5 Minimalist Weekly Layouts That Will Make You More Productive

Last Updated on July 29, 2020 by Keri

Are you looking to use a Bullet Journal to be more productive, but feeling overwhelmed by the setup? When you look around on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook, you are probably overwhelmed by all these really beautiful layouts that are being shared. However, there is a whole community of people dedicated to using minimalist weekly layouts to plan mindfully, be more productive, and accomplish their goals. This includes me, and should include you too!

Minimalist weekly layouts are the perfect way to create pages in less than 30 minutes! This will give you back your time to focus on mindful planning, plus all the other things you need to do in a day!

In this article, I am going to share my go-to minimalist weekly layouts, plus how to use the different elements to help you kickstart your productivity!

What supplies do you need to create minimalist weekly layouts?

To create minimalist layouts, you don’t need all that many supplies! I suggest you keep it simple! You can even feel free to use whatever you have around your house to get started.

You will need a;

• Notebook – I am currently using the Leuchtturm 1917 A5 Dot Grid notebook!
• Pen – My go-to pen is the Sakura Pigma Micron Pen 05!
• Ruler

In many of my layouts, I used Bullet Journal stencils to create my boxes. These are one of my favorite supplies as they help me create my different spreads in less time! This, of course, is completely optional!

See it on Amazon!

Related: 7 Must-Have Supplies for a Minimalist Bullet Journal

How can you use a weekly layout to be more productive?

Before I get into my 5 favorite minimalist layouts for better productivity in your Bullet Journal, I want to explain how some of the different elements you will see on the layouts will help you to be more productive!

After reading these points, you will hopefully have a better idea of what you want to try including on some of your weekly layouts!

*Please note that simply creating these layouts will not make you more productive! You do need to be willing to put in the work! What this will provide is a foundation to ensure you are setting yourself up for success each week!

Time Blocking

Time blocking is a method of scheduling your tasks, events, appointments, etc. in chunks of time or a block of time.

Example; Let’s say you had to go grocery shopping. You could schedule “groceries” from 8 am to 9 am. This hour could be used to write a grocery list, go get the groceries, and put everything away once you get home.

The benefit of planning your days like this is giving yourself a certain amount of time to accomplish the task. It is kind of like setting a goal. Let’s say you write down groceries on your list, but you don’t give yourself any time parameters. This allows more opportunity for you to allow yourself to get distracted, or just take longer to do a task than is necessary.

This scheduling method is great for procrastinators or anyone who is easily distracted!

Creating Effective To-Do Lists

Often, we tend to have a habit of biting off more than we can chew. It is just human nature.

As much as we may fancy ourselves as being wonder-woman/wonder-man, we just aren’t. A key to being truly successful is to ensure the to-do list we create for ourselves is achievable without burning ourselves out.

To-do lists are extremely important to have on your weekly layout, as it is a nice visual that you are checking off the tasks that you need to accomplish.

To-do lists also come in handy if you need to migrate something forward to another week, or if you just plan to remove the task all together until a later date.

Related: A Complete Guide On How To Make a To-Do List

Habit Trackers

Sometimes to become more productive, we need to take on new habits. A great way to help you work towards these goals is by utilizing a habit tracker.

Habit trackers are a way of tracking how often you are or aren’t doing a certain task.

This could be anything like;

• Drinking 8 cups of water.
• Eating healthy.
• Waking up at 5 am.
• Reading for 30 minutes before bed.

You can track absolutely anything you want on these! They are a great way to establish new and healthy habits which will, in turn, make you more productive!

Meal Planning

Do you find yourself wasting a lot of time each day just trying to figure out what to cook for dinner tonight? I know I absolutely do!

One way to provide more time to do the tasks that need to be accomplished and waste less time on decision making is by creating a weekly meal plan.

This has helped save me enormous amounts of time every day and only takes ten or fifteen minutes before my weekly grocery shop to think about what I would like to cook for the week.

Related: 5 Layouts To Better Meal Planning In Your Bullet Journal

Creating A Space for Notes or Brain Dumps

Finally, something that distracts us is often the little things that pop into our heads throughout the day (or night for some!).

What ends up happening is that we end up thinking about it, and multi-tasking is not the way to be more productive!

You need to have somewhere you can write these things down so that you can temporarily forget about them and still be able to come back to them later!

One way to do this is to create little notes or a brain dump section on your layout. You can use this space to write down the little things that come to mind throughout your day, allowing you the freedom to focus on the task at hand!

A look at my 5 go-to minimalist weekly layouts!

Now onto the fun stuff! The actual layouts!

These layouts are the ones I find myself using on a consistent basis, as I like the layout, and I find they help me be my most productive self. Be sure to change up anything you know won’t work for you in your circumstance!

8 Column Time-Blocking Layout

This layout is perfect for anyone who wants to use time-blocking as their primary planning method! Each day of the week has a time column, and there is plenty of space leftover along the side and bottom for anything else you want to add to your layout!

To-Do List Layout

To-do lists can be extremely useful if you have a lot of tasks to juggle each week. The snapshot this layout provides will help you measure your productivity throughout the week!

Day by Day Layout

This layout is very different from the rest! All of the planning falls under each individual day, which is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of tasks to plan!

*Pro Tip: The eight-block can be used for anything you would use! But one of my favorite uses for it on this style of layout is to use it as a next week’s block! Anything that comes up during the week that needs to be done next week can be written here! Then you can migrate the information over when you create your next week’s layout!

Half Page Layout

This layout has all of the same elements as the second layout you saw but in a very different format! You can easily switch up the elements of any layout to create a different look without having to sacrifice your planning preferences.

Split Page Layout

The final layout is a page split layout! One page is used to plan your week and the second page is used to plan each individual day! This layout is also another favorite of mine! It is even the layout I am using the week I am writing this blog post!

As you can see from all of these layouts, they are very simple to set up!

I challenge you to try each layout at least once, and see if you notice an improvement in your productivity! But please remember, just because you plan it out and write it down does not automatically make you more productive! You need to take action, and follow through on the plan that you make! Take your journal with you everywhere so that your tasks are always at the front of your mind!

And if you don’t accomplish everything, don’t be afraid to migrate things forward to the next day or the next week! My journal is filled with migrated tasks! This is okay!

Have any questions for me? Be sure to leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

Until next time, cheers!