BuJo Wankers 2 - declutter your mind!

[mercifulTehlu]

Woo hoo! It's the second Bullet Journal thread! For the benefit of newbies - Bullet Journal is a brilliant way to organise your whole life in a lovely notebook. Perfect for anyone who has tried every app and every scheduling system but just can't seem to get on top of things. Also perfect for lovers of beautiful stationery and especially for people who like lists!

Sooo - get out your fineliners and your washi tape! Stroke your Leuchtturms! And get all that stuff that's whizzing round in your head out onto paper instead!

website here

I have started a "jobs to do in town" list as I'm an online shopper usually so I don't go into town regularly. When I do I intend to gather up all the bitty jobs that are waiting for a visit to town and tick them all off with a fancy coloured pen

I had to go into town yesterday to pay in a random cheque from HMRC (goodness only knows why they have sent me a refund as my spreadsheet balances to zero) but my trusty bujo list reminded me that I also needed a watch battery and a key cutting. Usually this "list" appears only in my head and I usually get home and then remember something that I could have done in town.

My work bujo is working really well although I have gone back to my tiger desk planner for my daily lists as it's quicker than drawing up the same thing in my bujo.

The husband is also trying a bujo but I am not sharing my pens

More of a lurker really but love reading about how everyone uses their journals.

I have one for work and one for home now. They are very functional/boring and I only use automatic pencil to write in mine because I like to be able to erase stuff if things change. I bought some washi tape in Lidl but hardly use it.

I use a small diary from Xmas for future planning and also have lists of things I've ordered online, I cross them out when they arrive.

My current obsession is herbal tea so I set up a list of what I have, and what I'd like to try next. I've also done a little spread on the benefits of every tea I have. I put all this kind of stuff at the back.

In my home journal I do a memory page for each month at the end of the daily log for that month. That's the one page I do try and be more creative with :)

Fraggled, mine is purely functional too. Its supposed to be making my life easier, if i start prettifying it and making it perfect, it will end up stealing hours of my time!

I can't find my bujo

Don;t think I've left it anywhere so it must be here somewhere?!

Kewcumber Hope you find it soon!

I made this notebook cover for DS2. I might steal it...

Rainbow's HHGTTG one had given me an idea for my next felted notebook cover :)

I just cracked and ordered an orange Leuchtturm with grey pen loop. Stop this madness...

Have you seen the advert with the teddy that is "one of the family" and then it gets lost, but they find it again with an electronic tag? (It's actually a sausage ad ) That is what we need to stick inside the journal, some kind of tracking device. Or, keep it in a wee purse next to your iPhone at all times!

Fraggled - I like your tea page idea! I'm a bit of a tea freak, but the non-herbal kind. I like the idea of doing occasional pages of stuff about current interests or obsessions. Although atm mine would probably be a page about Tom Hiddleston (after watching him in that new BBC series The Night Manager) .

tags already exist...

Found you!

Since becoming a BuJo Wanker I have:

• earned £45 by sending unwanted games and DVDs to Music Magpie
• put in a PPI claim
• done a freezer audit

BuJoing saves money which can then be spent on beautiful stationery

Good work, FairNotFair! BuJoing hasn't saved me money yet, but at least I didn't have to buy a notebook .

Ooh Soup, I so need to get something like that.
(I suppose you could also photograph every page in the journal and save that somewhere, but I would not remember - I'd have to add it to my list I suppose!)

I can't even contemplate losing mine. I'm very impressed with all the creativity onthe thread, won't pretend I can join in.
Does anyone have a sort of written procedure for using their journal? I have so many lists I feel I need to know when to check them and actually do the stuff. I do feel more in control but not sure I'm seeing the full benefit yet.

I think the mind-freeing feeling I get from brain-dumping in my BuJo is the best thing about it - even better than the increased efficiency. Before becoming a BuJo Wanker I perpetually suffered from a nagging "Eek - what have I forgotten? What should I be doing at this moment?" feeling. That feeling has actually gone! I only hope it stays gone once I start work...

Tehlu, it is exactly that feeling that I suffered with constantly. I never relaxed. Just collapsed into bed each night. I wasn't being productive all day between getting up and going to bed. Just spinning in a tizz with a million jobs whizzing inside my head. And getting distracted by MN, a lot, I think like an escape mechanism.

I haven't got into the habit of sitting down before I go to bed yet, but I go to bed with a strong sense of having enough done for the day. And a clear idea of what I need to do tomorrow. So each morning is calmer, as I have a clear sense of what my focus needs to be on that day rather than wanting to achieve everything all at once and getting nowhere.

I still need to work on my MN distraction but at least now, I have my bujo which tells me how much more I need to do and therefore that it's OK if I just have a quick nosy at what's going on.

It's just occurred to me...
Remember what's it like with toddlers? When you are trying to achieve something and you get constantly interrupted and it takes an age to do a quick job, and that's only if you remember to go back to it.

As a lone parent to 3, I am constantly interrupted at home. At work, I am in a responsible professional job role, where everything has to be documented and there is no room for error. I have to respond "on the hoof" to whatever is happening, and rarely get to complete a task without interruption, and constantly "catching up."

So all day, I am on high alert, responding NOW to whatever someone demands, never getting simple tasks done as quick as they should be, and always getting sidetracked.

I have often said that my brain never gets the opportunity to finish a thought. It's no wonder I was so frazzled when I think about how my responsibilities put pressure on me all day long.

Then as soon as there was no one in front of me demanding, I collapsed in a heap.

I have noticed that I am not as tired as I was previously. I am also finding it easier to get out of bed in the mornings, without a huge fear of what today may bring. I attribute that to the freer brain due to using bujo.

I can't wait to look back in a year's time to see how much I have achieved.

Kewcumber oh no not another casualty I hope it's turned up now.*
Soup* that's awesome, I have loads of felt and fabric scraps, I may have to make a bujo cosy.

I've done loads of brain dumping today, it really does clear the mind.

Zapp your last post could almost describe my life, although I'm not a lone parent but my dh is often away with work and his health isn't that great so I do more than half of the home stuff. I handed my notice in at work (2 months to go eek) and I'm in the incredibly fortunate position that I can take a few weeks out before I need to be earning again so my brain dump is all about how to improve my health, my family life and figure out wtf I'm going to do next. Kudos to you for keeping it all together.

Ok!

I've lurked for a while. Then I bought myself the kit.

NOW I'M HOOKED!

So here I am :) officially!

About to sit down and get all my March bits ready!

Kew, I really hope you have found your bujo. I think losing mine would be the final straw that would send me to a corner to rock sobbing to myself.

Rainbow, wow a few weeks to get things sorted sounds amazing. I hope your figuring out wtf to do is really successful and the start of a positive new chapter for you. I would really like to be a sahm but until I win the lottery, I will have to plod on.
My kids are sch age, bit I love having a clean tidy organised home. And could spend most of my days reading if I was left to it. Don't understand people who say they would be bored without a job. They clearly haven't discovered MN.
Mother igloo, welcome, if you find it half as useful as I do, you will be glad you delurked.

Woo hoo - welcome, motherigloo!

Zapp and Rainbow - I don't even have the excuse of small dc or a particularly busy schedule. I am just lazy, disorganised and easily distracted .