Bullet Journaling – Where Have You Been All My Life?

I caught onto the bullet journaling craze late to the game, but I’ve been incorporating some aspects of bullet journaling pretty much my entire life. When I actually learned about the core of bullet journaling and how people use their bullet journal, I realized that it scratches so many itches for me:

Planning & Organization

• Calendar/Schedule – I’ll admit I’m more than a little Type A. I’ve always kept some type of planner whether it was a physical one or a digital one. As a project manager, I schedules, timelines and planning are a huge part of my career. And now as a business owner and a consultant with a multitude of clients, deadlines all but rule my day.
• List maker – I make lists for everything — To-Do’s, grocery shopping, gift lists, brainstorming ideas, etc. I find checking something off and see a full list of completed tasks so so satisfying.
• Brain clutter – I often keep a mental to-do list for less important things, which nags at me as things get continually delayed and pushed off. I’m sure things have fallen through the cracks and you could argue maybe that’s OK since they weren’t important, but who knows if something important might slip through one day.

Creativity

• Crafty – I have spurts of creativity but rarely collect those ideas anywhere. As a “maker” of sorts, I have patterns, recipes, etc. that I jot down here and there or store in digital files, but when you work with your hands, sometimes it’s nice to have all of those designs/recipes in analog format.
• Scrapbooking – I used to love creating photo albums, memory books, etc. I just don’t have the time for it anymore. And plus my photos are all digital now so I haven’t done any scrapbooking in 15+ years.
• Diary – I used to keep a diary and enjoyed reading thoughts from my younger self. These days it feels like there’s barely time to reflect much less put those reflections down on paper.

It’s Physical

• Tactile – I really enjoy flipping pages, putting pen to paper, and just the feel of paper in general.
• Low-fi – a bullet journal is always on. It doesn’t require Internet, a battery, a plug, or anything else to function.
• Always there – with a digital planner or calendar, it’s somewhat easy to “ignore” (at least for me). When I see my bullet journal on my desk or the coffee table, I know there are things in there that require attention, so it’s a constant reminder. Because I also use it for housing my business planning and creative ideas, I crack open my journal multiple times a day, so it’s easy to see my to-do list, schedule, planner, etc.

Bullet Journaling – Is it for You?

If any of those things speak to you, bullet journaling may be for you too!

Below are some of the more popular layouts / journal spreads I use in my bullet journal:

• Monthly overview – each month I create a calendar large enough to mark important days to remember (e.g. birthdays, major deadlines, etc.). Part of my monthly overview also includes high-level goals for the month as well as a vision board. This simple two-page spread gives me both inspiration and direction for the month.
  
• Weekly Spreads – One of the great things about bullet journaling is you can create layouts to suit the type of week you’re having (or expect to have) and that can be different from week-to-week. When I’m on vacation, sometimes I don’t even create a weekly spread (saving paper).
  
• Trackers – one popular use of bullet journals is to create trackers. I would have put trackers to really intense use when I converted to a keto diet. Essentially, trackers are a way to hold yourself accountable to habits you are trying to develop. For example, if you want to get better at taking your daily multivitamin, having a tracker helps you develop the habit of remember to take your vitamin and retrospectively seeing how well you’ve achieved that goal.
  
• Brainstorming – I always give myself several pages to brainstorm. To focus my creativity, I give myself topics to center my thoughts around. I use this for business (e.g. marketing campaigns) and personal (e.g. card making ideas). Bullet journals are perfect for immortalizing your ideas so you can always refer back to them.

These are just a few ways I use my bullet journal. In later posts, I’ll cover more details about bullet journal technique, layouts and tips for how you can use it to take your business to the next level!