My bullet journal has been the best purchase of this year so far - hands down. I thought about whether or not to buy one for a whole month because I had already bought one during sixth form, tried it out for a couple of weeks and abandoned it for a regular planner. However, the hype has been so real this year for bullet journals and I decided that it couldn't hurt to try it out once more.
I raved about it in my February Favourites and it's finally time to give my bujo its own post!
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All the fancy bullet journal-ers (is that a word?) out there have such expensive equipment, but when you're just starting out, all you need are some basics and you can build up to fancy pens and paints later on. In this post, I'll be showing you the ins and outs of my bullet journal!
THE JOURNAL
Because I was hesitant to buy a journal in the first place, I decided to start small. The community favourite is the Leuchtturm1917 dotted journal, but I couldn't justify spending more than £10 on a journal!
Instead I decided to go for a cheaper option on Amazon. I got this journal for less than £5 and it's served me well so far. The pages are all dotted and it comes with an index (3 pages). The pages aren't numbered, and that isn't a big deal for me because I just add the page numbers in the corner myself. The size is also A5 which is standard for bullet journals.
If you're unsure about which journal to use, then I couldn't recommend this one enough! It gets the job done!
THE EQUIPMENT
I say "equipment" but it's nothing more than some pens and washi tape!
I bought this pen case from Muji because I wanted something more minimalist to carry around with me. It has two compartments that you can use to store your stationery in and the only annoying thing about it is that your pens rattle when you carry it around. Nothing too serious though!
Inside, I have some pens; a regular Biro, a Muji 0.7 gel ink pen, and a UniPin 0.8 fine line. I also have some highlighters; a Muji retractable highlighter in green and a Zebra Mildliner in pink. Along with some gel pens I "borrowed" from my sister, a tiny pencil, rubber, sharpener, and roll of washi tape, that's all that is in my pen case!
And now for a look inside the journal...
After my index pages, I kept one page blank in case I needed it.
I did a 2018 yearly overview and after that, a future log. The yearly overview is so I can have the whole year (aside from January) at a glance and the future log is there for me to write in any future events that are important.
Moving on, I decided to also write in my 2018 goals as a reminder for what I'm striving towards.
I also added a drama tracker for all of my TV shows. The ones written in black are my American shows, the ones in purple are my Chinese shows and the future ones in orange will be for my Korean shows. I wanted this so I didn't forget what season I was on!
Then I did a page for blog post ideas. Only one page was dedicated to this because I have a lot of ideas written on my phone and even more in my editorial calendar, so only one page was needed.
I then did a key, in true bullet journal fashion.
As you can see so far, the decoration is insanely minimal; bullet journals should be practical above everything else!
After this, I began my monthly spreads. I added a mood and habit tracker to keep myself accountable. However, my habits have changed from February to March. For example, I no longer track meditation, and Korean has now swapped to Chinese!
The most important thing for me (as a blogger) has been my blogging schedule. I have the days of the month written on the left hand side, and the post titles in the centre. To the right are the letters W, P, S, L, I, T, and P. They stand for written, photographed, scheduled, live, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Sometimes I forget to do these and it's so helpful to have them in my bujo because that way I remember!
As for weekly spreads, I make these minimal too. I have seen such beautiful and elaborate weekly spreads but for me, the simpler they are, the better!
A new addition for March has been an expenses tracker. I am really trying to get on top of saving more than I spend, and having a tracker for this has been helpful so far because it helps me see where all my money is going.
Finally, I have a gratitude log where I write down what I'm grateful for everyday. This is so important to me because adopting an attitude of gratitude helps with mindfulness and focusing on what you're grateful for gives you happiness!
If you're unsure about which journal to use, then I couldn't recommend this one enough! It gets the job done!
THE EQUIPMENT
I say "equipment" but it's nothing more than some pens and washi tape!
I bought this pen case from Muji because I wanted something more minimalist to carry around with me. It has two compartments that you can use to store your stationery in and the only annoying thing about it is that your pens rattle when you carry it around. Nothing too serious though!
Inside, I have some pens; a regular Biro, a Muji 0.7 gel ink pen, and a UniPin 0.8 fine line. I also have some highlighters; a Muji retractable highlighter in green and a Zebra Mildliner in pink. Along with some gel pens I "borrowed" from my sister, a tiny pencil, rubber, sharpener, and roll of washi tape, that's all that is in my pen case!
And now for a look inside the journal...
After my index pages, I kept one page blank in case I needed it.
I did a 2018 yearly overview and after that, a future log. The yearly overview is so I can have the whole year (aside from January) at a glance and the future log is there for me to write in any future events that are important.
Moving on, I decided to also write in my 2018 goals as a reminder for what I'm striving towards.
I also added a drama tracker for all of my TV shows. The ones written in black are my American shows, the ones in purple are my Chinese shows and the future ones in orange will be for my Korean shows. I wanted this so I didn't forget what season I was on!
Then I did a page for blog post ideas. Only one page was dedicated to this because I have a lot of ideas written on my phone and even more in my editorial calendar, so only one page was needed.
I then did a key, in true bullet journal fashion.
As you can see so far, the decoration is insanely minimal; bullet journals should be practical above everything else!
After this, I began my monthly spreads. I added a mood and habit tracker to keep myself accountable. However, my habits have changed from February to March. For example, I no longer track meditation, and Korean has now swapped to Chinese!
The most important thing for me (as a blogger) has been my blogging schedule. I have the days of the month written on the left hand side, and the post titles in the centre. To the right are the letters W, P, S, L, I, T, and P. They stand for written, photographed, scheduled, live, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Sometimes I forget to do these and it's so helpful to have them in my bujo because that way I remember!
As for weekly spreads, I make these minimal too. I have seen such beautiful and elaborate weekly spreads but for me, the simpler they are, the better!
A new addition for March has been an expenses tracker. I am really trying to get on top of saving more than I spend, and having a tracker for this has been helpful so far because it helps me see where all my money is going.
Finally, I have a gratitude log where I write down what I'm grateful for everyday. This is so important to me because adopting an attitude of gratitude helps with mindfulness and focusing on what you're grateful for gives you happiness!
I know a lot of other bloggers have spreads where they track their growth for the month, what jobs they have, and other blogger-y things, but for me, I have my growth tracker in my editorial calendar and it seemed a bit tedious to re-write it. After all those numbers for my habit trackers and yearly overview, I was done with it all!
I hope this post helped anyone looking into bullet journaling! It's great fun now I know how to do everything and I'm not focused on making it look pretty.
I definitely recommend the journal I use, but do remember that you can use whatever you have! All you need is a a notebook and a pen and you can get started right away!
If you want inspiration, I would definitely recommend Lily Pebbles' videos on bullet journalling (video #1 here, and video #2 here), as well as Amanda Rach Lee's entire channel! They were very helpful when I was starting out.
I'll see you in the next one!