Bullet Journal

[mercifulTehlu]

I've just found out about this fab way of organising your life, thanks to a kind poster on the 'people who are efficient ' thread. I was wondering if any other MNers are Bullet Journalers? here is the website if anyone's interested.

It's only a couple of days since I started my journal, but I can already see that it's going to revolutionise my ability to be organised. I've tried loads of apps, lists etc in the past, but have never really hit on a system that worked for me. I have very high hopes of this one though (plus it involves pretty stationery )!

I came in MN to find more info on the billet journal after seeing it mentioned on the "efficient" thread a couple of days ago.

Funnily enough I had just finished reading GTD a few days ago and was trying to reorganise and get my head round all the lists/ projects I ended up with. Something was telling me that this wasn't going to work for me.

I watched the video Bullet journal yesterday and it felt like a "I think this is it!" moment.

I've got myself a notebook and tried starting it but I'm a bit stuck!

How do you monitor things you need to do every day. I currently have a cleaning routine ( did things each day)

How do you incorporate meal planning?

Where do you put the random stuff that needs doing but is not necessarily urgent or anything like find a storage box for jewellery. Do you dump it all on a separate list or do you need to allocate it to a day?

Thank you.

I

How is Filofax not customizable? I've had their hole punch and my own page designs for years.

Hi ContentsPage - I'd have a separate list for those things. I've got a page where I just list all my housework tasks. I've divided them into daily, weekly and monthly. You could do an actual schedule with days though. I've tried that but it doesn't work for me as I never stick to it if I make my routine too prescriptive.

As for meal planning, I'm having a masterlist of meals I tend to make, plus a page for new recipes I find and want to try, but I don't normally write down my weekly meal plan except on my shopping list itself, which I don't keep after I've been shopping. I might start adding what we have for dinner to my daily journal entry though.

MinesAPintOfTea - yes, I suppose Filofax is customisable and could be used for bullet journal (which is, after all, a system of using a notebook/diary rather than a type of notebook/diary itself iyswim).

Index
January calendar on LHS, january tasks [eg invoicing, payrun, updating regular stuff] on the RHS [I print out labels with lists of tasks so I don't have to write it every time.

Then into the week/day stuff - you customise it to be what you want.

Gotcha!

merc

Would you ask MNHQ to put this in the Housekeeping topic, pretty please?
(Just report your thread starting post and ask, should be no problem)

Q: would a Day-A-Page Calendar be ok to use?
Say yes, coz I bought one already

Thanks.

I've spent this morning going through all my lists etc and have put them in my journal! Yay! I've still got to incorporate the meal planning and cleaning.

I actually feel a little better just by doing this! I had too many lists that I just didn't know how to keep on top of.

I have separate pages for each course I run so I can make notes as I design it; and each week page consists of days on the RHS with 3-4 lines in between, so I can add 'to dos' down the week as I often have to do things by a certain day, and on the far RHS that's where the To Do list goes. On the LHS of each double page, I put any notes to do with meetings/contacts/issues that week; I usually mind map it to keep it simple. So I end up with a double page for every week of the year and a double page for each course I run. I will also have a 'to do in month' double page at the end/start of each month for an overview. If I go on a course, I will also give it a page of its own.

So my index will be:
1-2 January
3-4 Feb

etc to 23/24 Dec
25 January tasks
26/27 W/C 4th Jan
28/29 Course title/date
30/31 W/C 11th Jan
32/33 Safeguarding course notes/contacts
34/35 W/C 18th Jan

Etc etc.
If I need to add tasks to Feb before the end of Jan I guesstimate that 38/39 will be February Tasks and fill it in before I get to the 25th Of Jan week.

Hi Zing - have asked MNHQ to move it. The Day-A-Page calendar thing - I don't know. If all it has are calendar pages it might not really work, because where would you put your index or any to-do lists, or your 6 month overview ('Future Log') or any other pages and lists you might want to include?

For me, the main points of the bullet journal are a) the index, which makes everything findable and b) the fact that it's not just a diary /calendar, it's where you keep ALL your info.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear ! I think you pretty much need a blank notebook tbh.

I am using a less slick method, but very similar to this. I'm in :)

Hi all - we'll pop it over to Housekeeping now.

Yay Allgunsblazing! The more the merrier. Just off to tick off some completed tasks ...

This sounds utterly marvellous. I'd never heard of Bullet Journals, but I'm converted!

Hurrah - another convert! I am hoping thus thread will run and run, and we can all inspire each other with our drooling over beautiful stationery innovative tweaks to the already excellent system. DoreenLethal is clearly our resident expert. I'm a mere enthusiastic newbie!

I already feel more calm and in control because I know that all the stuff I need to do is in that notebook so I'm not going to forget stuff.

Hello all I'm joining in here! I've got a new notebook that is arriving today (thanks amazon prime!) and I am ready to go.

This system sounds perfect for me. I am a list maker, but I end up with so many lists, on many different pieces of paper, that all end up having pretty much the same things on because I'm so disorganised I lose all the lists.

I love that it's a jump in anywhere sort of system, as I don't like starting new diaries etc. any other day than Jan 1st due to wasted space and I also like the flexibility of it. I've written a list (!!) of the sort of things I want space for. The index is a great idea. No more scrabbling around trying to figure out which day the kids go back to school - I'll know where my list is! Loads of great ideas here too.

This sounds right up my street, am I OK to join in please? Do have a filofax but find that kitting it out with all the inserts is costly.

Yay! Hello fellow converts! Am just sitting down with my lovely Harry Potter notebook . I checked my page of 'daily household tasks' this morning, wrote into today's journal entry the things I'm going to get done today and have just ticked some off.

I'm still in the process of creating my Mega list - it's not nearly as mega as I expected tbh. Maybe that's just because I have low diy/decor standards! Also I can't really afford to do anything major to the house atm if it requires buying stuff!

Haven't actually started my meals list yet, but will quite enjoy thinking about that one. Right - off to do more tasks so I can tick them off!

I'm wondering how do you guys keep on top of your stuff thats not urgent but till needs doing. Do you review weekly and then alllocate a day?

I've just had a browse on Pinterest etc and some of these look like people spend more time in making them look pretty than actually useful! Although, I now want colourful pens, washi tape and funky tabs!

Yy to reviewing and allocating a day. Or just see it on your monthly task list and get it done. Although I'm mostly intending to be 'migrating' tasks from my monthly task list, writing them into my daily journal entry for the day I plan to do them and then crossing them off when I've done them, sometimes I just see an opportunity to do a task from my monthly list which I hadn't particularly planned to do that day, and just do it and tick it off on there, cos I'm just that spontaneous, me .

One of the things I love about bullet journal is the process of having to rewrite tasks to migrate them. The first month I did this I looked at each item and thought can I be bothered to migrate it. If I can't be bothered to migrate it how important is it? It really helps focus you on what is important

I am in.. I have salivated over Pinterest and have now got my BuJo as all the cool kids call it up and running.

I immediately feel calmer after a stressful few weeks of feeling like I was on the verge of a breakdown with all the shit I was trying to juggle..

I love it!

God I can't believe how much more organised I feel already! And yet at the same time a bit that I have felt so disorganised for so long. I mean, fgs, I am effectively a sahm with school age children (I work about 4 hours a week!). You'd think I'd easily have time to do everything I need to do. Maybe that's the problem though - they do say that tasks expand to fill the time available!
Anyway, I am currently looking for a full time job, so hopefully BuJo will help me through the transition back to wohm!

Where can you get cheap tabs that people use to easily find things? I've found that I have alot of "projects" that I need to keep referring to. I'm on a budget and the local stationers was extortionate! Thx

I just had a look, ContentsPage - there are lots on Amazon. Really cheap if you just want the sticky-backed papery kind, but also some more durable ones which aren't too expensive. Might order some myself - good idea!

google 'sticky tabs' - you can get them in all sorts of stationary stores.