Bullet Journal Year One: Likes, Dislikes, and Thoughts

Near the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, I started hearing about this thing called a bullet journal. Being a person who loves planners, lists, and keeping organized, I decided to check it out. My research interested me, so I decided to give it a try. In January it will have been a year since I started using one, so I decided to make a post sharing my experience with it so far.

What is a bullet journal?

Excellent question. A bullet journal (called a bujo for short) is part planner, part journal, and part you. The planner part lets you make to-do lists, plan your month or week, and that sort of stuff. The journal part allows you to create pages for writing about things, making lists, or planning projects. And the you part means you can customize it however you want. The bullet part of the name comes from bullet points, which are used a lot in the journal.

At first, it can seem complicated. There's so much you can put inside the journal. But if you take time to watch the videos, and set up a very basic one at the beginning, it's not that hard. As you get better at things, you can start adding in more pages and customization.

The whole point of the journal is that is for you. Whatever works best. Messy, pretty, plain, or fancy. All you need is a notebook and a pen. (Although you do need to make sure your notebook or journal has lots of pages because you don't want to run out.)

All right, so now that I've explained what it is, let's move on to what I liked about my bujo this year.

Likes

• Everything in one place. As I said, I'm a planner, so love to write everything down. The bullet journal condenses everything into one notebook that can be organized with the index at the front. You can also add pages full of lists called collections like books read, movies to watch, things you love, inspirational quotes, and so on. It's all up to you.

• Physical paper writing. I do keep notes on my computer and phone, but it helps a lot to actually write things down. It's been proven you remember things better if you write them down on paper as compared to a computer. The bujo allows me to write down all my stuff with a real pen and paper.

• Decorating! One of my favorite parts of the bullet journal is how you can decorate it. Of course, if you don't want to decorate, you don't have to, but I love making things pretty. Plus, taking time to sit down and prepare my journal for the next month is fun and great me time. I didn't start out doing this, but as I got better, I added more decoration.

• Trackers. In my bullet journal I have a whole page of trackers. I like to see how much I've done of something in a month and it helps me see, oh, I need to practice violin more next month. Or get in more drawing time. I also have a page where I write down the date and what type of exercise I plan on doing, with a checkbox for if I completed it or not. (It helps me get it done because I like to see the yes box checked.)

I got sick in September, thus all the exercise marked no. But that's the basic layout.

• Goals. I also like to write down my monthly and weekly goals in my bujo. I didn't have my yearly goals in this one, because I also started a planner at the beginning of the year before switching fully to the journal. I need to work on getting better at accomplishing or setting goals, however. Far too many go unfinished.

Dislikes

• Different symbols. There is a whole system of different marks you can put in your journal to mean things. Bullet points for tasks, squares for appointments, x's for done, and more. I found them a little too confusing, so I came up with my own set. That's the lovely thing about the journal. You can do whatever you want with it.

• Looking at them on Pinterest. Or Instagram. If you're just starting out, don't look. The ones you see are so pretty and so fancy. You instantly feel like yours is insignificant and ugly. Yes, it's fun to decorate. But you don't need to go so fancy you don't want to use it. Make it whatever works best for you.

• The calendar layout. The official way to do the bullet journal calendar each month is to write it out like a list, starting with the day of the week and then the date. So for example, Monday the 4th (the day I wrote this post) would be M4. I used that this year, but I don't like it. I can't visualize the month well, plus it's confusing because there are two T's and two S's.

The calendar is on the left side and rather confusing, as you can see

• Collections. This isn't so much of a dislike as a haven't quite figured it out yet. So far I've only tried one collection, and I didn't do well with that. I think I just need more practice and to figure out what ones I really need. I also need to be less picky about messing up my daily log and just going with it.

Thoughts

• I can't wait to do one next year. It might seem stupid to be excited about a new journal next year, but I can't wait to set it up. I've already picked out what journal I want and I'm working on researching better pens, because the gel ones I use now smear too much for me.

• I need separate person and blog planners. At the moment, I keep a list of my blog posts in my regular journal. But next year I think I'm going to do a personal bullet journal and a blog planner. It will be easier for me to have them separate. I've also heard of people making writing bullet journals too, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Maybe later, maybe never. Who knows?

• Make sure you have a good notebook. I used a notebook my aunt and uncle gave me for this year. It worked fine, but there are some things I didn't like about using it. It had lined pages, for one thing, and that makes it difficult for the bullet journal. Blank, dotted, or graph would be better. You should also have a notebook without thin pages.

• It takes time, but in a good way. Using the bullet journal, actually sitting down and working with it, does take time. Prepping it for the month can take fifteen minutes to an hour, depending on how much you do. But it's also sort of therapeutic. There is no right, no wrong. You can do what you want. Doing your daily or monthly planning could even been a you time thing.

So that's what I've got to say about the bullet journal after almost a year of using it. Hopefully I'll remember to do another post like this next year and give you some more thoughts and insights on how it's going for me. I'd also like to do a tip post sometime next year with some of the tricks I've learned.

Let's talk! Are you a planner, like me? Have you ever tried a bullet journal? What do you like or dislike about it? Tell me in the comments.