Hello everyone!
Today I wanted to write about bullet journaling, and show you how and why I use mine. There's a ton of information available on sites like Pinterest and Instagram and if you've seen any of these you'll have noticed all the different styles. Some use it as a very basic to-do list, others create a page full of artwork. Some write colourful calligraphic headers with brush pens, others use printed stickers or pre-made pages. Neither of these are examples of how you SHOULD use your journal. It's about what you choose to do with it.
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| My bullet journal and my two favourite writing tools. |
So what is bullet journaling?
In a nutshell, it's a way to manage your tasks and log whatever matters to you in a paper journal. The system was developed by Ryder Carroll. The journal consists of these pages:
- Index, this is where you'll list your entries so you can find them again
- Future log, these are pages for planning further ahead [e.g. your friend's wedding date in 4 months]
- Monthly log, where you can plan for the month
- Daily log, each new day starts here. A place to list your to-do's, appointments, events and notes, each indicated with a bullet.
The original bullet journal system is very minimalistic, and certainly a great way to start on this journey. For more information, check out the website:
bulletjournal.com
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My one-year future log is used to plan ahead, and for important dates and appointments. It's also a good way to have some information at a glance, like when I changed my contact lenses or when I had my last eye-exam. Anything further ahead gets written on a post-it note and added to the last page of the calendar.
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Why do you draw out every week when you can purchase a calendar? Isn't it all super time consuming? Do I need a specific journal? Aren't all those supplies very expensive?
These are just a few of the questions I see popping up all the time. Let me start by saying that you do not need a specific journal or any supplies to start with. Any book will do, any pen will do. These are all your own choices to make. Both Leuchtturm1917 and Moleskine are popular notebooks in the community and they are often considered expensive. The Leuchtturm1917 dotted is also my personal favourite. Because I'm in Europe I paid around €18 for it. It that expensive? For a notebook, yes probably. The way mine is set up, it'll last me about a year though. It's all about perspective, and what it's worth to you personally. The same applies to the time consuming part. Yes it can be, if you chose to do so. It doesn't have to be pretty and elaborate. But if that's what you want to do, go for it.
What's the point of doing this?
Again, this is a personal choice. Different people have different reasons. Some like having their tasks written in a list to stay productive. Some use it to plan for events, manage their time, track their habits, use it as an artistic outlet, or use it a way to deal with health problems and symptoms.
I've been using this system since earlier this year. For me it has made a huge difference in my every day life. I'm not ashamed to admit that I have suffered from severe depression several times in my life since adolescence. It's not a weakness, it's an illness, but one that's incredibly misunderstood. Those who've dealt with it or have seen it up close will know what a struggle it is to even do the simplest of things like getting out of bed, getting dressed and brushing your teeth. Although I'm doing okay now, some days can be tough. I know it's something that'll always be a part of my life and I'll always have to be careful not to let myself slide downwards when things are not going well. If you look around the bullet journal community, you'll notice that there are a lot of people suffering from depression, anxiety and/or other mental illnesses using this system, and finding it a helpful tool to cope.
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| My book starts with these calendar pages, which I use to list birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacations and exam dates, followed by a one-year future log. |
My bullet journal set-up: the block system
A big part of bullet journaling is experimenting with different set-ups and find something that works for you. I love the flexibility of the bullet journal, but I was missing a little bit of structure. I felt like important pages where getting lost in between weeklies and daylies and it was difficult to have a good overview. That's why I started a block-system. A block is a 12-week set-up, starting with my important pages and followed by weeklies and dailies. Why 12 weeks? For me it is much easier to see the big picture this way, a month is just too short to get a good overview. I also like this time span for setting goals; the deadline isn't too close nor too far in the future. Plus I don't have to recreate my trackers every single month. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to create a 12-week set-up. My Leuchtturm1917 will last for four of these blocks.
Here's the block's dashboard page. It features:
- mini calendar for birthdays, anniversaries ad important appointments
- index to list the main pages for the block, as well as the weeklies and daylies
- goals, what I want to accomplish during these twelve weeks
- room to reflect and write down ideas for the next block
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| Block dashboard page |
My main pages for each block consist of these pages:
- Fitness page, for tracking weight and to add the Fitbit summary I receive each week
- Habits page
- Health & medicine, used to track headaches, sickness and use of medication
- Exercise
- Cleaning
Then my weekly and daily pages are grouped together in 4-week periods. So at the start of a 4-week block, I leave room for four weekly spreads. I don't fill them out all at once, just the current week. Then these are followed by daylies. At the end of these four weeks, I repeat the cycle. I group these together for a better overview and to make it easier to find previous pages.
Examples of page set-ups
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| Habits page, the bottom of the page will be used for the next 6 weeks |
This is my habit tracker. I use it to track some self-care habits like taking vitamins, using a facial scrub and drinking enough water. But also for the days I've worn my contact lenses, days I worked on my studies or shop, when I got headaches, and when I got enough sleep and reached my step goal for the day. It's a good reminder to take care of yourself, see what can be improved, and see correlations.
The set-up is basically the same for my cleaning pages. Instead of a column with habits, I have listed the room of the house, and to the left I write the action [like vacuuming] sideways. I make rows like these for each action and the corresponding rooms/areas.
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| Health and medicine page |
My health and medicine pages are used to track headaches and sickness. I'll mark the date in de calendar with the corresponding colour. The calendar is also used to track periods. The second column is for listing which medicine I used and why. On the opposite page I've left room for information concerning doctor's visits, eye exams, prescriptions and things like that.
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| Weekly page |
The calendar section of my weekly page is the one thing that hasn't changed since I started bullet journaling. I don't have a lot of appointments or day-specific tasks, so I don't need a lot of space for that. I'm using the column next to it to experiment with a time tracker. I'm still not sure if it's something that works for me, and how I want it to look. So there's only way to figure it out: try!
On the opposite page the first column is for my to-do list and study deadlines. The bottom section is where I write down anything health related like step-count, fruit, vitamins, melatonin, grams of protein. Some of this information is transferred to my habit tracker at the end of the week.
You'll notice the second column on this page is empty. That's because I fill this out as needed and therefor the lay-out changes every week. Examples of what I write here: order deadlines for my shop, notes, orders I'm waiting for, exercise stats, postcrossing, sports team results etc.
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| Daily page |
My dailies are where all the action happens. I write down what I want to get done that day, I use them for taking notes, tracking my water intake. On busy days I use a top 3 system to prioritize what needs to get done first. The lay-out is very simple, and I make them on the day itself.
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| Doodle memories |
Here's my fun page :-) I create a little memory sketch for each day of the month, just to illustrate something I did, or bought, or something that happened.
That concludes my post about bullet journaling! I hope the information given here is helpful for you, even if it's just one element or one lay-out. In the end, you really have to try it for yourself to see if it works for you or not, and which elements you want to keep, change or ditch all together.
If you have any questions, just let me know!
