Intro to Bullet Journals

In typical me-fashion, I started to bullet journal aggressively after I saw a Buzzfeed post about it (this Buzzfeed post specifically).

After many failed attempts to keep a paper journal and a constant obsession with academic planners, a bullet journal was the perfect mixture of the two. It also gave me space to have an art outlet, which I desperately needed and I just can't get into the adult coloring books. I get bored halfway through a page. This brought many of my obsessions together: drawing, organizing, planning, writing, scheduling, note taking, and more.

So I went on the hunt for the elusive dotted notebook. (A bullet journaler's notebook of choice. I like the Moleskin ones.)

Most likely thanks to the Buzzfeed post, the dotted Moleskin journals were sold out on Amazon. I tried initially to use a regular lined journal, but the lines made all of my drawings and things look weird. So nixed that idea.

I needed that dotted notebook and I now knew my only hope was trying to find it at a bookstore.

You know how they have those little displays of fancy blank journals at the cash wrap of Barnes and Noble? Yeah, that’s was my last hope.

My some miracle I made it to the local Barnes and Noble before it closed and found the elusive dotted Moleskin notebook. I settled down at my dining room table with my pens and started to create the journal. I started with the basics, which are outlined in the Buzzfeed post. I had a month title page, a calendar page, a habits page, a week breakdown page and then a day by day area.

I have since filled up one journal and am now on my second. I have learned some things along the way. Things like I no longer need a large space for each day’s notes. I can very comfortably get away with the weekly spread layout for that and sometimes I go back and forth between habit trackers on each week or a large month tracker.

I wanted to show you an example and I am damn proud of the way January turned out (February is meh. Too many hearts. Lesson learned). Every month I comb through Instagram and borrow looks from other bullet journalers as I am not quite confident in my own Here is a basic breakdown of what my bullet journal looks like:

Title Page: I start each month with a title page. It breaks up my journal and gives me a theme and color to stick to for the month. I have started to put a word of the month on each title page to help me be mindful of what I need to work on each month.

As you can see, January's theme was "Begin." I began a lot of new things in this month. I started keto, started lifting, started looking at new apartments, and the new year felt like the perfect time to refocus on things and take some time to just start.

Month at a Glance: The next part is my month at a glance space. These two pages let me write down any and all important dates, appointments, events, etc so I can see all of them in one place. I also keep track of things I need to get done during that month as well as any goals that I have set for myself for the month. I was particularly proud of January because of the cool font work I did. I've been practicing font for a while and am finally becoming more confident.

Gratitude Log: This is a new thing that I started in November and loved so much that I kept for the other months. I try to take a moment or two each day and think about what I am thankful for especially the little things we don't tend to notice, like having a great workout or tasting a particularly good wine. This gives me a lot of perspective each day and I feel like its an important part of my life.

I try to reserve two spots for each day because there is a lot that happens in a day and I feel like picking just two things to be grateful for really ends up putting my life and day in a better place.

Weekly Log: So here is the important part of my journal. The weekly log. My weekly log includes a day by day breakdown of what is going on and what I need to get done. I also use this space to write little reminders to myself about monthly goals and in the case of January a habit tracker that I use to make sure that I am hitting my macros, working out, reading my daily Bible verse, drinking water, and any other habit I want to track. The weekly layout changes week to week. I like to keep it different to give my journal some variety.