Bullet Journal
By Aimee on
How many of you have heard of a bullet journal? It was a new concept to me too until recently and then it blew up in my Pinterest feed like crazy. Sam was the one who actually introduced me to it and he’s been using his for months. I didn’t think much of it but since it kept popping up I thought I would check what the fuss is all about. My lord I’ve had it only briefly and I swear I’m hooked! I purchased my dot grid notebook from The Notemaker and paid for express shipping as I was rather excited. I was so excited in fact I didn’t even check the size. Turns out it wasn’t A5 size but more pocket sized. I think it’s actually a blessing as it will fit more conveniently into my bag and hasn’t in any way been a hindrance to organisation. If you haven’t ever been on The Notemaker and are a lover of stationary give it a go. It’s an Australian website and has so many pretty things on there. Another thing I need to thank Sam for.
What is a Bullet Journal?
Well it is basically anything you want it to be. It’s a place to keep schedules, lists, journal entries, ideas, tasks, sketches. It is the ultimate customizable organisation tool. The creator of this magical simple system is Ryder Carroll and you can get a complete breakdown on the Bullet Journal Website. Below I have pictures of my set up and what each section is used for. Mine is pretty basic but I do like to ad a bit of an artistic flair. I think the more I do this the more artistic it will become. Sam uses the very basic principal and it works perfectly for him. It isn’t something that needs to be overly creative but does lend itself to be so. Just don’t go looking up too many designs and becoming overwhelmed with it all. I’m not crazy amazing at drawing or writing but some people out there have skills! I think it is best to start off nice and simple.
Index
It’s pretty straight forward but everything that you put in your journal you put in your index. Each page is numbered and it is all nice and easy to find. Never lose a list again!
Key
The key is something that isn’t exactly necessary but I wanted to put mine in there anyway. There’s space to add other things if necessary. I’ve already added birthdays from the original key list. I’m sure I will add an ! for important items. Sam uses a light bulb icon for ideas. As you can see as listed we have tasks, completed tasks, migrated tasks (to the next day/month), forwarded tasks (put off till later in the year), irrelevant/deleted tasks are crossed out, events, notes and birthdays. The point of migrating/forwarding or crossing out tasks each day is to put what is important to you in perspective. This is something I really like and I think it will keep me on top of things, fingers crossed anyway.
Future Log
This is where you can see a few months in advance at a glance. Good for birthdays, keeping track of quarterly bills, holidays etc. You don’t even need to put in a little calender but I thought it would be helpful to me so I did.
Monthly Setup
This is where we start to get a bit more detail. I’ve added everything from my August future log onto my Monthly list as well as other bits and pieces I need to do like yoga, baby classes and other events. Underneath I’ve added some goals I would like to achieve this month. Since bubs is due next month I wanted to get as much done this month as possible.
Daily Setup
We zoom in again for an even more broken down look at what happens in your day. Most of mine is a to-do list but I have written a few little notes about my day, things I want to remember and events that take place. You can see on the Friday I’ve written yoga as an event. Some of these things will probably get migrated again but I do need to get onto them asap.
Collections
Lastly we have some bulk we add to the journal. I have a few collections so far and a number of ideas for more. I have a habit tracker for the month. Water intake is important to me as well as taking my vitamins, tracking when I give the house a bit of a clean and I have started to drink Raspberry leaf tea. I thought that might be fun to track too. There’s heaps of other ideas on-line as well.
My other collections are of books to read and books read, a hospital bag check list and things to do before the baby’s Due. Other ideas I’ve got are about current/future craft projects, book ideas, and blog ideas.
So that’s all for now folks! I hope this has inspired you to get organised or at least just have a look at some pretty stationary. I apologise for it taking so long for me to post. I’m hoping this bullet journal keeps me on top of things but with a baby making its debut soon we shall see how we go!