I’ve been using a bullet journal for about two years now. I started bullet journaling when I was getting ready to study for the bar because I needed a way to track my assignments and a planner wasn’t working for me. I’d heard and seen a lot about bullet journals but I didn’t really know how to get started. Enter (as usual) the internet. I found this Buzzfeed piece that was super helpful and that I still send people to when they tell me they’re interested in trying bullet journaling. It’s super helpful for getting started but I’m going to share what’s worked for me here. I bought the journal recommended in the article and initially used their recommended set ups.
Like the Buzzfeed piece says (and like someone asked on Instagram), for me one of the hardest things about starting a bullet journal was getting over the feeling that it had to be picture-perfect like the ones on social media. I did two things to help myself get over this feeling. First, I used a ruler and a pencil to draw my outlines and doodles before I went over them in different colored pens. This was when I was still struggling to make it look beautiful. The second thing I did was keep telling myself that this is for me. My bullet journal is supposed to help me, not be a source of more stress. And since it’s for me I don’t have to make it look pretty for anyone else to look at. Once I convinced myself of this I became much more relaxed and was able to try a lot of new things (if you’re ever short on inspiration just look at Pinterest, there are so many ideas there).
I don’t follow all of the traditional “rules” of bullet journaling–I basically liked the loose structure and idea that I could make this work for me and ran with it. My bullet journal is halfway between a planner and a regular journal, with more of a focus on tracking my goals, making lists, and tracking my appointments. The layout of my bullet journal spreads has changed as I figure out what works best for me at different points but there are a few things that stay the same.
Calendar-ish Layouts
I start out with a yearly spread. This is where I write down big events like trips or concerts or weddings and important dates like birthdays and anniversaries. These are also the pages where I set my yearly goals, which I’ll talk about later.
Next I set up my month. I do this one month at a time during the last few days of the previous month. This usually takes up two pages and lays out the month with any big events and monthly goals and to-do lists.
The last recurring piece is the weekly layout. This is what I ended up changing the most. When I started using a bullet journal I thought I’d need half of a page per day. Since I don’t use my bullet journal to write thoughts out like a traditional diary I don’t use nearly that much space so I changed the set up I was using. Now my weekly spreads look like this. These weekly spreads are where I track day-to-day reminders, write down notes about what I did that day, track assignments for work, and track smaller things like my daily water intake (when I remember).
Specialty Pages
These are pages that fit all the more fun things that you see on Pinterest or Instagram if you’ve ever searched for bullet journals. They’re pages that track habits or help with goals or really anything that you want. There are a few that I’ve found helpful and/or fun.
Workout Tracker
I’ve set these up different ways but it’s basically just keeping track of your workouts, i.e. how often you work out, how much you lift, how many of each workout you’ve done, etc.
Book List
As I said in a previous blog post, I’ve made reading a priority for myself and I use my bullet journal to track what books I’ve read. There’s a cute way to do this (the picture of the bookshelf that you fill in the titles on) and a more practical way (a list)–I’ve done both.
Recipes
I keep track of all the new recipes I try by keeping a list in my bullet journal and make a note if it’s a recipe I particularly enjoyed so that I can remember to make it again. This is especially helpful for those nights when you’re stuck on what to make for dinner.
Gift Ideas
I keep a running list of gift ideas for people in my journal so that when it comes time to buy presents I’m not stumped!
Work/Job Hunting
I also set up pages for notes about job deadlines and assignments so that everything is in one place. When I’m job hunting (like I am right now) these pages will be to track my applications and contacts instead.
xoxo,
J
Leave a Reply