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BULLET JOURNAL
Bullet Journaling is unique for everyone. Mine is mainly an organized dump for any ideas that pop up in my head, a day-to-day planner, a notebook and a tracking system for some goals I have set for myself. As theme for my journal, I am keeping it very simplistic. This way there is no unnecessary noise distracting me when I try to use it. This was the problem I had when I first started using my Bullet Journal a year ago. I was more focused on making it look nice and pretty with drawings and stuff, that I completely forgot what I had intended to use it for. Since february I started journaling again and learned from my previous mistakes.
Just In case you don’t yet know what a Bullet Journal is and would like to know more about it, you can visit the official website here: www.bulletjournal.com
My 2 Bullet Journals
One of the two journals I use is for work. This one contains plannings and to-do lists which I use to track my progress on each project. The other one is my personal journal, which I use for anything but work. In this post I’ll be giving you a short tour through the pages of my personal journal.
Topics
The basics of my journal are probably the same as any other Bullet Journal. I’ve still put them in the list below, so you can see how I have set them up. Besides the standards there are a view other topics in my journal that I use. On each topic I’ll give a short explanation on what it’s used for and how I’ve set them up for my personal journal.
1. Index/Key
Just like most Bullet Journals, mine also starts with an index. Here is where I keep track of all topics I have created and on which pages they can be found. Next to it there is a reference to the key used throughout my journals. Since I started journaling I have played around with the key to find one working best for me. Not too difficult and just very simple.
2. Future log
The future log is basically the calendar of my journal. If I know there’ll be special dates coming up, like a birthday, an appointment or anything else that is planned a month ahead of time. I will write it down here. Before the start of each month, I have a look in my future log to see if there are dates I should prepare for in advance.
3. Monthly log/Monthly to-do list
For each month I have two pages reserved. The first page is for all the tasks on my to-do list that I have planned for that month. These can be tasks from previous months, that have been migrated, or tasks I have come up with during the month. On the second page are all dates from the future log.
4. Weekly log
Here I plan all tasks from the to-do list and appointments from the monthly log. I have tried various layouts for my weekly log and kept with this minimalistic design. On the top right of the weekly log there is some space reserved for some notes and other tasks.
5. Savings tracker
At the start of my Bullet Journal I had view goals I wanted to track. One of which was saving up money. I made a visual reference to easily see how far I am towards my goal. I divided the year into 12 months with each 4 blocks to cross of my weekly savings. On the bottom of the page I also have written a view annual bills that I can easily find back and calculate in to my savings goal.
6. (Record) wish list
Trying to grow my record collection, I have a wish list specific for records. On this page I keep track of all records I have and the ones I still want. I also have a separate wish list for general things I want or need.
7. Day planner
Once I wanted to visualize how I planned my days, so I could easily see how and on what I spent my time. I divided my day in to blocks dedicated for work, study and spare time. It was pretty much a one-time-use, but nonetheless was very useful for me, and maybe also useful for others looking for a simple design like this one.
8. Animation/Blog ideas
Whenever I have some inspiring animation, illustration or blog idea, I write or draw them down. Whenever I have a creative block, I can always go back to this page to get inspired.
9. Flexible to-do list
This, nowadays, is my replacement for the monthly to-do list. I kept migrating small things from previous months to the next. Now I have one flexible to-do list in which I use post-it notes that I can move around. This way It is re-usable for each month. In the “to-do” section, I have the tasks that need to be done. This section is also filled with empty post-it notes, so I can add new tasks anytime. Then in the “Plan” section, I place the things I want to do next and need to be planned. When I start working on a task, I place it in the “progress” section. After it’s done, it goes to the “done” section.
Topics
As I keep finding ideas from other Bullet Journalists, my journal keeps changing as well. I hope this post has also sparked some Ideas for your journal. If you have any Bullet Journal suggestions for a post or a topic in my journal, leave a comment below an I’ll be happy to try them!
