I’ve talked about Bullet Journals on the blog before, but I’ve been using it now for nearly a year and I’ve recently been making some changes so I thought I’d write a post about it all.
All you need to know about the basics of Bullet Journalling is here (watch the video – it’s only about three minutes long.) I’ve just started my third moleskine (I got this one, having just finished the teal one) and was wanting to make things look a bit prettier than they had been in my last book. So I fell into a Pinterest black hole and came across Robin Imhof, who has done great writing and decorating tutorials for her filofax, which can totally been ported over to a bullet journal.
At which point I fell into an Etsy blackhole, first looking at pre-made stickers for journals, and then when that proved too expensive, at print-your-own stickers, and THEN clip art that you can turn into your own customised print-your-own stickers. (Yes, I fell hard. My stationary love was a blaze.)
Print-your-own stickers are pretty good, especially if you know how to use photoshop a little bit, so that you can file A4 size sheets with fun clip art (like I have above), but it assumes you have the patience to cut out the stickers and peel the backing off. I’m currently using it as a way of encouraging me to stop biting my nails, because without nails it’s pretty much impossible. Think of it as a tiny bit of forced mindfulness. 😉
Anyway if you’re interested the stickers in the image above came from the following shops on etsy:
The sticker paper is just basic address label sticky paper, which I got from our local stationers. However I also got some glossy sticker paper from ebay and I think I like that more for the stickers I’m not planning on writing on.
Watching Robin’s video taught me about Frixion pens, which are erasable gel pens. Suddenly my writing is neater and it makes me want to keep the whole book looking lovely.
I have set up this current journal so that I have the index and then four double spread month pages at the front of the book, and then daily pages, and lists as I need them. (This is a great article on lists that are useful to keep.) I’ll add the autumn months as the summer goes on, but we also have a family calendar in the kitchen so I can put any notes I need onto that and then move it into my bullet journal once I get that month sorted out. I use the daily pages as a way to keep accountable through the day. So I have the meals I’m planning to cook (so I can make the decisions all at once, and not have to think about it during the day), a log of my water, and my running/walking. Then I have my to do list, which includes various habits I’m working on, my plan for the da regarding our home education, cleaning, OxfordKitchenYarns work, things that need to remember, and events. I’ve also added a gratitude journal at the bottom of the page, which feels a lot less intimidating that having my own book for it. If there is any extra space left on the page, I’ve started writing in a quote from my pinterest quote board.
I have the book open in the kitchen during the day, so that I can refer to it often, but it only takes about 10 minutes to set up for each day, (and mostly that’s me picking the backs off stickers to be honest.) When I was just writing stuff down it probably took me 3-4 minutes a day.
I’m really pleased with the system and how adaptable it is. I certainly get more stuff done because of it, and my head feels less cluttered. The cute stickers are fun, and am enjoying ended the day with a page that I think looks good. But that’s just icing on the cake.
If you have any questions about the bullet journal system, or anything I’ve written about here, comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.
(I’m now off to tick a box.)
(BTW none of these links are affiliates in any way. I just like this stuff and thought you might like some of it too.)