Bullet Journal Overview
I started something new at the beginning of May, and I have to say that it has been a great success in both productivity and journaling. It’s called the bullet journal. Today I will give you an overview of what it is.
What is a Bullet Journal?
A bullet journal is a notebook that allows you to do “rapid logging.” (Don’t worry, it sounds more complicated than it is.) The journal is set up so that day by day you can write what you need to without being limited by predetermined borders or artificial page breaks.
Rapid logging just means that you have a simple system to write everything down, and it all goes into one place. Later you go back through and take care of the leftovers.
Why I Started Bullet Journaling
I have been looking for a way to keep myself journaling. I don’t want to write pages of prose every day. My whole point of journaling is so that I have a record of what is going on in my day-to-day life. The format of the bullet journal, with its succinct entries, seemed to fit the bill. (Samuel Johnson I am not)
When I got into it, I also realized that I could use the bullet journal as a way to record ideas, make lists, and keep future events on the radar.
What Do You Need For a Bullet Journal?
Here is one of the things that drew me to the system: you get to use any notebook you want.
Time for a confession here: I am a notebook junkie. I have a whole box of unused journals that I have acquired over the past few years, and it was twice that before I purged half at the beginning of the year. So the thought of having to buy a special notebook was not a good one for me, when I had already selected dozens of notebooks as potential journals.
The other things you need for the journal? A writing implement. Pen or pencil, it is up to you.
I have also found a ruler helpful in the setup.
How Do You Set Up A Bullet Journal?
If you want the official setup, you can look at the official site and watch the video.
As a summary, you are going to want to leave some pages at the front of your notebook for an index, and then put in the future log (the video does 6 months, I did a year). Then you put in a monthly log, and start the daily pages.
How I Started
I started by picking a notebook out of my stash. I used a Barnes and Noble special with some inspiring quotes on the covers.
The next thing I did was go to the back page of the journal and tested all the pens I thought I might use on the journal. Anything that bled through was noted. My journal will take all of my pens except the Bic permanent markers, and the Sharpie fine points are iffy.
Next I put in my index, and then the future log.
Next I put in a calendar index, which is something I read about somewhere (and I can’t find again). Each page is divided into three columns, and I wrote the day number consecutively for the whole year, noting when it changed months.. This allows me to keep track of things that were date specific. For instance, I made a note of when I turned in the Girl Scout papers and the page number of the daily entry.
Following that was my index for May, and then my daily pages.
I have also made note of pages where I have done general “thinking aloud”, guest post plans and other various note pages. I wouldn’t really call them collections, but more “musings.”
How I Am Using My Bullet Journal
Next week you will get a look at how I am using my bullet journal…with pictures!
Conclusion
I have managed to keep a daily journal now for over a month…that is a record for me. Plus I am also more on top of what is coming at me in the future so that I can prep. I am still excited about the bullet journal.
Over to you… have you experienced the bullet journal? What did you think?
Image by The D34n. Licensed under Creative Commons. No changes made.