Bujo Recap

Thanks for reading through my series on Bullet Journalling.  I really hope it was helpful for you to either help expand your bullet journalling, or to even start one.

I love the flexibility and recommend it all the time to people who are struggling in their current planner, or are looking to get started in paper planning.  Just the other day I was in my bank and one of the ladies behind the counter was talking about how she needed space to write lists, but her current calendar pages just didn’t allow all the items she needed to do in one day sometimes.  And I told her about bullet journalling, and how easy it is to do, and to conform to what you need it to do instead of conforming to a little box, or a page.

It’s so fun sharing how bullet journalling has helped me find planner peace.  You can bullet journal in anything you want.  Even in a preplanned planner, its all in doing what you need and how you need to do it, to get stuff done.

My journey has brought me to a place now where I bullet journal in my travelers notebook for daily tasks etc, and then I use my Leuchtturm1917 journal for what I call Master Lists and collections.  I have a master list for groceries, one for cleaning around the house, tv watching collections, and so many other things that I want to keep track of but don’t really want to carry around with me every day.  In my TN, I have my planner pages, a note book for jotting notes, or numbers, or info that I receive during a day, a calendar for my staff hours and vacation times, and a notebook for writing down new knitting patterns.  This system is keeping me very organized and helps me to get things done.

Fun with Collections!

I think my favorite part of Bullet Journalling is Collections.  These are pages for tracking special things, and lists of special things.

Things like movies to watch, or you have watched, or books to read, or have read, a savings chart for a special occasion, goals, pet vet visits, social media goals, a special visit to some where, a memory wall of a vacation, so many things can be a collection that you want to have outside of your every day bullet journalling.

They can also be placed anywhere in your bullet journal, some people just insert them on the next available page, and some set aside pages at the back of your bullet journal to keep them together.  I like adding them in when the idea pops in my head about what I want to create a collection for, and then I just index it to make it easy to find.  Sometimes I will even washi tape the edges of a collection to make it visually easy to get to, you could also use tabs on the side or top of your journal to mark your collections.

Because I bullet journal mostly in travelers notebooks now, I have a separate travelers notebook for my collections.  Makes them easy to find, as well when I am done working in my monthly notebook, and I replace it with a new one, my collections stay in my planner.

What sort of collections do you have, or plan on having in your bullet journal?

 

 

Dailies!

Dailies, for when your just that busy!  or just because you like to organized your day that way.  Tasking and crossing them off as you get them done, some how feels more rewarding then just doing.  I know some days if I don’t write things down I am prone to forgetting, but it also makes me feel as though I did nothing!  I was unproductive!  Don’t get me wrong, its awfully nice to have a sit on the couch all day kind of day!

Dailies are also where you are going to put your key into action, using dots and boxes and x’s to signify what your doing will help you keep organized with what needs to happen in your day, and also where you need to go.

Using your weekly or even your monthly depending on what format you chose to do, you are going to go into more detail about the tasks that need to be completed in your day, you will even check back into your future plan to see if there was anything new added that didn’t make it to your monthly

As you adapt and grow with your bullet journal you will find that tasking gets easier.  I tend to task the night before during my wind down of the day.  Making sure that I have a clear path for tomorrow.  It also helps you with where your day is going to be placed in your journal, because by the end of the day, the current days tasks have either been crossed off, or are ready to migrate or future plan.

Sometimes task migration (thats the forward arrow and then it gets written on the next day) happens often, but I try and set a rule that things can only migrate to the next day 3 times, then something needs to happen with it, whether its breaking it down even further into smaller tasks, or just plain doing it!

Doing your dailies in a bullet journal vs a traditional calendar also has its benefits, as you see above some days are long and task full, and others there is just 1 thing.  In your journal, you don’t have to feel like you have to fill the page with things to do, and once your day is done, you just write in the next day, so no wasted space stares at you hauntingly like “you got nothing done today”…lol.  And you also have the benefit that if you have a task heavy day, you have the space for it!

 

Weeklies & Meal Planning

Going now into more detail, depending on how busy you are weeklies could be where you find yourself most comfortable.  They can give you enough space for your tasks that you need to get done without diving into dailies if you don’t think you need the room.

Here you can see I tried a vertical approach to weeklies with my meals at the bottom of each day.  I was also habit tracking (not so successfully) weekly.

Layouts for weeklies is where I find I have the most variety in that I tend to change my weekly layouts often, to not only suite my needs, but also to evolve in my bullet journalling and see if there is a layout that works better for me.

I also tend to meal plan weekly, which is why I chose to talk about these two topics together.  I like to keep those two things on the same pages so that I can easily reference my meal plan, while looking at my week and vice versa.

Here you can see that my week is on one page, and my meal plan and grocery list is on the other.  I used to plan all of my meals for the whole day, but most days I eat Breakfast and Lunch by myself, so there was no need to plan those, but Dinners are more important to track and plan to avoid the dreaded “What’s for Dinner?” question…lol.   I also find that having a plan for dinner we are less likely to eat out, because we have bought the groceries for the week, or we are craving what ever it is we are going to be eating that day, instead of craving junk or eating out.

Weeklies are a great place to keep all your appointments, and tasks that you have outside of the house, I have seen some layouts that split down the middle of one page, with tasks on one side, and appointments on the other side, to keep them separate and clear.  This layout is especially good for weeks with lots of errands and appointments.

Here you may also go into more detail then you did on your monthly calendar, for example Chris plays soccer, and on my monthly calendar, I write Soccer 9:15, sometimes I just write Soccer.  Then on my weeklies, on the day he has soccer, I write Chris Soccer 9:15pm Green Field.  This now gives me all of the info for that task and then when I plan meals for the week I know we have to have dinner by 7pm, and if I am busy during the day, and I chose a crock pot meal it needs to go in between 11am and 1pm depending on if it has a 4-6 hour cook time.

There are weeks where weeklies is enough for me.  But when it starts getting into busier times, I need to add dailies as well, which we will talk about tomorrow!

Monthly Layouts & Habit Tracking

Monthly spreads can be big or small, one page or two, what ever functions for you.  Some people like to put their calendar on one page and use the other for Habit tracking.  I like to have my weekdays on one page, and the weekend on the next page, with my habits to the right of that as pictured below.  Sometimes if I only have a few habits then I will track them along the bottom.

Your monthly is the place to jot things in that are happening for the month, as you would a normal monthly calendar.  Some instances I like to use short had or abbreviations for things so they don’t take too much room on a day, and some things I write out what is happening on that day.  Things like Dance and Soccer, DOR is Staff Day off Requests, that is the cut off day for them, and the day I add them to my staff calendar, and SCHED is the day I have planned to do the next weeks staff schedule.  Some times I write important work related things on this calendar just to remind myself that I will be affected by what is going on that day, but their days off go in another calendar to make it easy for scheduling and it doesn’t always clog up my planning pages.  For now also I am writing down blog topics I want to write about on what day, but I may set out blogging pages at a later date as I figure out what I want to do with the pages.

Habit tracking is important to some people.  It has been said that it takes 21 days to form a habit, so why not track it to see h0w your doing with relation to keeping up with your new or existing habits.  When you do your habit tracking is up to you.  Some people add them to their monthly spreads, some people track weekly, or daily, and some even do combinations of those, where they have a monthly tracker for certain things, and others they track daily like water intake, or weekly because they spend more time on their weekly spreads then monthly ones.

Track things like

• bed and wake times
• washing your hair
• vitamins
• no spending
• cooking at home
• work outs
• reading time

and so many more things.  What sorts of habits would you like to track in your bullet journal?

Future or Forward Planning

You have plans, big plans and need a space to keep them all organized!!  So now what do you do?  Well in the world of bullet journalling we use Future planning pages, whether it be in calendar layout form, or a Calendex, or even vertical or horizontal spaces for each month, you need to keep track of things not happening in that moment.

I tried using a calendex for a while, but I am very visual and love to see what I am doing it and when I am doing it, without having to decipher a code, or flip to many pages to keep track of it!  I also don’t have all of my future calendars at the start of my bullet journal, instead I future plan quarterly.  And how I know that I need to make the next quarter, is the day that I make plans in that quarter.  I think I do it this way so that I am not overwhelmed with making plans before they need to be made.  I mean yes I could go through my months and go back to the beginning of my book to plan when I need to but it just doesn’t seem to flow that way for me.

 

Here is a photo of my first Calendex, its pretty to look at but just not functional for me.

 

 

 

 

Future planning pages can hold many different things as well. Birthday, anniversary dates, vacation time, Work schedule (if you know your schedule that far in advance) government holidays, EDO days (if yours float around) so many things!

If your visual, and need the calendar boxes, slotting out 12 2 page spreads for calendars is a wise decision.  Sometimes all the other options just aren’t enough.  You do what works for you!  There is nothing wrong, and even if you try something and a few weeks or months later, change your mind, its ok, just turn the page and start again.

Once you’ve completed your Future Planning pages, don’t forget to update your index with your Future Planning pages!!

What do you keep on your future planning pages?

Indexing

Part of Bullet Journalling is Indexing, usually it’s the first few pages of our bullet journal.  It is a great way to keep track of important pages and collections for quick and easy reference.

It’s not usually the first page you start writing, but generally within a few days of starting your bullet journal, you will have page numbers to add to your Index.  Try to keep up with it, doesn’t have to be when ever you add a fresh page, but it could be once a week or once a month.  You’ll find especially once you start getting further on in your journal that it helps to find collections, and other important pages that you refer to quite often

There are several things to consider as well with Indexing.    Do you bullet journal each day on a page, or each week on a page, or use both dailies and weeklies, depending on how you do it, you may want to group those pages together in your index to save on space, rather then indexing individual pages.  I use a Monthly, as well as weekly spread, and dailies, and so I generally only index my monthly spread, as I bullet journal my weekly and dailies in my every day planner that I carry around, and I keep my bullet journal at home.

Depending on the journal that you use to bullet journal in you may have to create your own index, or remember to leave approx 4 pages (depending on how much you want to index).  In the leuchtturm1917 dotted notebook which is the one that I bullet journal in, they come with indexing pages set out, as well all the pages are pre numbered for handy and quick indexing.

Lets Talk Bullet Journalling

I discovered Bullet journalling a while ago, while I was in search of the perfect planning system for me.  As a planner I have migrated through several options in book form, electronic form and back to paper form.  I have moved from a structured calendar to just a plain old notebook and a pen, and that is where bullet journalling falls.

As far as I am concerned, and everyone has their own opinion, there is no right or wrong way to bullet journal.  Ryder Carol developed Bullet journalling, his website bulletjournal.com is a great place to start.  There is lots of information and how to’s on his site, on how to get started.  Then adapt it for yourself.  I would like to explore how I bullet journal, and perhaps as you read and learn you will adapt your own way of bullet journalling that fits your needs.

I will be posting topics about bullet journalling and I will be using the blog categories to keep them grouped together, so if you would like to keep going with the posts on bullet journalling, please be sure to click on the Bullet Journal Basics Category to see all the other posts that I have made on this topic.

Before we get started though, I would like to share some tips and tricks that I have learned.

1.  Don’t be afraid to start.  I know a brand new book seems daunting when you first rip open the plastic wrap, but honestly, if this is your first or second or 10th journal sometimes the feeling of breaking in a new book is the same. The best thing to do is open it and start writing.  Even if its just your contact information on the front page, may I suggest your Name, and your email address, this is probably the safest information to give without giving too much.  You don’t want to put your address on there.  I am not saying everyone is bad, but if this falls into someones hands that has less then pure intentions they not only have your address, but now know when you are not going to be home over the next few days atleast!
2. Mistakes are ok!  its just paper, and besides, you can cover it with some pretty washi tape, stickers, a white gel pen, white out, or doodle if you’re that creative!  Even if its a whole spread that you aren’t happy with, washi the pages together and move on.  This process is a learning experience, even seasoned bullet journalers make mistakes.
3. Be as creative or structured as you want to be.  Remember this journal is yours!!  And no one is going to grade you on it!  Do what works for you!
4. Track what matter to you.  Whether its 1 thing your trying to change, or your whole morning routine, create a spread or use a space on your calendar page to track what matters most to you.  You aren’t tracking things for other peoples benefit, just you!
5. A plan for your planner, some people need the structure of knowing what days to do what in your planner, Example is I meal plan and plan out my week with things that I know need to happen, and when they need to happen, then each morning, or sometimes the night before, I look over my day and add things that need to be added.
6. Find a community, a facebook group, follow some planners on Instagram, there is a ton of inspiration out there.  Just take one thing in with you when you join a group, and that is its not a competition, and you don’t have to spend hours or days working on a spread like some do.  you spend as much or as little time as you want in your journal.
7. It’s a good idea to have a workspace that you can Bullet Journal in, a space to store your supplies and think about your plan.  For some it’s a rolling cart beside their kitchen table, for others its a desk, with pen and stationary storage.
8. Sometimes bigger is not better.  Start simple, and even stay simple if it works for you.  The bullet journal is designed to help you get stuff done!