Putting Pen to Dotted Paper: Index, Key, and Yearly Spread

The time has come for you to mark in your dot journal for the first time! But... how do you begin? Not only do you want your journal to be beautiful, you also want it to be practical. To maximize practicality, you may want to save the first few pages of your dot journal for three things: an index, a key, and a yearly spread. And here's why:

Have you ever written something down and then later on, when you REALLY need that information, you can't find it wherever it may be, be it in a journal, a notebook, or a planner? That has happened to me countless times, and if you've been in a similar pickle, you know how irritating it can be. That's why I followed Rachel Miller's advice when she spoke of including an index in your dot journal. The time it takes to make the index, and perhaps number the pages in the journal if they are not already, is far less than that which you might spend flipping through the same pages in frustration wondering, Where on earth is that spread?!

A key is also a very handy spread, and Rachel Miller recommends it as well. Being new to dot journaling, I saw it as a very helpful way to remind myself of the different symbols I chose to indicate what tasks I need to complete, which ones I already have, or whether there were any events or appointments for the day. Like the index, the key takes little to no time to complete, and at the very beginning more than likely you will find yourself referring back to this page quite often.

As for the yearly spread, it is immensely helpful, especially for long-term planning. The design I chose is based solely on one of the options Rachel Miller gives in her book, and the reason for my choosing it was because I knew that I could add information in later and not have to worry about the chronology of it being messed up. (Some of her spreads posed this problem.) And although it does take some time to make this particular spread, it is totally worth it!

For all of these spreads, I simply used washi tape, pens, and a pencil. And while they are not the most beautiful or elaborate, they are practical and work very well for me. I hope that in this post I have given you some idea as to why these three things are great for the overall organization of your dot journal. And trust me when I say that I do not regret adding any of them to mine!