Why I Love Bullet Journaling (+ A Peek Inside MY Bullet Journal!)

IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR MY BULLET JOURNAL POST. I've been planning this for months and actually meant to post it last week but it wasn't quite ready, so now HERE IT IS!

I first started hearing about bullet journaling from various bloggers three years ago or so, and it intrigued me but I wasn't sure exactly how to get started. It seemed kind of complicated, so I wasn't really sure how to make an "official" bullet journal.

But HEY. It was super easy. I think I first tried it after reading Katie's post (can we just admire her bullet journal for a minute?? it's so pretty), and I fell in love!

So basically, a bullet journal is a daily planner to keep track of all your goals, chores, appointments, whatever you want! I use it to organize my daily, weekly, and monthly goals, and to write down my plans, appointments, and work schedule. I also like to make a note of little things that happened in a day, whether it be something fun I did, or a new song I discovered.

The great thing about bullet journaling is that you can make it whatever you want it to be! I was hesitant about starting my own because I wasn't sure I really understand the actual definition of bullet journaling, so I doubted I would be able to do it "right". But once I got started, it was so easy and versatile. You can make it organized, artistic, both, or neither. Mine is a little of both; right now it leans more toward the organized side (which is shocking), but I'd like to find ways to be a little more creative and make it pretty, too. Check out Savannah's amazing bullet journal; how gorgeous are those drawings??

Now, allow me to introduce you to my bullet journal!

The inside cover, where I recorded the day I started this journal.

It's a super simple little book, which I love. I tried a couple different notebooks before I got super serious about it and they were okay, but I love the clean, classy look of a solid cover. And I found that I much prefer dotted pages to lined pages.

Ft. my fingers

Above you'll see my monthly layout. Just a simple calendar of the month. I don't really do a lot with this page (I tried writing my work schedule on each day but that got old), so it's basically just there for looks. :P

Lately I realized that I was leaving a lot of space blank on some pages; for example, I used to occupy a whole page for my monthly goals and I don't have that many goals. xD So, I decided to use the bottom half of that page to write down my blogging schedule. I'm not always prepared and sometimes decide on a blog post last minute so I might end up filling this one in as the month goes along, but it's nice to have there to look at later, and see what I blogged about in a month.

You guys will notice that some of the boxes in these pictures are not checked off. That's because I'm not perfect. xD Part of the reason I kept putting this post off was that I wanted to wait until I had a month of bullet journaling that was flawless, with all the goals checked off and everything looking nice. Well, that's not realistic, because the fact is sometimes you just don't get some things done. And that's okay! I'm still trying to accept that just because I might not get everything done that I write down in my bullet journal, doesn't mean that I'm failing at it. (And I'm still more productive than before, so it's already a win!)

Anyway, above are my goals and Bible reading schedule for one week. My weekly goals page was also using up a lot of blank space; and since I'm reading the Bible chronologically this year with this website as a guide, I decided to keep track of my week-by-week reading in this space. It may not be something I stick with, but for now I like it.

Also, I have a space to recap the past week, what goals I accomplished and what I didn't. I'm honestly not crazy about this space, just because it doesn't have much order and looks kind of sloppy. We'll see what happens there.

Here's my favorite part! There are so many ways you can draw out these pages, where I keep track of my daily goals and such. I had a hard time when I first got into bullet journaling figuring out how I wanted these pages to look, but when I got my dotted notebook I found a design I like. Simple and easy!

I really like drawing a box around each day; it separates the days from one another and makes the whole design look really clean and organized. In the top part of my boxes I write what I work that day, and a checkbox for my devotions and workout. The bottom half of the box is all my individual goals for each day.

These are the parts of my bullet journal that help me the most. Here I can make goals for each day and keep track of whether I complete them or not. My productivity level has gone up so, so much since I started bullet journaling! For one, it's a lot more likely that you'll get things done if you have a list to check those things off of. And, if you're genuinely enjoying making those lists, you're going to actually look forward to getting those things done and checking them off. There's something so satisfying about sitting down in the evening and preparing the next day's layout, and seeing your
pretty pages as you complete them.

Over to the side, I make a short note of things I did that day that were memorable or special, or things I've learned or enjoyed recently. I like this spot because I can write down little things that maybe I wouldn't write about in my regular journal, but are totally worth mentioning in a day-by-day thing.

I'm always trying something new with my bullet journal, testing little things out to see if they'll stick. I'd like to find a good way to keep track of how much I read a day, in hopes that it will motivate me to read more, because I've been having a little trouble squeezing a lot of reading time in. I'm not sure what I'll do with that, if anything. Sometimes it's trial and error to figure out a "system" that works for me. My bullet journal is always changing!

And that's about it! But before I end this (overly long) post, I want to share my three biggest tips for bullet journaling:

BE CONSISTENT.

It doesn't take a lot of time to draw out my daily pages, but sometimes I get lazy and wait until the next day to do it. Then I forget to do it in the morning and by the end of the day all I end up doing is writing down a bunch of fluff just so I can say I journaled that day. I encourage you to not let yourself get behind like I do on the daily (crossed out) have!

DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH OF YOURSELF.
Seriously. And I'm talking to myself here, too, because I tend to be overzealous about goals. Bullet journaling is a huge help to me for making and accomplishing goals, but it's not magical! So if you make an unrealistic set of goals, it's still probably not going to get done.

HAVE FUN!
Take it seriously, or don't take it seriously. Be neat, or be messy. Do whatever you want with your bullet journal, because it's yours! Don't try to adhere to someone else's ideas or designs; feel free to be inspired by others (I definitely was), but make it your own! That's what's so great about it.

WHO HERE LOVES BULLET JOURNALING? What's your favorite thing about it? Tell me about your favorite page in YOUR bullet journal! Did you actually make it to the end of this ridiculously long post? HAVE A CUPCAKE!