What's The Deal With Bullet Journaling?

I've mentioned bullet journaling here a couple of times and it makes appearances on my social media, but what is it actually? It's become a essential part of my life, and it might for you too.

The bullet journal system was created by Ryder Carroll and according to the official website, it's "the analog method for the digital age". The only requirement is a notebook and the goal is "to help people live intentional lives".

The bullet journal is written in a language Carroll has dubbed as Rapid Logging. Rapid logging consists of bullet points that cover tasks, events, and notes. You can match symbols such as dots, dashes, and arrows to designate your bullet points completed, not completed, moved to another date, and so on.

The great thing about the bullet journal system is that it is completely do-it-yourself, so you can customize it as you see fit. My very first bullet journal entries are extremely different from the spreads that I made for the month of January. I'll take you through the spreads I have in my 2019 bullet journal and show you how I've customized it

My notebook of choice isn't actually the one that Carroll promotes on his site. For the past three years I've been using Moleskine dot grid notebooks. I like the hard cover ones, they're durable, have a pocket in the back, and are a convenient size for carrying around (it's about 5in wide and 8in tall). They come in several colors, but I prefer plain black.

The first page in my bullet journal is always an index. I update it as a create more pages in the notebook. I'll give the pages a title and write down the corresponding page number.

The first spread in my 2019 bullet journal is a title page of sorts and my year in pixels. When I took the photos, I hadn't decided on colors for my year in pixels, but each mood has a color and I fill in a square for each day according to how I felt that day. It's awesome to look back on the year and have all those squares filled.

I have a few other spreads in between these, like my class schedule for this spring, but I don't need to be putting that on the internet so I'm moving on. I have a few pages dedicated to shows I want to watch and books I want to read. On the right is a page that separates my "introduction" pages from my January pages. I like to choose themes for each month, so January includes that pretty blue color and lots of snowflakes!

The first spread for the month is always a calendar. It gives me a broad overview of the month and I add to it as things come up.

The page after the calendar is a one-sentence-a-day page. I used to do a "monthly highlights" page, but then would only fill in a couple of days. The one sentence a day format means I write something about every day, whether it went good or bad.

After the one sentence a day page is my habit tracker. I choose a few things every month that I want to stay on top of, and this little graphs helps me out. For this month, I want to be drinking enough water, studying the Bible and my languages (French and Spanish}, working out, updating my website, and posting on Instagram and Tumblr (This is my Instagram and this is my tumblr, it's a study blog).

The page after the habit tracker is my budgeting page, it's where I keep track of my finances. After that, I get into my daily logs. Each week takes up a whole spread and I label it Sunday through Saturday.

Since labeling Sunday-Saturday leaves me with empty space at the end of each spread, I often put something there to fill the space. I'll put quotes, sketches, and sometimes polaroids there. Something that's nice to look at.

That's how I bullet journal! It's become something that I designate a lot of time for, and I'm okay with that. You don't have to spend anywhere near as much time on yours as I do mine, and there are people out there who spend even more time than me. The whole point of the bullet journal is to make it work for you. What's your favorite way to organize your life?

Thanks for reading!

xx, Hannah