Bullet Journal (BuJo) Day is August 8th so you might have seen social media posts about the day. But a lot of people are intimidated by the process of bullet journaling so I’m going to give an overview!
What is a bullet journal?
Bullet Journal® (aka Bujo) is a mindfulness practice designed as a productivity system. It will meet you wherever you are to help you process the past, organize the present, and author your future. All you need is pen and paper.
– bulletjournal.com
A customizable system built by you to keep up with your tasks, events, ideas, notes, everything. It is built on the Rapid Log system by Ryder Carroll (www.bulletjournal.com). Basically, a rapid log is a quick reminder to self on what you need. With rapid logging, bullet journals do not take a lot of time to set up or maintain. I PROMISE.
Supplies Needed
To get started you only need a notebook and a pen/pencil. Leuchtturm makes the branded Bullet Journal but truly get a notebook you will actually use. Your notebook can be lined, blank, dotted, or have a grid layout. Pocket-sized or binder sized. As long is it something you are comfortable with keeping up with, use whatever works best for you.
Decorations are very nice, but not necessary.
Additional supplies:
- Colored pens/pencils
- Ruler
- Markers and highlighters
- Stickers
- Stencils
- Washi (decorative) tape
Index
Step 1 is to number your pages and start an index. A table of contents in your journal helps you find things easily. This is how the journal can become your keep-all. With the rapid log process, you just flip to the next page and start writing. Making a note in your index of the page number and topic keep you organized. This way your week of May 15th can be on way page 12, a recipe you copied can be on page 14, and a packing list for a trip can be on page 15.
Future Log
A Future Log is a high-level overview of your next few months – year. If it’s April and you find yourself
making plans for Christmas, a quick entry in your future log will remind you of the event when you start to set up your December in your bullet journal. It might be a helpful place to keep track of birthdays and
anniversaries as well. This is usually my first thing I set up after the index.
Monthly Log
Your Monthly Log is the month in more detail than your Yearly Log gives. The simplest method of entering a monthly log is to write the dates of the month and the day of the week down the side of a page. Then write what events or task you have that day. Refer to your Yearly Log to see what you previously wrote for the month. Smaller daily tasks can be saved for your weekly/daily log.
If there are goals you want to meet for the month or just a general task that need to be completed, you can include that in your monthly log.
Example: if you have to get your car registration done in May, but there is no date tied to the event you
would include it in your monthly log. You check your Monthly log before you set up your weekly/daily.
Weekly / Daily Log
The main function of your bullet journal is to keep up with daily tasks. By using your Future and Monthly logs, you can look ahead to see what events you had scheduled but your daily tasks get their own space. You have the option to do whatever works best for you. You can start each day on a new page or split two days per page. One day might take up 3⁄4 of a page where the next doesn’t have any entries.
Many people like to lay each week out in a spread. That way you can look at the entire week on a page and plan accordingly. With a bullet journal though, you can do each week a completely different way depending on what meets your needs at the time.
Tip: Searching on Instagram and Pinterest can be overwhelming when it comes to weekly spreads. There are very elaborate pages that seem like it takes hours to create. IF that is your jam, by all means spend the time to decorate your spread.
There is no right or wrong way to do YOUR bullet journal.
Key & Rapid Logging
Many people find that a key helps them keep organized when they are separating out tasks, events, and
notes. Rapid logging means all entries in your bullet journal are quick, and to the point. A doctor’s appointment at 3pm and a reminder to buy more dog food would each take up one line. But if you want a little more distinction, a Key helps filter your items.
The “bullet” of the bullet journal is to enter each key with a single dot.
Thursday August 15
⭘ Doctor’s Appointment 3pm
⭘ Get dog food
⭘ Clean bathroom
⭘ Put away laundry
⭘ Make lunch for tomorrow
All good intentions. But depending on how the day goes, some things get done and some get “migrated” or moved to the next day. At the end of the day your entry might look more like:
Thursday August 15
⬤ Doctor’s appointment 3pm
🗹 Get dog food
⇢ Clean bathroom
⇢ Put away laundry
🗹 Make lunch for tomorrow
*men’s basketball won at Olympics
*want to read up on breakdancing
The tasks of “Clean bathroom” and “Put Away Laundry” weren’t completed. They get migrated to the next day. And the next day. And the next day until completed. After a day or two of migration, you’re probably going to stop and think to yourself “am I really going to get this task completed, or am I going to move it AGAIN to another day”. You made a note about a newsworthy or journal worthy event but nothing that would be considered a “journal entry” in a traditional sense. Otherwise that defeats the rapid of it all.
The French Dispatch sticker from NotCool Co, Notebook sticker from Coffee Monsterz
Collections / Brain Dumps
Any list that you want to keep up with is called a “Collection”. With your index and page numbers it’s very
easy to just turn to the next blank page and start a new Collection. Shows to watch, coffee shops to visit, books read. The options are endless.
Some days you just have to sit and write out everything that needs to be done in your home or a project management list. The BuJo system is perfect to write a list out and refer to as needed.
Did I scare you off? Are you considering it? Have you been in the bujo world at all? Do you want to sit by me at a meet up and let me walk you through it cause I’ll do it.
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