So you may or may not have heard of bullet journaling, but I’m here to sing its praises with many, many caveats. Bullet journaling was made for those who enjoy making lists…a lot. Which is why I got into it. I’m not super organized in my everyday life, but I love the linearity (think I just tried to make up a word) of lists and continually make them to create some sense of order in the chaos of my life.
So when I saw one of my favorite creative minds, agirlcanmac, starting her bullet journaling journey on Instagram, I was 100% down. To keep track of what I’m doing presently, what I need to do in the future and more in a series of lists?! Sign me up.
I started off by visiting bulletjournal.com to learn about their framework for creating bullet journals. It’s such a great, precise system that is meant to give you quick insights into your past, present, and future all at once. Your bullet journal is originally supposed to give you a set of views or modules: your index of notes, your future log, your monthly views and daily views.
Index of Notes – This allows you to reference a particular note theme, based on page numbers. So if you find yourself leaving a plethora of notes about your blog or any other passions but don’t want to flip through other pages, then this is a great time saver for you.
Future Log – This area helps you outline things that need to be scheduled months in advance. Layout wise, it works out to be 6 months on a page.
Monthly Views – Monthly views allow you to see your month at a glance, as well as tasks you need to accomplish during that month. If you’re better than me at planning out things in advance, you’ll love this page. I also use this page for daily tasks that I can’t get to soon, but don’t want to forget.
Daily Views – On average, these only take chunks of a page. The bullet journal sensei suggest that you don’t plan too far advance on your daily views. So you have plenty of room to add and add and add to the list as you need. However, if you don’t finish the list you have to decide whether to migrate to another day or be faced with the failure of an uncrossed dot because you just might not get to it anytime soon.
A photo posted by She Be Knowin (@shebeknowin) on
Once you learn how to do it the “proper” way, then it’s time to learn how to customize it to fit your life. I simply don’t have my life planned out long enough to have much need for the future log *and* monthly views, so I utilize my monthly views and daily views most. My notes just happen on whichever pages I feel like, and I number so I can go back and take a look at the page on my index.
If you’re like me and are intrigued by how others creatively use their bullet journal, then social media is a great component for you. I spend lots of time on Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest looking up relevant bullet journal hashtags (#bujo is love on Instagram) for layout ideas to emulate. I’ve even learned how to draw a little better because of it. For my layouts, be sure to follow me on Instagram at SheBeKnowin. For my inspiration, check out my bullet journal Pinterest board.
P.S. I recommend you start with a notebook you love and a set of pens you adore. For me, I use greenroom notebooks from Target (literally, the best thing you can ever write on) and a variety of pens from my new hand-lettering addiction as well as Crayola markers for a splash of color. It just makes writing so much funner. (Yeah, I said it. Funner.)
