Ahh, The Bullet Journal. AKA The BuJo. (Never heard of it? go here.)
I’m new to the game, and I have both loved and loathed it while trying to make it work for me over these first months.
The theory is nice:
The Bullet Journal is a customizable and forgiving organization system.
It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above.
It will teach you to do more with less.
And then you sit down to get started. It’s a pretty open-ended concept, so it can be a little tricky figuring out where to begin. Looking for details on how to get started, you check out Pinterest. Yikes.
It seems like there’s a lot more to it than you thought, so perhaps you join a BuJo group on Facebook, like Bullet Journal Junkies, to get some community support and more ideas.
“Wow, these monthly layouts and tracking pages are REALLY beautiful and complex. I don’t know if I can make one that looks like that.”
That’s what I was thinking as I was planning to create my journal. I’m sure I’m not the only one. We can’t all be accomplished artists!
I really wanted the BuJo concept to work for me, but between not feeling artsy enough and some aspects not working smoothly for me I started to feel like it was a failed project.
Then, I took a step back and decided to make it work for just ME. In the end, what I have isn’t quite a “Bullet Journal,” but rather a hybrid of different organizer styles and ideas.
Here’s what I learned along the way:
1.Pretty is nice, but it’s not the most important part.
The ultimate goal of a Bullet Journal is to get organized, stay on track, and have an outlet to capture thoughts, ideas, memories, etc. Make that your #1 priority at all times with the BuJo. Get in the habit of writing things down as soon as you think of them.
For example, if you get a film recommendation from a friend and want to remember, don’t delay starting a “Movies to Watch” list because you don’t have time to draw a movie reel and a box of popcorn and find the perfect Hollywoodesque border. Just start the list. You can always go back to it later and spruce things up when you have free time and are feeling creative.
I have about 30 hideous lists in progress right now–and that’s totally fine. What matters is that my ideas are in order and my life is better structured.
2. There are no rules.
What works for one person isn’t necessarily going to work for everyone. Start with the basic format of a monthly, weekly, daily layout plus personal trackers and just go with it.
For me, there were two big pieces that I had to allow myself to let go of:
#1 – Starting with pre-printed organizer pages is just fine. I already owned a lovely Day-Timer desk-size organizer with monthly spreads and daily pages. I began to look at hand-drawn layouts and it felt like a lot of work to have to do that for every week/month just to start. When I gave in and decided it was perfectly acceptable to use my existing planner, things got much easier. I never used the sections of the daily pages as they were written anyway, so I just viewed the printed layout as a frame and did my own thing. It’s flexible, easy, and saves me hours.
#2 – It’s OK to have more than one journal/organizer. As I mentioned above, I have a lot of lists. Everything from house cleaning lists to travel ideas to new hobbies to try and more are in there. What I quickly came to realize was that I really didn’t need to have everything with me at all times. I DID need my daily planning pages though. So I split! I have my Day-Timer for calendar planning, to-do’s, daily inspirations, current project reminders, etc. Then I have a binder with all my other lists and planners. If I think of a list item during the day, I jot it down in my Day-Timer (or text it to myself if I don’t have it near me). Then when I reboot my daily pages I get everything into the right places. My need to purge ideas immediately is solved, and I have a lovely binder where I can keep all my bigger picture stuff. It’s great to be able to use different styles of paper, folders, and more in there rather than just a dotted notebook, too.
3. It doesn’t have to be expensive.
Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook, Staedtler pens, calligraphy markers, washi tape, stickers, post-its….the supply list for getting started with a bullet journal can have you dropping a lot of dough at the craft store.
Don’t feel pressured to give in. You can be just as organized with a $1 composition book and a regular old pen.
Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t buy that super cute holiday washi tape you see at the store. Indulge if you want to, but don’t feel it’s a necessity.
4. Trial, error, correct.
There are a lot of great ideas out there. Some immediately “Wow!” you, but in practice they don’t turn out so hot.
This has happened me a lot as I figure things out. I loved the idea of checking off my AM/PM routines every day, but in practice writing it out got tedious. And if I did it just weekly, it wasn’t “in my face” enough to get me to follow though. My solution? A laminated piece of card stock with daily/weekly repeating tasks that I can check off with an Expo marker, wipe off, and reuse. This card just travels with me in the daily pages section of my organizer.
Along the same line, there’s a very good chance that your first draft isn’t going to be the final draft. In all reality, there probably is never going to be a final, perfect version since life is not static! Don’t let it bother you to have a messy handwritten addition to an existing tracker. It’s much better to just edit it for a couple of weeks to get it closer to complete, THEN print/draw a new version.
What I have now might not technically fit the BuJo definition, but The Bullet Journal concept inspired me to start getting organized. In that regard, it was a total success.
My biggest lesson: When we let go of our perfectionist tendencies and allow life to go with the flow, everything works better.
Remember, life is dynamic, not static, and individualism is a good thing 🙂