I love trackers, habit trackers, mood trackers, all of them. And the ultimate tracker of them all is the Year In Pixels. I’ve seen these around for a few year now, and until last year, I totally forgot to add them to my annual spreads until half way through January. Ugh.
But last year, I managed to remember to add one to my bullet journal set up:
I really loved how it turned out, and I really loved using it…. for the first few months of the year anyway. I am hopeless at filling in trackers. But don’t let my lack of follow through stop you! Find out more and download a free Year in Pixels printable below.
What is a Year In Pixels?
The idea for the Year in Pixels spread was created by Camille from Passion Carnets. It is in essence, all of your monthly mood trackers lumped into one! It may seem quite daunting, but if you’re one that likes to fill out a monthly mood tracker then instead of filling out your monthly mood, you fill out your Year in Pixels instead.
The Year in Pixels spread is usually in the form of a grid with one square representing each day of the year. There will usually be a colour key with different colours representing different moods.
Now, I know that no-one is just happy or just angry in one day. But the idea is to select your overall mood for the day and use that to fill in your Year In Pixels. However, if it is too tough to settle on one, you can split your square in half and fill with colours representing your two main moods for the day.
How to Create a Year In Pixels?
Creating a year in pixels spread is extremely easy. And I highly reccommend that you add this spread in the front of your bullet journal as it will be a frequently used page.
Supplies Needed:
- Notebook (my current favourites are Dingbats* or Scribbles That Matter)
- Pens for ruling – such as my favourite of all time Staedtler Pigment Liner
- Ruler
- Coloured pens for filling in your moods (Crayola Supertips, Tombows)
The simplest form is to draw up a grid of 12 squares across and 31 squares down.
Label the columns with the months, and label the rows with the dates.
Make sure to add a colour key – having 5-7 different moods to track is usually a good place to start.
If you do feel like having only one square per day is not enough for you to capture your moods, you can always add two columns for each month, therefore having 2 squares of moods for each day. Maybe one for morning, and one for evening?
Why should I create a Year In Pixels?
Being the ultimate mood tracker, a Year In Pixels can really help you focus on the good, and being mindful. If you know that at the end of the day you have to fill in a little square with your mood, it makes you stop and reflect on how to increase your happiness.
If your day isn’t going to plan, can you do something little to make it better? Stop and go for a walk, play with your children, or grab a coffee with a friend?
By filling in those little squares you can stop to reflect on what made you feel the way you did today. Were you angry because of work again, is this something that occurs often? If so, maybe it’s time to look at making a change.
What if you had a great day? What made it so great? Can you make an effort to do more of that?
Should I include a Year In Pixels?
There are pros and cons to having a Year in Pixels spread in your bullet journal. Personally, I love the idea of a Year in Pixels and I can see how it can really help my mindfulness. I added one in my journal for last year, but I’m not one that easily sticks to filling in trackers, so after 3 months, I kept forgetting to fill it in. I now have a mostly empty spread!
Pros:
- you don’t need to make a monthly mood tracker
- it’s a great overview of your mood and happiness for the year
- it looks super pretty when filled in
- the feeling of achievement is IMMENSE when you’ve totally filled in your Year In Pixels
Cons:
- If you aren’t great at filling in trackers (like me!), then it can be super hard keeping up with filling this in every single day.
- If you go through more than one journal a year, you’ll have to keep going back to your original notebook to fill it in towards the end of the year.
- there is a high chance of this spread being uncompleted so don’t start if you hate unfinished spreads!
Are you going to give the Year in Pixels a go? If you do, tag me @littlemissrose or send me an email! I’d love to see it!
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