Moon
Waning Crescent Moon
And you’ll be journaling and checking in during the checkpoint moon phases:
New Moon
First Quarter Moon
Full Moon
Last Quarter Moon
You can see by now how many pages you’ve created so far and you may want to move them around. I like to create one binder for each season and I’ll have my seasonal pages upfront and add my chosen moon cycles and its pages at the end.
However, you may want to have one big binder for all seasons and keep all seasons together and the moon cycles separated with a tap behind the seasons. Or maybe you want a separate binder for your moon cycles. Maybe you want to mix the seasonal and moon pages in another way. You see, the combinations are endless, and the seasonal life binder needs to serve you! and not the other way around. This is why I feel working with a binder or ring system is the best option because it leaves plenty of room for you to flow and adapt according to your needs and flavors.
I hope this makes you feel inspired to start journaling intentionally while discovering your unique flavors and planning style, among other magical things. Let me know in the comment section down below what is your journaling style and if this method will be something you’ll try 💖
I Wish you a beautiful weekend!
🌬️ Sending you magic & healing your way,
-Vane