The Bullet Journal

My Bullet Journal

The other day, I was browsing Facebook and Pinterest (when I should have been doing calculus homework), and I came across someone that was absolutely gushing over something called "Bullet Journaling". Well, being as that I was bored, I couldn't help but check it out. And I feel in love. So, now I'm going to show you mine, why it works, and why I love it.

First, I googled "Bullet Journal". And I found the official site here. There's an awesome video and lots of good ideas to get started. But, right from the start, I saw so much more here. He's a simple guy- obviously isn't in school, doesn't have 3 kids, 4 soccer teams, and a mess of craziness going on in his life. This is what I have been looking for in an app and in my LIFE.

I'm a list maker. I'm a sticky note taker. I'm a to-do lister. I have a dollar store calendar in my purse, a calendar on my phone, and a million slips of colored sticky notes everywhere. For years, I've wanted something that could and would combine all of my lists, dates, and everything into one. I've come close to finding apps, but even though I love technology, sometimes, it's better to have it written down. Plus, I love handwritten stuff. I love the idea of checking something off. I love the idea of a "journal". This could be all of THAT.

So, the next thing I did was pull out a cheap composition book. You know the kind that you get for your kids for school that costs like 25 cents in August. I figured, I would start in it and figure out all the quirks and changes I wanted before buying a Moleskine. So, I used it for about 5 days and did just that.

I found that while his original bullet journaling system worked quite well, it was lacking in what I would like to call future planning. Basically, it needed a calendar. So, that's the cool thing here- this is completly customizable to YOU. You decide what works for you and what doesn't. I've been using my Moleskine now for about two weeks and I'm extremely impressed with how productive this makes me. I don't forget things. I'm more on task. I'm just overall more organized. And with my crazy life, this is important.

So, here is a few pics of how mine works and is put together. I went in order of my book, so you can see how it progresses and flows together.

Front Inside Cover- I washi taped my college schedule to the front.

First Page- I washi taped my "key" to the cover page next to the first page. I wrote it on an index card so I can make changes later and not have to scratch things out. I don't like scratching things out, lol. Then, like the original, I created an index page to easily find what I'm looking for. Also, if you notice, I have post-it tabs for pages I frequently need.

Close up of my key. As you can see, I added and changed some of the ones he had. I also added color to my calendar (that you will see soon) because certain things in my life need to stand out- like bills, birthdays, and appointments.

The next page is for important dates and future planning. I only had my calendar go thru 2014, so anything that I schedule or plan for 2015 will go here- for instance, I know we make dental appointments 6 months ahead of time and well checkups are similar.

This is my calendar. I actually made a mistake when I was doing it- see if you can catch the differences between this first month and the next few- lol. I use the key to keep up with certain things going on, but in general, my calendar is in pencil. Because everything always changes in my life. Also, you can see that I have one of those post-it tabs here- it says current month.

Just another look at the next month. Notice the numbers at the bottom- page numbers :)

And another monthly look....

I skipped taking pics of July-November because it was monotonous and boring. So, here is the end of my monthly calendar on pages 20-21.

I like to read. So, whenever I hear of a new book (or an old one) that I want to read- it goes here. I labeled it 2014: Books to Read and used the task bullet, so I can look back and see which books I haven't read yet.

Same idea here except with Movies and TV Shows.

And here is the meat of the book- the lists! I included a monthly first page like his, except, I didn't need it to be a calendar like he did because I have my calendar already in the front. What I needed was a monthly to do list- things that need to be done, but not necessarily important to do immediately. Things to remind myself of that are going on that month. Then, the next page is where I started my daily lists.

And here is another place I'm using my sticky tab- although, I'm thinking about using the book mark string on the Moleskine for this and using the tab on the first page of the month- so in this case, it would be on the pages shown above instead of here. Still contemplating that.

Well, that's pretty much it. I know I'm a complete dork for being so excited about something like this, but being organized is important to me with so much going on. And, here is the links to Amazon for some of the products that I used:

Moleskine Classic Notebook, Large, Squared, Brilliant Violet, Hard Cover (5 x 8.25) (Classic Notebooks)

Stabilo 88 30-Color Wallet Set

Sharpie Pen Fine Point Pen, 4 Black Pens (1742661)

Zebra Cadoozles Mechanical Pencil, 0.7mm, Assorted, 10 Pack (51211)

Martha Stewart Crafts Paper Tape, Modern Festive

Post-it Tabs Durable File Tabs, 2 x 1 1/2, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, 24/PK

And lastly, here is a link to my Pinterest board about Bullet Journaling. Have fun with it and be creative. :)

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