As part of my sporadic yet never-ending quest to get myself together, I started bullet journaling at the beginning of this year. Through some trial and error, I have gotten to a really basic form of bullet journaling that does not in any way use all of the possible options for this organization technique, but does work for what I need it to do.
I’m going to start by talking about some resources that anyone thinking about doing this may want to consult. First the core resource itself – bulletjournal.com. Here you read about The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, and link through to Amazon to buy a copy. You can register for a course, read the blog, watch a quick tutorial, read up on the author, and shop for supplies. I will note that the supplies you can get here are the two different official versions of the bullet journal itself, and the book. Those seeking washi paper or fancy pens will need to look elsewhere. I found the book to be really helpful in thinking about how to organize my thoughts and my notes. Periodically I do reread it just to refresh myself and see if there aren’t a few more techniques I could put into use.
The other resource I found really helpful was Felicity Ford’s course on bullet journaling for creative practices. Although it sounds like it’s going to be all about fancy journaling, it’s really more about how to use journaling to help you in your creative processes. She does do a little fancy stuff with stamps and so on, but it’s not super elaborate or intimidating.
And of course, there’s the internet. Do a Google search for bullet journal blogs, bullet journal ideas, bullet journal solutions – really whatever you are interested in. You will find a ton of stuff. I will say that most of the blogs and ideas I have found online are more about the decorative aspect of it. Which is fine! But if that piece of it is intimidating for you as it is for me, maybe work up to looking at the blogs. I hesitated for quite a long while because it all seemed just way too complicated.
Tomorrow I plan on talking about what I do to organize my months, then on to days, and some other topics.
Do you do bullet journaling or any other type of journaling? Do tell!
Quite A Yarn 
I have done bullet journals for the past 6 years. This year I did it a bit differently. I have one book for my daily “to do” lists as well as pages to keep notes for things like books to read or blogs to explore or even movies to watch. Then I have a book strictly to journal about my day. I have not been creative with stamps, stickers or washi tape this year as in years past.
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Interesting change! How do you like this year’s new method so far?
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I did bullet journaling the last few years, this year I bought a different style diary and it has a different layout, different sections within it, plenty of space to write under their different annual, monthly, weekly and daily sections plus more sections like goals and aims etc or there’s space to create your own. So it’s very similar to what I’d been creating myself, just much of the sectioning for you.
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How do you like the pre-sectioned journal compared to the way you had been doing it?
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I like it, it has different ribbon markers so easy to find your place for the month and week or whatever section you want. It has a box for 3 wins of the week, 3 I’ll improve on next week, highlights of the week etc. I haven’t brought it with me so I can’t remember the make but I’ll look when I’m back home.
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That sounds really cool! Lots of helpful, encouraging prompts!
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Thank you for that! I’ve checked out The Bullet Journal Method from the library. I thought that would be a good place to start.
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Definitely! That is a great place to start.
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I guess I started a bullet journal when I began “Daily Fiber” I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. My goal was simply to list as many fiber explorations as I could think of. I wrote it in a spiral-bound notebook. Now I have a couple of journals, one for mostly words and another for sketches and quick paintings. I’ll be keen to see your method. My big challenge is that I have no index system, so finding a particular entry involved flipping through pages.
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Very cool!!
I will talk about indexing – very likely later today or tomorrow.
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that’s great.
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I like this system the best,so far. I call my to do journal my brains. It keeps me on track each day as well as giving me a place to write things I do not want to forget. ie: books, movies, blogs etc. The other journal allows me to express myself and my emotions and feelings. Very fun to look back at and see where I was in life and where I am now.
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That is a great system! I know some people like to keep everything together in one place, but I feel like that gets unwieldy
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I never understood bullet journaling and thanks for enlightening me on it. I might consider it to help me move forward on my stalling projects!
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Its really good for that!
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I spend so much time looking at cool washi tapes and stencils for bullet journaling. I’m drawn to the idea, but too lazy to actually organize myself enough to get going. I look forward to your posts. 🙂
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LOL – Thanks!
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Great intro post! I know that I used Pinterest a lot for my own ideas when I started bullet journalling several years ago now. I’ve since switched to a more traditional planner, but I still used things I learned from BuJo to enhance both my planner and the daily diary/commonplace book I keep.
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Thank you! Boy, I didn’t even think of Pinterest. That is a great place for ideas!! Thank you for mentioning it! BuJo definitely have some techniques that can be used by themselves without adopting the whole thing.
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You’re welcome! There are some great ideas out there, and I love how adaptable the whole thing is.
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Very true!! It really is.
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