Friends were talking about this and sharing pictures of their bullet journals last fall. It looked intriguing and I began to do a little research. First I read articles on the official bullet journal website. It was helpful, but not as much as my friend's pictures and ideas, as well as, reading the plethora of blogposts I found by typing into the search engine, bullet journal. Reading and seeing those pictures from lots of different people, helped me to understand that a bullet journal could be used in many ways, not only by business men.
I shared the idea with my husband and he thought he would like to try it as well. With Christmas money we purchased two Leuchtturm1917 bullet journals and began figuring out how to make them work for us.
January was a learning curve, but a good one. I liked the future log where I add upcoming events such as birthdays, vacations, meetings, and other events. I also liked the "month at a glance" page. I chose to do it as a list instead of like a calendar month. I added lines in between the weeks to help me see the break.
But I did find, after searching for ideas on Pinterest, to make three columns on this month at a glance page. The first column I list "all day" events, the second column is for listing "morning" events, and the third column for "evening" events. That little improvement has meant a much easier time of seeing when I'm busy during the day.
One of my big goals was to start planning meals again. The bullet journal is the place I'm doing that. For January I just made lists as the days progressed with a spot for planning meals on the side. This worked well but I decided to try a different layout for February.
I really liked this layout with the spots for meal planning or recording on the outside columns, tasks for the day in another column, and a space for notes. Unlike January, for February I prepared each of these two-page weekly spreads for the entire month at the beginning of the month. I found I liked that quite a bit. So I kept that plan for March but decided to try a different weekly layout. Here is what I am doing for March.
It has the meal planning on the bottom of each column which I will find out if I like or not. My main reason for trying this layout though was to see if I liked having a week read from left to right similar to a calendar. I'll give it the month and then form an opinion. In the picture you can see how I dealt with the last week which includes a day for April, by changing colors.
Other things I have in my bullet journal are the following lists: Movies to Watch, Movies Watched, Blog Post Ideas, Chore List, and Vacation Ideas. Those are in various places but are easily found because of the index. The index is the most brilliant thing about the bullet journal. It doesn't matter if my month or daily tasks are mixed up with pages of other ideas, because every time I start a new page, I list what it is and where it is in the index. It has really helped to free up my brain and cast off fear of messing up.
David and I wanted a pen pouch to keep the Pentel EnerGel pens we bought to use with our journals. So many of them just weren't right and then I stumbled upon a moleskin version at Barnes and Noble. It has worked very well. I love that it is attached to the front cover of my journal so the pens are always where I need them. There is a zippered pocket in which I keep the metal ruler I use to draw straight lines.
Overall, I am very happy with my bullet journal. I like the flexibility and the non-electronic nature. I try to sit down each evening and morning to update and make sure I know what is to be done.
2 comments:
You mean this is an old fashioned journal? No electronic devises involved? Wow!
Yes Nancy - no electronic devices involved! This is rather amazing. . . and freeing!
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