I am a big doodler. I have a short attention span, so when I’m in class I love to doodle when I get bored. I usually draw box letters, little swirls or a classic eye. Doodling is relaxing to me— it gives me a break from the millions of thoughts I have running through my mind at once. One day I saw someone bullet journaling on Tik Tok. Combining doodles and planning out your schedule — how could I not love it? Feeling inspired, I walked over to the bookstore and got myself a blank journal so I could try it out.
A bullet journal is basically a planner, but everything is drawn out in an aesthetically pleasing way or accompanied by relevant little doodles. For example, some people like to draw the date to look like a little calendar (sounds cute, right?). It adds a little more flair compared to your average, straightforward planner.
At first, bullet journaling was really fun. I bought little colored pencils that I would use to color code different things with. If I saw any cute doodles, or other people’s bullet journals on social media, I would try them out on my own. For the first week, I had a list of my goals for the semester, a daily schedule and a “To Do” list for the other organizations I am involved in. The journal was very colorful and aesthetically pleasing to look at.
However, as the semester progressed and my course load got a lot heavier, I had less time to write doodles and draw things out in my bullet journal. I stopped coloring things in, and I definitely put way less effort into organizing everything as a whole. I got busier, and I did not have time to just sit down and journal.
I still use my bullet journal, but my doodling has limited to just drawing the date in block letters or something similar. I don’t have little drawings next to my grocery list, or my to do list— I don’t really have doodles at all. So, my end conclusion from my experience of bullet journaling? It looks cute, but I just don’t have the time to really put effort into it.
Nonetheless, I am a person who always has my mind running, and it’s nice getting to control where everything goes in the journal and how I want to put things. It still feels good to cross everything off or to have everything listed somewhere in there. Bullet journaling is not exactly for me, but I definitely recommend that everyone tries it sometime in their life!