Introduction to Bullet Journaling

In my recent review of the Polaroid Zip mobile printer I mentioned that I had been using it for adding memories to my new Bullet Journal so today I wanted to give you an introduction to Bullet Journaling and give you a peek into how it helps me keep my life organised!

The concept of the Bullet Journal was started by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer living in Brooklyn, NY, as a way of keeping track of tasks and events in a simple, analogue fashion. All you need to get started is a notebook and a pen.

Bullet Journaling is built on the idea of rapid logging, keeping short and succinct notes for productivity using four elements – topics, page numbers, short sentences, and bullets.

Every Bullet Journal, or BuJo, starts with an index which is used like a contents page to record page numbers and topics so it’s easy to refer back. A BuJo also has a future log, or yearly overview where you record future events which you don’t need to focus on at the moment but will need to know later, for example, a Dental checkup in 6 months time.

There is a monthly overview also, where you can get a closer look at what is happening in the current month, just like a calendar. When creating the monthly spread you refer to the future log and add in any relevant tasks/ events. I like the monthly spread as it helps lay out my coming weeks and lets me quickly see what needs to get done and when.

The next level down is the daily logs where you keep track of daily tasks. There is a series of bullet points used to keep track of progress so you can keep track of your productivity each day. I keep my daily logs in a weekly overview layout.

I like to use space on my weekly spread for meal planning and I also keep a weekly habit tracker which tracks repetitive tasks so I don’t have to write them out every day! Here is where I use my Zip printer to make hard copies of photos I took in that week to look back at in the future.

One thing I really like about the Bullet Journal system is that it is flexible and you can choose to use or not use whichever elements or spreads you like.

One element I have started to get more into is collections – pages where you put things related to each other. I have used these to create a TV tracker as well as a book tracker so I can record what I am watching and reading. I like the idea of looking back in a few months/years and seeing what was keeping me entertained!

I have really found that my BuJo has raised my productivity level and really motivates me to get more stuff done. The BuJo community is very creative and I am working on enchasing my hand-lettering skills and layouts to make my journal pretty as well as practical.

I really recommend keeping a Bullet Journal to anyone who wants to be more productive and organised as well as recording memories for looking back on in the future.