By now, you’ve probably seen plenty of people on social media brag about the beautiful bullet journals they plan on making or 2022. They might look intimidating, but there’s nothing to fear: they don’t have to look that good. Let’s figure out how you can get started with bullet journaling and see if it works for you!
WHAT IS A BULLET JOURNAL?
A bullet journal (or BuJo for short) contains a good mix of a planner, diary, and written meditation. It helps turn your daily planning into a streamlined system that helps you keep track of personal and professional goals and achieve them! There are plenty of sections you can add to make it your own, from calendars to daily to-do's you can make jour journal to fit your needs!
WHERE DO I START?
Let’s start by getting your supplies. A simple dot grid notebook and some no-bleed pens will do the trick! If you’re feeling adventurous, look into fun and colorful gel pens, dual-tip brush pens, highlighters, or even fun bullet journaling stencils to help guide your creativity! If you’re not the creative type, there are even premade journals for you to use.
Now, don’t get ahead of yourself, we don’t need to think about the aesthetics of your journal yet. The first thing we should be asking ourselves is, “What should this journal do for you?” Take this into consideration as we plan what to put into your journal.
I GOT THE JOURNAL, NOW WHAT?
It might be difficult to figure out exactly what pages or spreads you want to put into your notebook, however, we have the basics for you to start with:
The Index: The index lives at the front of your notebook and works as a way to locate content in your journal. Keep note of the major things you put in your journal, like the start of each month, drawings, or important notes, or anything else you might want to look back on later.
The Future Log: Dedicate a couple of pages to outline your future plans and goals. Organize these by month, and when you reach that month in your journaling, migrate these things over to your monthly log!
The Monthly Log: The monthly log consists of two things: A Calendar Page and a Task Page. The calendar page should give you a simple bird-eyes view of everything you have going on in a month, while the task page is there to narrow down your monthly priorities. Did you finish everything from last month? Add those tasks here as well if relevant.
The Daily Log: This log is designed for day-to-day use. Record the date at the top of your page and simply take notes of your important events. Don’t plan these super far ahead, you’ll never know how much space you’ll need!
You can always add a custom log to track things like workout plans, food logs, a diary, a sketchbook, or more!
BULLET JOURNALING SHORTHAND
At this point, you might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, that looks like a lot of writing.” Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered there as well! The BuJo community has plenty of shorthand symbols you can use to denote the importance of things. You can always change these to suit your needs.
TASKS: •
NOTES: -
EVENTS: O
PRIORITY: *
INSPIRATION: !
There is plenty more to learn about bullet journaling that I couldn’t cover in this article. To find out more, head to bulletjournal.com for some more tips and tricks on how to start!