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!

Oh also, if anyone's looking for a new kind of layout for monthly tasks, I've started doing mine as a kind of bingo board instead of a list. It's just a 1-page grid of boxes. I write a task in each box and colour them in (in all different colours) as I complete the tasks. Somehow even more satisfying than a tick list! I got the idea from a Pinterest BuJo picture, I think.

Ooh, I like that idea. I am not very good at completing my to-do list at all Have a house move this year so hoping I will gain some organisation from my journal.

It's funny how a different layout can really increase your motivation!

I got a new dotted leuchtturm for Christmas and I'm loving being able to be a bit more creative than I could be in my old lined BuJo!

Here's my current weekly spread (simple but it works for me!) and my new favourite page.

I'm trying to keep track of how much I'm walking at the moment so I made a tracker for it based on something I saw on Pinterest. I colour in a pair of footprints for every mile I walk - I did two today and it was so satisfying!

Awesome!

I'm a BuJo newbie - or, actually, hope to be one as soon as I have actually purchased a journal

I'll just sit quietly and watch for a while if I may

Hi Pacific, I just followed you over here from your other thread. I've been using my BuJo since ---- April & absolutely love it. Like you I've never really managed to stick to a standard diary format but the flexibility of this appeals to me.

Re: the future planning issue, I have an 8 month planner spread over 2 pages, with things more than 8 months away written in starting at the bottom of month 8's section. I tend to only actually use it for about 5-6 months before feeling like I'm having to look back too far so starting a new one.

PacificDogwood - sit and watch away! Don't feel you have to do so quietly though .
I think the top advice for newbies is that every BuJo is a work in progress and nothing has to be perfect (in spite of the fabulous creations on Pinterest etc).

Don't think that just because you think you've chosen a set-up at the beginning that suits you, you can't change it whenever you like. I've changed various fairly major things about my set-up while mid-BuJo.

Hello all, may I join too please?

I realise that actually, I'd been Bullet Journalling for a while really, just was using A4 scrap paper cut in half to A5 and caught together with a bulldog clip, but essentially, my lists were already in BuJo style so it hasn't taken me long to put them in a notebook.

I will still use my proper Google calendar as I sync a number of different calendars for both home, work and DH on that (with different colours of course!), but will use the diary section really to put my main work meetings, when the agendas need to be published and all the work that goes with it in the diary section.

For me it's the future log, the daily log and my collections which are going to be the most help I think at the moment. I've also set myself up a DPS with my meal planner which I used to do regularly, but has slipped for ages.

My shopping list will continue to be on the noticeboard in the futility room though as I want to encourage the rest of the household to write things down when they use them (although this can back fire when they put 'Chocolate LOTS', Jaffa cakes x 10 or other things, but they know the 'editor's' decision is final!). I then use a ToDo Ap on my phone which has every conceivable thing I'm likely to buy in Sainsbury's already categorised so all the fruit and veg under 'FV - tomatoes' or 'cold - milk' or even 'cheese - cheddar' and then just star the things I need to buy that week and unstar them on the way round once I've got them.

All I've got to do now is actually get on and get some of the stuff done and marked off!

I started bujoing around May last year and when I went to do a review of 2016 I realised how much more clearly I can remember the stuff I did in the second half of the year. It might be just because it's more recent, but I'm pretty sure it's because I was writing it down and reflecting on it. I'm also doing way more since I'm holding myself accountable.
I do love my bujo!

Hi everyone. I've long been a diary fan, touring through Filos, travellers notebooks, roterfadens, normal diaries etc. I started a bullet journal last year, but haven't stuck to it. But I love that you can flit backwards and forwards with it without lots of wasted space. So I've just picked it up again. I tend to have a future log and a weekly spread, plus the odd daily for particularly busy days. Odd pages for different things (Christmas, one for each child, house projects, home ed stuff), budget pages etc. I need to get to grips with whether I need a monthly spread or whether I just use the future log. I tend to get on well with it, then suddenly flounder without the structure of a diary.

Ooh - new BuJo fans on the thread! witsender - I do future log, monthly calendar and tasks page and then a weekly spread. I found that I wasn't using the task list on my monthly page much because I tended just to put jobs straight into my weekly spread, but this month I've made a kind of bingo card tasks page including one-off tasks and also more regular habit type things and am freling very satisfied colouring them in as I do them!

Has anyone else signed up to the bullet journal emails? I've just started using a daily plan bar and think i like it so far

It looks good but the daily plan bar wouldn't work for me as I do a weekly double page spread rather than a daily page spread. I tend to have zero, one or two scheduled things per day, and the rest are jobs which don't have a specific time, so I prefer a list rather than a time-based schedule iyswim. I've seen some very nice time bar ones on Pinterest though!

Don't tempt me with pinterest!
I've tried a one page weekly layout this week, instead of the two page spread I've been using. To be honest, I'm still playing around with it and trying to find the approach that works best for me.

I know - Pinterest is a horrendous time-sucker!

I know it's the 14. already but I am still looking for a journal to get stuck in to and ideally I'd like one with blank pages for bullet journaling AND a 2017 calendar bit, just to mark a few things like distant relatives' birthdays or the meeting I'm book to go to in November 2017 (I really cannot be asked to migrate that kind of stuff every month - do I have to?! ).

Anybody share what note book they are using?
I'd be happy to shell out some money for the Right One

I'm using the Lechtturm? A6 with dots, but I'm not planning on huge decorative pages.
I also have few timed things that aren't work related, so just have a list as long as needed (have two days I didn't even note this week as we're on holiday!)

I'm using the Lechtturm? A6 with dots, but I'm not planning on huge decorative pages.
I also have few timed things that aren't work related, so just have a list as long as needed (have two days I didn't even note this week as we're on holiday!)

Oh, I won't be doing lots of decorative pages, and am not much of a girlie girl, so don't want anything frilly.
Grey Moleskin journal would do me fine but I'd like the added calendar function.

Nooo you don't need to migrate stuff like that! The Bullet Journalling isn't just the daily journal pages, it's the whole thing. You have your future log at the beginning, which is your year-to-view, with all the birthdays, far ahead appointments and stuff.

You print out calendars and stick them in, basically. The first 13 double pages of mine are monthly calendars, with a free page next to each to write things I've to do on.

I use a Lechtturm too, but an A5. Dotted one.

Thank you!

I've also been looking at Rhodia - I love beautiful stationary.

Hi, can I join please? I've just gone back to work after DC2 and don't know whether I'm coming or going half the time. Let alone longer term planning! I've always been keen on a good list, so this sounds brilliant for me - as well as being able to keep a record of memories that would otherwise get forgotten in the daily rush.