Bullet Journal thread 3: organise your life!

[Eolian]

For newbies... Bullet Journal is a special method of setting up and using a notebook as a calendar/planner/journal/habit tracker/bunch of lists/record of your achievements/diet log/exercise plan/doodle pad/anything you fancy all in one!

It is all over Pinterest and Instagram, so there's a whole world of inspiration out there. Much of what you'll see there is full of intimidatingly beautiful calligraphy and embellishment but yours doesn't have to be!

Explanation of the set-up to follow. Or you can jump right in by checking out the instructions and video on the Bullet Journal website .

The system can seem a bit strange and complicated at first, but we're here to help. And once you've got the hang of the basics, you can customise the system any way you like.

Oh and if you love beautiful stationery, this is the perfect excuse to indulge!

I may have ordered some more stationery

Glad to have found you all!

Marking place to come back to

Hello all, I was on the first thread under a different name. I've been happily using my bullet journal all year, although I don't do all of the future planning stuff - I use Google calendar for this which works well and means that I can share calendars with dp. Mine isn't pretty either. It's just a collection of to do lists really, with a weekly diary. I plan my week every Friday, copying my appointments over from Google. It's been working really well.

I've just started back at work after maternity leave and I am looking for ideas how to use a bullet journal at work. It doesn't seem to work so well as everything at work is done electronically and I am used to using Outlook for my calendar and to do list. To an extent I have to do this so that other people can access my documents. Any suggestions for how people have made this work?

Happy new year everyone!

I am not going to use it at work but I have a fairly nice desk diary I use at work where I put everything for the day - just as I get in each morning. Week to a view.

Could you print out a weekly/monthly Calendar view from outlook.

I use mine for both work and home. I also have to use an outlook calendar but my to do lists etc are my own.
I do a brief weekly spread and transfer in my meetings so I can see what time is available to me. I could do that on outlook but it seems to suit me better to write it out like this.
I have a master list of tasks and then use daily logs for smaller tasks and sub tasks.
I also use it for meeting notes and find the index system brilliant for all the various projects I am working on.
I much prefer working with pen and paper than electronically so I suppose it depends on your own preferences and the nature of your work.

I use mine at work as well, in a very similar way to TheVery
I like to have a list I can tick off
It does mean some repetition, but that helps me remember what I'm supposed to be doing when.

Does anyone have a link to a good place to print off A5 calendars? I keep following Google links that end nowhere, or you have to pay

www.calendarlabs.com/printable-calendar.php

Does anyone print off stickers? How do you do it? A full A4 page seems a bit much for my A6 book.

I make my own stickers, on the 21 stickers per page, and print on one side only, turn it around and print the other side. I mainly do this for weekly or monthly regular tasks that are all done the same so that I don't forget. EG Payrun, HMRC tax, reports, expenses.

My BJ is not fancy, it is functional.

On one side I mean the left hand side, then print the other side upside down, and cut the sticker strip down the middle to make 42 single stickers.

I get you, so your pages are 3*7, and you print 7 3 1/2 then take them off, then later print the rest?

I am still desperately waiting for emerald Leuchtrumm I have ordered. Can't wait to get started and frustrated that it hasn't come before I go back to work tomorrow!!

Chuck, thank you, that's my evening sorted then!!

No sorry not explaining well - here's one I did for printing 42 plant based activity labels.

Print this, then flip the paper over so that the blank side is on the left and print again. You get 6 columns of labels, 3 upside down . Cut each column in half and bobs you uncle

Aha that makes sense!

Thanks for the ideas. I agree that the act of writing things down helps to clarify things in my mind, so copying from my electronic diary into the bujo isn't necessarily a bad thing

I'm giving this a try this year.

Is anyone here a teacher? Do you think it can work for teacher related planning / organising? I'm guessing it would need to be separate from a home one ...?

Hmm. Back at my desk. Do you think I might have a notebook problem?

Edna I'm a teacher.

We have to use a very rigid planning format (shared classes so no way around it) so I don't use mine for planning, but I do have a running page for noting ideas for displays and resources. I also have a "deadlines" page which I can refer to quickly.

The most valuable thing I do is note down when I had meetings with parents (initials only, obviously) - it means I have a record with me whenever I need it. I have a school diary too, but try to leave that at work each evening and inevitably that is when somebody has an urgent question about which date something happened on!

I have one for school and one for home. The work one is in addition to a lesson planner thing, but instead now of having different notebooks and scraps of paper for staff meetings, training courses, to do lists etc, it's all in one book. I love it.

That's helpful thanks both.

Hello again everyone - OP here! Thread had fallen off my Threads I'm On, but I'm still BuJoing away. Loving my raspberry Leuchtturm. Has anyone seen the special edition centenary metallic ones?

ednabucket - I'm a teacher too. I only do supply and private classes atm and I track all of that in my BuJo. If I went back to part time or full time teaching in a school, I think I'd have to have a work BuJo and a home BuJo. In truth, of I went back full time I'm not sure I'd even manage to have time to write in a BuJo, even though it would help if I did!