The Ultimate Guide to Bullet Journaling

Since the new year rolled around, bullet journaling has been all over Pinterest and I couldn’t help but try out the fad too. I think it’s going well for me, but I have a habit of being over organized, to the point where I am copying the same thing over and over in different systems, so we’ll see how long this lasts. 

Supplies: 

• Notebook
  • The bullet journaling website recommends a specific notebook for bullet journaling, but I didn’t know how long I would stick with it, so I bought two little Moleskine notebooks on sale at the container store. They’re working just fine for me, but if you are really serious about this, check out the website and see what they recommend. 
• Writing Utensil
  • I use different pens depending on my mood. I like to use black because I enjoy the uniformity of sticking to one color (and I can always find a black pen). I switch back and forth between my Staedtler pens and my Office Depot brand pens (which I buy by the box - can’t ever have enough). Sometimes I’ll use glitter pen if I’m feeling fancy. You can use whatever you want; there are no limits. You can even use watercolor. It might be kind of hard to make lists though. 

Process: 

     The bullet journaling website says that bullet journaling is a “customizable and forgiving organization system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary.” The whole premise is based on a system called Rapid Logging, which is basically shorthand without the different language. There’s a detailed explanation of the system here (bulletjournal.com/get-started/) that teaches you how to set up your journal and lists some tips for using it. The first page is your key, which is a list of all the bullet points you use, so you have something to reference while you’re still learning or forget what a certain type of bullet point is for. Make it your own, but don’t make this too complicated or long, otherwise you won’t remember it and you’ll abandon it. The next page is your index, which is exactly what it sounds like. Be sure to number the pages of your journal, whether you do it as you go along or all at once at the beginning. Then you put in a yearly, monthly, and daily log. This is where you actually do the journaling. For the yearly log, I would draw out the months in a chart and number them, like you see in the back of calendars where the list the next year. For the monthly log, I did a page per month and a line per day, so I can write important things for that day down. You could also do a calendar format. The daily log is your to-do list, journal, and diary. Write the date where you want to begin writing, and go to town. 

My Experience: 

Since I already have a planner, I decided I wouldn’t be able to to do the conventional bullet journaling, where you use a to-do list. So I decided I would make it a journal, but then I remembered that I have a five year journal, so I figured that wouldn’t work. I really wanted this to work because I love lists. So I decided to make lists. I make to do lists, lists of this I want to make/watch/eat/etc, and lists of things I know I’ll never do. So my bullet journal is basically a big bucket list, which I love. I would recommend trying this, or weaving it in to your normal bullet journaling, because it’s so satisfying to get little things like this out of your head and down on paper. 

Do you bullet journal or would you like to start? What do you do in yours? Let me know in a comment below!