I Bit The Bullet (of Journaling)
You may or may not have seen this new "bullet journaling" trend circling the Internet. I had seen it first from Amber (the source from whom all best ideas flow) and then from Kristin who just made it seem irresistible.
I was the girl who had a huge planner (that I never took anywhere because it was massive, and therefore never knew my schedule when I needed it) and also a book that was just for to-do lists, and then another journal for notes from work, and a million index cards taped up on my walls and scattered around my desk with random ideas... I was a mess. A bullet journal seemed to be the perfect way to combine all of those things while still giving me flexibility and freedom to organize things in a way that worked well for me.
I bought a kraft Moleskine (I am so loyal to Moleskine, it's ridiculous) with the square grid paper (my all-time favorite kind, I will never go back to blank or lines) and doodled my heart out on the cover.
It's been a few weeks of implementing this new system, and I AM IN LOVE. Seriously, this is the best way I have found to stay organized with all the different things I have going on, all in one place in a journal that's easy to take with me everywhere...it's just so great.
There are different ways to go about this, but there are some things that make a bullet journal a bullet journal: an index, a calendar of the entire month, and daily to-do lists. I added other things to mine and customized it a bit based on what I need to keep track of, and I think I'll keep evolving that over time as well.
Here's how I've set up my bullet journal!
The index is just the table of contents with what is on each page! Numbering the pages is hugely helpful and helps keep things all on track.
I laid out my calendar in a box monthly format instead of a numbered list, because it's helpful for me to see how the weeks play out in a more visual way! Plus, I have more room if I need to add more to each day. I only add things that aren't my normal routine here (I don't list when I'm at work or at church on Sundays, etc).
This was something I added to help keep myself on track with all my writing, and I have loved it. I've scaled back my blogging this summer to just twice a week on my blog, with occasional freelance posts scattered throughout as well, and I've loved seeing them all listed out. I've never planned posts out until now! It's great.
These were other pages I added, as a way of keeping track throughout the month of both the books I'm reading (to make my blog post recaps even easier!) and the things I'm learning (to boil down my pages and pages of processing in my journal down to short bullet points I can blog about later).
Here are what my days typically look like. The boxes to the left of each item get filled with an X when they are accomplished, and an arrow if they need to get moved to another day or postponed indefinitely. Having those boxes motivates me SO MUCH more than I realized it would!
Do you bullet journal?! Anything you've added to yours that you absolutely love? Any questions about how this whole thing works? Comment below! Let's be bullet journal buddies.