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In the beginning of 2023 I started keeping a Bullet Journal. I thought some of you might find it interesting to hear of how it has been going.
What is a Bullet Journal?
In case you are not familiar with the Bullet Journal method, here’s a little rundown for you! Bullet Journaling is a system developed by a guy named Ryder Carroll. He designed an analog system to “track the past, organise the present and plan for the future”. All you need to get started, is a notebook and a pen.
There are a few key components to a Bullet Journal. First, the index. It’s like a table of contents you update as you fill your journal. Next comes the future log, which contains on overview of the next six to twelve months. Then, you add your monthly log, with a calendar of the month and all the tasks you got to get done during it. Finally, you have your daily log. Here you can keep track of tasks, events and notes.
For a more details, you can watch the Bullet Journal explanation video by Ryder Carroll himself.
More ways of Bullet Journaling
If you search Instagram or Pinterest for Bullet Journals you will come across artfully designed journals. Many of them contain a wider variety of spreads than the future, monthly and daily log. Many people design visual trackers for finances, habits and goals. Pages get dedicated to doodles or used for meeting notes.
As you can see, you can basically use your Bullet Journal in whatever way you like and make it a really beautiful and creative place to keep track of all the boring adult stuff.
My first Bullet Journal
I started my first Bullet Journal in 2016. I had seen many photos of very beautiful bullet journals and felt very inspired. Also, I am an avoid note-taker. The idea of having one notebook to keep track of my schedule, my tasks and all of my ideas appealed to me. The Bullet Journal became filled with sermon notes, research about what bike I wanted to get and lists with my many goals and plans.
However, I had this image in my mind of what a bullet journal should look like. And that was very much like those pretty images above. However, despite having many creative abilities and quite neat handwriting, drawing is not a skill I possess. Adding flourishes and doodles made my pages look messy instead of pretty. And that kind of put me off!
After a while I just bought a paper planner and used that instead.
A new attempt at Bullet Journaling
However, this year I decided to give Bullet Journaling another go! I bougth a very beautiful journal and got busy setting up the index and future log. As it was the beginning of the year, I used the journal to do a lot of thinking and brainstorming about the goals I wanted to set.
I also set up a few additional spreads to keep track of my creative projects and the books I am reading.
In the beginning of each month, I use a double page to brainstorm and write out goals and tasks for the month. Then I set up weekly pages that contain spaces for seven daily logs and a slot for extra notes.
What worked and what hasn’t
To be honest, I haven’t really used the classic Bullet Journal components. After the initial set-up I completely forgot about updating the Index (I also haven’t felt like I needed it) and I also hardly used the future log.
This is probably due to the fact, that I don’t really use the Bullet Journal as a calendar. I keep track of all my appointments and dates in my Calendar app on my iPhone or MacBook. Edd and I use a shared calendar, which has made our life a lot easier!
My main use of the Bullet Journal is to keep track of tasks, habits and goals. I love the weekly spreads, as they give me a good overview of how busy a week is and I can decide when I have space to do what more easily than when I simply check my electronic calendar.
Going forward
So, what now? I could probably organise my entire life digitally as well. In the past, I have used ToDoist and really liked it. However, there is just someting about using pen and paper that helps me think.
I will definitely keep using my Bullet Journal. If I would set up a new one, I probably wouldn’t bother with the index or the future log and also omit any other extra spreads, as I haven’t really used them. After all, it is a tool that should help me keep organised, not something that takes away from my time for no reason.
Have you tried Bullet Journaling? Did you find it useful?
This is Day 85 of my 100 Day Project. You can learn more about my 100 day project by reading this post. If you want to do your own 100 day Project, I would recommend checking out the 100 Day Project website.
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