Bullet journaling is a form of planning and journaling that has blown up over the past few years. Originally created by Ryder Carroll in 2013, this style of agenda/journal has become a phenomenon in the world of highly organized stationery addicts. Bullet journaling is a mix between a personal journal, a planner, a habit tracker, a dream journal, a finance tracker, a mood tracker and literally anything else anyone could possibly need in order to stay as organized as possible. It’s a planner that is fully customizable by you for all of your needs and wants; a way to summarize your year to look back on whenever you want.
A bullet journal can be as plain or as detailed and colorful as you’d like. Many people like to do something called a monthly theme, where certain doodles, drawings and/or colors are dedicated to each month. This helps to separate the months in your journal on a visual level, while also keeping things fun and fresh for you so you don’t get bored with keeping track of these important things. It can be fun to spice up each month with a new color scheme and drawing theme. You can base these themes on the seasons, a significant holiday within that month, a color you associate with that time of year, or literally anything at all. There are no rules! The goal with a bullet journal is just to be as productive as you can be!
Bullet journaling has a lot of common spreads used by many bullet journalers to stay organized and keep themselves accountable. It’s something worth considering if you have problems remembering when was the last time that you washed your hair, or if you have trouble keeping yourself accountable with going to the gym, eating healthy or going to bed on time. Incorporating a habit tracker into your monthly bullet journal set up is a good way to ensure that you’re keeping up with your habits.
Another commonly used spread in a bullet journal is an expense tracker. This is a great way to track your finances if you’re trying to save money, find out if you tend to spend too much, or just want a visual on how much money you have going in and out of your account on a month-to-month basis. It’s great for budgeting your monthly spending and for understanding how much you spend versus how much you make.
Laying out your weekly set up can be a challenge to some. You need to customize this setup depending on how productive you want to be that week, and how you want to visualize your to-do list, your appointments and your schedule. Whether you like to have a lot of room for your to-do list or you want to give more space for your day-to-day schedule, it should reflect in your weekly setup. However, don’t be afraid to mix it up each week and try something new. Look at references on Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest to get ideas on how you can best layout your weekly or daily setup to maximize productivity.
Another reason that people love the bullet journal format is because of the yearly layout. The best way to set up a bullet journal is to have an overall yearly layout that you can refer to while setting up your monthly spread. Then, you can refer to your monthly spread while setting up your weekly spread, and refer to your weekly spread while setting up your daily spread. This ensures that no appointments will be missed, no task goes undone, and no birthday is forgotten.
Bullet journaling is a great way to keep yourself organized in the new year. Let’s make 2020 about reclaiming our time and ditching procrastination. This can be the year for you to be as productive as you want or need to be. If you have been feeling unorganized and forgetful, or are just looking for a new creative outlet to help you keep yourself accountable, give this a try. Throw forgetfulness out of the window and make every moment exactly what you want it to be.