Does anyone Bullet Journal?

[KittyMcKitty]

I really want to start and think it’s a system which will work for me but I just feel slightly overwhelmed by it all!

Interested to hear from those who do and to find out how it works for you.

I love it. I have one at home which is used as a diary and lists and will be branching out with a 2nd version in my handbag this year.
The good thing about them is that you do what works for you. I now have my index at the back and week by week at the front. I work backwards with lists and planner/tracker lists as I didn't like them being in the middle of my weekly layouts.
Mine isn't artistic at all!
I do feel more organised when having a specific book on the go rather than lots of bits of paper.
You could always get a cheap notebook for the 1st month to see how you get on. Guaranteed you will buy a beautiful notebook when you get the hang of it!

I've just bought my first dot journal to see me through 2019 after hearing rave reviews for the system.

I have piles of notebooks with lists, notes, sketchy details, diary dates and all sorts of crap so I'm hoping to condense everything into one.

I'm keeping it simple though with a 6 month future log and monthly Frankenlog then will add in collections/notes as required. I'm not making it an artsy project as I'll just end up ditching it.

I do it for work.

It’s not pretty but it does mean I can find what I need relatively quickly and easily.

I buy a gridded spiral bound notebook and have an index, a calendar and a daily log. I use fancy tape to mark the daily logs so I can add to it daily. I write up my pages in the index every couple of days.

I think the important thing to remember, certainly for me, is that if you make it look pretty from the beginning you kind of feel obliged to continue like that which is massively time consuming and not very helpful. For me, it’s a complete waste of time.

Harrysnotter it’s to do lists and also calendar, appointments, shopping, holiday ideas, anything you might normally write down somewhere you write in the one book. It’s the simplicity of one book for all. I used to follow Getting Things Done and it was successful in some ways but involved lots of different notebooks for different things - I never seemed to have the right one to hand!

I expect too much from mine 😖

I’m debating how to tackle it this year 🤔

ILoveChristmasLights take it back to basics again?

YerAuntFanny that’s me! I have thousands of notebooks with lists / ideas etc and am hoping to get one more organised book!

I like the idea but find it quite confusing. I'm worried I would spend more time making lists than doing stuff.

You're all convincing me to do one. Having multiple planning books is irritating. I'll keep it basic, though.

I've been doing it for about 3 years. I use Moleskine notebooks, gridded or lined, mainly because they are sturdy enough to withstand being carted around in bags for a year. No fancy or arty stuff at all, it is purely functional. It's just a diary and lots of lists but it keeps everything in one place.

I have a very boring life so my journal is v simple. I have a page a month at start to write birthdays and other important dates. Then a double page a week that I use for meal planning and to do lists.

I also have present buying page for family do I can keep track of what I have and how much I’ve spent. The idea is instead of having lots of lists you combine them into one place. So kids or work or hobbies are all together instead of Seperate diaries, pin boards and paper all over the place.

I have one that I dip in and out of, which is exactly the useful thing about bullet journal. If you ignore it for a month you don’t end up with days of blank diary page, you just pick it up and start at the next page. Mine will have a week of September, then all of October, a couple of days of November, a Christmas presents list, a week of December. But I know if I need to check something like, when I had that whinge conversation with the gas suppliers, it will be in there because I always use it to make notes for that sort of thing.

It’s a fantastic tool if you use it as a tool. I tried to get too arty with mine and it make it a chore not a tool. Now I stick to a couple of pens and a bit of washi tape if feeling like it need a spruce up. Its trial and error, try it and if you don’t like it do something else next time. Watch the proper Ryder Carroll video on YouTube and start with the basics before you make it fancy.

I started and found the arty side of it cathartic for stress and I 'need' lists to function, so in theory it was perfect but in reality I found it very time consuming.

Simple sounds great, what's a simple layout look like? I've looked at the Ryder Carroll video. Do you need a key? An index? Do you use the arrows and other codes, or colours?

An index is useful but I don't use colours, bullet points, arrows, symbols etc. Literally just lists with to dos crossed out when done and a diary.

I have a key because as I say mine is for work. So something like this l:

• task

*- priority task >do task tomorrow

What I like about the method is that I’ve tweaked it so much in the two years I’ve been doing it.

For example, I don’t bother with a monthly log or a weekly task reminder - I have a calendar at the beginning on a double page spread to cover 12 months and then use a one page, both sides for a daily log. I have a glossary and an ‘important numbers’ page instead of a ‘dates to remember this month/week’ page.

I use about one book every quarter.

I started one last year, it ran for a month, I got bored and gave up. I don't even remember where I've put the notebook that I used.

Yes! Mine is as unfancy as it gets, it's whatever pen is closest to hand and a Pukka Pad A5 squared notebook. I've been doing it since mid-September and have found it really does make a difference to how much I get done.

Mine has:
Double-page spread future log covering the next 6 months (will re-do this each quarter, adding the next 3 months, so the first one is October to March inclusive, the one I'll add next week will be January to June)

At the start of each month I have a double-page spread with the days numbered down the left-hand side for appointments and birthdays and a list of things I want to get done during the month on the right.

On the page following that each month I have a habit tracker, which has the days numbered out again and then things I'm trying to get into the habit of doing or want to track how may times I do them each month. Every time I do them, I fill in a square. It's things like 'Drink 4 pints of water', 'Spend 5 minutes tidying up', 'Yoga or bodyweight exercises'.

Other things I have pages for are business mileage, things I need to remember to do when I'm next in town (52 mile round trip, so it's annoying if you forget something!), books I've read (keep meaning to start one for books I want to read/things I want to watch), what the horses weigh on their weight tape measurements, what jobs are due back when for clients, things that I needed to get done before we went on holiday etc. etc. etc.

(And, obviously, my daily logs of lists of things I need to do, appointments and things I want to remember).

EggbertHeartsTina - thank you for the thread tip-off, am about to start reading now.

Links for anyone else interested:

Bullet Journal

BuJo Wankers 2

I've bought my book, dotted leuchtturm in green. I've made my index and I've just started adding a future log. Then I'm gonna add a habit tracker, monthly log and daily log.

Read both threads, very excited!

Oh I love my bullet journal. It's my (very scattered) brain on paper. I'm on about my 3rd notebook now, about 2.5years in. I just use whatever I have handy. I quite like A5 size, and I put a pocket in it to store pens/bits of paper... actually I just remembered dd's birth certificate is in there! I use it for everything and take it with me everywhere. It's basically a contained way of keeping all my scribbled notes sorted.
The calendar and index are super helpful. I don't always do all the dot/cross etc stuff.
Just jump in, you find what works for you. :)

We have a plain, basic WH Smith calendar for the family and I copied the pages, reduced on the scanner, to fit in my notebook so that's the 'diary' part for me. I update both as I go along for events, appointments etc.

I edge blank pages with strips of coloured washi tape, so I can easily find the page I use to record of my freelance hours worked, my reading list, what I did at the gym....whatever.

Blank pages used for various notes as needed.
There's an envelope taped in the back for bits of paper, receipts etc.
Thinking of contriving little pockets for a couple of those coffee loyalty cards to stop them stuffing up my wallet.

Nothing fancy or artistic at all, some colour-coding with tape/pens.

Love the idea of this, I have 3 notebooks on the go with various notes, shopping lists etc in. I'll look into how the diary part works and hopefully I'll be able to condense my scribbles down!

You can get blank sheets for filofaxes too. So you can have the best of both worlds - the calendars, indexes, to-do lists, contact, etc sheets for the formal stuff and the blank pages for being creative. So you can mix and match what suits you best.