Bullet Journaling!

Happy Hump Day!

Bullet journaling is the latest trend when it comes to planners/organization. When I discovered the amazingness that is bullet journaling I was so stinking excited. I wanted to start IMMEDIATELY!

If you don’t know what bullet journaling is, let me explain. It’s kind of whatever you want it to be. If you want it to be an agenda, it’s an agenda. If you want it to be a book of lists, then that’s what it will be.

However, let me say that what the official bullet journal website considers bullet journaling and what creative/artsy girls around the world consider bullet journaling are two very different things. The bullet journal website intends it to be very clean and simple. No decorating, no pictures, just words on paper. What fun is that?! If you look up bullet journal on Pinterest, that is the version that I’m focusing on. So with that said, there are pretty much no rules when it comes to bullet journaling.

The official bullet journal website version. BORING!

The main thing that sets bullet journaling apart from other planners/organizers is that you do ALL the work. That’s right, there are no pre-made layouts.

I mainly use my bullet journal as an agenda for school, work, and all my other activities. I had been using the Lily Pulitzer agendas which I LOVE, but sadly they are getting pretty expensive and YOU DON’T EVEN USE HALF OF IT. It’s an 18 month agenda instead of a 12 month one so there are 6 months of overlap that you don’t even use. That was annoying me so I decided to try something different for this school year.

I had looked online for some different bullet journals and I decided that I wanted a fuchsia dotted Moleskin journal. One day after class I went into the bookstore to try to use up some of my points since it was near the end of the semester and I FOUND THE EXACT BULLET JOURNAL I WAS WANTING! I practically jumped up and down right there. I immediately bought it and ran back to my dorm to get started.

My Moleskin dotted journal

The classic bullet journal has dotted pages (similar to grid paper but with dots.) You can use grid paper if you want, but personally I think the dots make a cleaner look.

The official bullet journal website has a how-to video guide on setting up your bullet journal. This isn’t exactly necessary, but can be helpful if you’re looking for organization. The only things I took from it are the key and index.

The Key: I really only use task, completed task, event and completed event

The Index

I do a monthly spread for each month that has a full calendar with all of my events in one place. The weekly spreads follow and are more detailed.

This is what my monthly layout looked like while I was still in school

When I came home for the summer I obviously didn’t have as many “tasks” so I made a calendar for fun events and a separate calendar for work

You can also do some fun pages like “Places I want to go this summer,” mood trackers, “Movies I want to see,” etc. I love the mood tracker because you can see your moods of the whole year at once. I’ve been working on my “places I want to go this summer” list. I started out really well and got a bunch checked off in a short time, but then I went on vacation and started working on my tables and then work got in the way so I haven’t gotten to check much off recently. Hopefully I can get back on the wagon. I’m about halfway there! (Considering I only have a little over a month left of my summer, I need to get going!)

My list-I need to get going!

“Year in Pixels” Mood Tracker. Since I started in April, it’s not the entire year

The “future log” allows you to see the whole year at a glance

When I first started I did a ton of Pinteresting to find layouts to use. I’m not kidding when I say I worked on it for like 7 hours the night I got my bullet journal. I think part of the reason it took me so long is because I was so OCD about it. Every page had to be perfect, but now if I mess up a little, it’s not a big deal, the world still turns.

Here are some fun pages I discovered on Pinterest that I hope to add to my journal one day:

Map of the states you’ve visited

Movies you want to watch

A big concern for people who may be interested in starting a bullet journaling is time. It takes a ton of time on the front end to get your bullet journal started. However, once you have your key, index and monthly layout done, it really doesn’t take a ton of time to do each weekly spread. I usually do the next weeks spread each Sunday.

The other thing that may take up time is decorating your bullet journal. You can make it as plain or as decorative as you want. I keep mine pretty simple since I can’t draw. I write in colored pens to add some pop and maybe use some washi tape or little doodles here and there.

Here are some examples of my spreads:

Add some fun doodles like the succulents in the bottom right corner

Have fun with it! Add a verse of the week, gratitudes or even the weather forecast

Add washi tape for some added flare

Overall, your bullet journal should be exactly what you want it to be!

Have fun journaling!

xoxo,

Alyssa

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