Bullet journaling has become the new productivity craze amongst adults, especially college students. From being a bullet journal person myself, it is way more helpful than having to organize your planner; it keeps you motivated to keep track of your life, in all ways. Between tracking how much water you intake, your daily mood, and important dates and appointments, it helps you feel motivated to stay organized.
This type of journaling and planning helps you use a system that you can swear by, to organize and archive your life. But unfortunately, bullet journaling can feel overwhelming when you first start. The constant scrolling on Instagram and Pinterest of people who have done it for years can be very discouraging. But, you should not discourage yourself. Your handwriting is perfect, do not worry about how it looks, you do not need to learn calligraphy to be able to do bullet journaling. It’s also okay to make mistakes. Strike through your words. It’s a sign that you are using bullet journaling for what it is intended to do: log and manage the present and plan for the future through an ever-evolving life cycle.
For the people who have not done bullet journaling, here a quick list of what will help you in this process and transition:
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Get a journal – start with an inexpensive notebook, but go with one with blank pages (no lines or with lines is your choice)
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Get writing utensils – go for pens that you are comfortable with, and then you can work your way into ballpoint pens, and calligraphy if you want to go that route with your journal
Here’s my personal way to set up a bullet journal. It has helped me through junior year of high school until now, and it helps me stay motivated, organized, and helps me decompress after a long week of schoolwork.
Here is the Ivy-way of keeping yourself organized:
- Create a cover page
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For me, creating a cover page helps me keep up with what year it is since I have been doing this for quite awhile now, but it depends on you.
- Create an index on the first 1-2 pages
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After numbering your pages (which I highly suggest you do), creating an index will help you keep track of the information that is in your journal. In my index, I jot down where my months are, my trackers, and other things.
- Future Log
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Future logs are crucial in looking at your life in the long run. This is essentially a place for you to store all the information about future events in your life like birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, vacations, weddings, etc.
- Monthly Log
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This is basically where you create a monthly overview and plan things for the month. This is where I get the most creative. I like to make themes for each month so I create monthly cover pages.
- Weekly Log
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The smallest spread in the journal: the weekly log. This is an overview of your weeks, with boxes for every day.
- Trackers
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At the end of every month, I like to have certain trackers. The ones that I have been repeating for the past two years are a habit tracker, a water tracker, and a mental health tracker, also known as a mood tracker.
Bullet journaling has helped me so much with making myself more organized and looking out for myself. It is an amazing way to keep you motivated, and many people love it after they try it for the first time!