What is bullet journaling?
Bullet Journal is a method originally developed by designer Ryder Carrol, which is used to put personal goals, plans and schedules in order between one cover. Bullet journal is a combination of diary, calendar, meditative writing and drawing. You can get started easily: all you need is a notebook and a pen.
The self-designed calendar perfectly serves the needs of its owner and you can make it look exactly the way you want. If you want, you can decorate the bullet journal with stickers, decorative tapes, i.e. washi tapes or by drawing. You can also use cut pictures from magazines or use decorative papers to create spectacular looking openings! Sometimes bullet journal is at its best when it's clear and minimalistic. The main thing is that planning your own life and everyday life is fun, meaningful and unique.
A bullet journal is often made in a dotted notebook, but you can also use a lined or blank one. However, the dots are helpful in drawing, as they serve as guidelines for creating tables and images, as well as in calligraphy. Text written with dots also comes directly. Next, I will introduce the most common areas of the bullet journal, but you can do it in your own style. You don't have to include all areas in your own journal, and you can also come up with sections yourself!
Table of contents or index:
If you wish, you can make a table of contents on the first page of the bullet journal, which makes it easy to move between different sections. To help with this, there are also various index stickers that can be glued to the top or side of each section. The index can always be supplemented when new pages are added to journal.
Weekly and monthly view:
You should organize your bullet journal by month, so that each month starts with its own front page. Many bookmakers like to choose their own theme for each month to decorate the pages, for example: space, flowers, mermaids, Harry Potter or dinosaurs. Sometimes the theme can follow seasons and holidays: snowflakes in winter or flowers in June. That's why you might end up with quite a collection of stickers and tapes!
The monthly view is a calendar grid of the entire month on a page. It shows all the days and weeks of the month at once, just like in a calendar.
After that, one week per opening or page is planned for the following pages, whatever suits you best. Sometimes the bujo can have, for example, one day always on one page, if you want to use the bujo as a diary at the same time or there are a lot of expenses to record. As said, bujoilu is flexible and it is designed to serve your own life.
Rapid logs or brain dump:
Different sections are written in quick logs, i.e. tasks, events, ideas and really everything that needs to be remembered in some way. You can make your own quick log for each month. Each section has its own symbol, i.e. a triangle for events, a circle for the to-do list and a line for things to buy. You can decide and plan these yourself as you wish. You don't have to use symbols. Then the thing to be remembered is written down as clearly and concisely as possible. Ryder called these clear sentences "written bullets", hence the name of the entire Bullet Journal. The symbol makes it easy to follow which categories the things to remember belong to. You should also make your own symbols for completed and postponed tasks. In the example picture of the bujo, all completed tasks are checked and if something moves forward, a cross is drawn across it. You can also make a page with a name at the beginning of Bujo Key , where the meaning of each symbol is explained, so it stays in your memory.
Quick logs can be anything from a shopping list to an in-depth reflection, the point is just to get things up quickly before they fade from memory.
Log books and spreads:
This category includes various monitoring tables, ie trackers and to-do lists and future planning. The weekly and monthly views are also part of the logbooks and openers. They can be used to monitor your own habits, hobbies or even sleep quality. Common logbooks include:
- Habit tracker i.e. a daily monitoring chart of your own habits. With the help of the tables, you can track how often you go to work out or change the sheets. You can also conveniently see if you have taken your vitamins, watered your flowers or drank enough water.
- Sleep tracker i.e. sleep tracking. Here you can record how many hours you sleep a night or what the quality of your sleep has been like. You can also record whether you remember dreaming or having nightmares.
- Mood tracker i.e. mood monitoring. With this table, you can view which day was annoying and when was the best day of the month.
- Other trackers include, for example: Books and movies read and on the reading list, menstrual calendar, body temperature, things you want to do next week, next month or throughout your life (bucket list), New Year's resolutions, vacation and travel destinations, exercise program, meal planning, homework, unpaid and paid bills , working hours tracking or restaurants and cafes you want to visit.
Self-styled Bullet Journal
Make your bujo the way you want it and what suits you best. If keeping track of many things and habits seems challenging or burdensome, you can leave them out completely and focus on the calendar sections. You can keep bujo as a personal diary and you don't have to show it to anyone else if you don't want to. There are as many different types of Bullet Journals as there are Bullet Journals. Different styles are for example: art, digital or minimalist boujos.
You can follow more bujo ideas and tips on my new Instagram account enchantedbujo. Every month I change the theme and also post about pens, stickers and tapes, so welcome!
The joy of design,
Julia / Enchanted Bujo