I do a lot of pages of both traditional regular pages and then my pocket album. Granted I am still catching up and was working on 2015. I did just do monthly spreads. Some of them had a few pages, some just had 1 two page spread. You can see them on my pinterest. I did use minimal embellishments.
doing it this way I was still able to do about 200 regular pages for the year and finish my entire 2015 in this clean pocket style.