About a year ago I heard of something called bullet journaling. I googled it and found thousands of pictures of very artistic, detailed pages that overwhelmed me so much I decided I wasn’t’t “artsy” enough for it. Recently as I have started college and stopped dancing, I realized that I don’t check in with myself as much as I used to. I realized that even though I was decently organized, I didn’t’t feel content with how I was living my life. Yea my grades are alright, but I feel like I should be working just as hard on my mental health as I do my academic success. So, without further ado, here is the start of a series that will show how a busy college student dealing with my anxiety can work on her academics and mental health all at once!
Bullet Journaling: How to Start
First of all, let me set some ground rules. I am a freshman intended nursing college student. I have mental illnesses that I fight every single day. I am by no means a professional artist, therapist, or mother telling you what to do. Everything and anything I say is my opinion and what I do is what I believe works for me. In no way, shape, or form am I trying to tell you how to live your life.
Ok, now some ground rules for the journaling itself. Based off of many YouTube videos and Pinterest boards, these are the rules you need to accept in order to thoroughly enjoy this experience.
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Do not compare your journal to everyone else’s.
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You do not have to do the intricate flowers if you don’t want to.
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Not every layout you try is going to work for you, and that is ok.
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Not everything you draw is going to come out the way you planned, and that is ok.
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No one system works for everyone, develop your own that makes sense to you.
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The goals you have can be different than the goals of others, and that is ok.
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You are going to mess up, and it will look obvious, and that is ok.
Now comes the fun part!!! Actually starting!!
First you need to get your supplies:
1. A journal
This can literally be any journal you want it to be. This can be that half of a notebook you didn’t’t use from English last year, or you can go and order a journal specifically meant for bullet journaling. If you want to order a journal meant for bujo (my abbreviation for bullet journaling) then I would recommend either a Moleskine or a Leuchtturm1917 journal (what I am currently using). I am using the dotted version because I like the idea of being able to make straight lines both vertically and horizontally, but you do you boo.
2. A black pen
You are going to need this for every single page in your journal. Make sure it doesn’t bleed through paper too much.
**technically this is all you really need but I like to make my stuff pretty so here are the other things I would recommend getting:
3. A little ruler
Instead of a normal ruler, this will allow you to 1- bring it with you and 2- have it more stable when you are drawing lines
4. Highlighters
Because color
5. Colorful pens
See 4
6. Tombow Dual Brush Pens
Not going to lie, I don’t have these yet (i’m waiting for Christmas money to roll in lol) but almost every YouTube/Pinterest board I looked at recommended these including one of my sorority sisters who owns her own decal company ( she’s AMAZING please check her out!! ) My goal is to write an article each month to add to this series so hopefully in the January one I will be able to give y’all some more details.
7. Washi tape
This is great to use to 1- cover up mistakes and 2- mark your borders so that you can find certain pages you want quickly. Not necessary but nice if you like having color coordinated sections.
How to set it up:
So there is somewhat a method to the madness that is bullet journaling. The guy who created it, Ryder Carroll, developed the way you should originally start your bujo. It goes as follows:
Index
This is your normal index. This is where you should put the title of whatever the page is, along with the page number (ex: November 2017 pages 2-3) pleaaaase make sure to keep up with this or you’ll spend way too much time just trying to find the page instead of using it for what is was meant for. Leave 3 pages worth of space so that you won’t run out of room to index your pages.
Key (I’m adding this one in)
This is where you have all your symbols along with what they mean. I probably put a little too many symbols because in the week I have had this, I have already done a lot of flipping back to see what the heck all these circles and triangles mean. Again, bujo has a learning curve.
The Future Log
I would qualify this also as your yearly spread. This is where you keep the major dates down for the year all on one page (birthday’s, anniversaries, trips, etc.) I personally do not have one of these because it’s already november and it would be pointless to write all the months that have already passed, but I did make a condensed version of it. Make this 2 pages so that you can look at your whole year at a time.
(The future log for me is on the right in this picture)
The monthly log
This is where you layout your monthly spread. The left page is your calendar, so all of the days should be on there. I personally went with a classic calendar look because that how I can see how many weeks left until due dates, but others have put numbers and days of the week in a vertical line down at the left side of the page to allow for a whole line of room to write. This is where you should put big things like birthdays, tests, due dates for papers, any events you feel you need to see on your monthly spread. The right page is your task page. This is where you can keep track of all the things you need to do for those events (get birthday present, go to study session, etc.). I personally don’t have this because that is what I want my weekly spread to be used for, but do whatever floats your boat.
(the monthly log for me is on the left of this picture)
The daily log
I like to call this my weekly spread because its your week broken down into days over 2 pages like “normal planners” usually have. For me, this is how I keep track of my studying habits and what I want to get done each day. Some people also add a baby month calendar to the corner just in case you want to look ahead; I added a next week section instead because honestly I just ran out of room. I also added a mood tracker because I think it’s important to sit down and focus on yourself and how today has gone for you each day. It’s almost like in yoga how they say to check in with your body just to see how its doing, that what I’m doing with my mood tracker. Brain yoga you could call it.
Some lil extras I put in for this month:
Habit tracker
Many people have a habit tracker to see visually how they live their lives. Sometimes it’s just to see visually how much you do something, other times it is used as a reminding tool (pretty much what I’m solely using it for). I want to remind myself to drink plenty of water and hit 10,000 steps everyday, and you bet I will look at my bujo at the end of the day and go for a walk if I don’t have my 10,000 steps in yet just so I can fill that little square in. I’m also using it for things that seem kind of boring (laundry, call mom/dad, etc.) but this is going to be my way of making sure I am keeping up with both my parents and my own responsibilities. Now I can look at my bujo and think “oh, I haven’t called Mom this week yet, I’ll go ahead and do that”.
One smile a day
Sometimes at the end of the day, all I can focus on is everything that went wrong that day. I want to change that, so I created a “one smile a day” page. This is where I want to write down one good thing that happens every day so when I am feeling down or overwhelmed, I can look back at this page and remember that good things do happen to me, and they happen everyday in fact.
I hope this article has inspired some other bullet journals, I’ll update again at the end of December!!