Setting Up My Bullet Journal

Sometime in the fall of 2016 I stumbled across a few 'bullet journaling' pins on Pinterest. As somebody who loves order and organization, but also likes a fair amount of flexibility, bullet journaling almost seemed to good to be true. But it also looked way too intriguing to pass up!

A Bullet Journal is basically a customized planner that you create yourself in a blank notebook. Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer from NY, first developed the bullet journaling system, but it has evolved and changed as people have adopted it and made it their own. (Read more about the original system here) The beauty of bullet journaling is that it can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, it can change to fit your needs month to month or even day to day. Scrolling through bullet journaling pins on Pinterest or #bulletjournal on Instagram can be incredibly overwhelming, but when you remember that the main point of a bullet journal is to turn a blank notebook into whatever you need, it suddenly doesn't seem so bad!

I've shared some photos of my bullet journal "spreads" on social media and everybody always seems to want to know more! So I thought I'd show what setting up my bullet journal for 2018 looked like. Other comments I often get are that it looks like too much work, or that the blank pages are just too daunting for a perfectionist. The daunting pages? YES. I get that. I totally get that. I've been doing this bullet journaling thing for close to a year and a half now and blank pages still make me so nervous! But it's actually helping me honor the perfectionist in me, while also relaxing my standards a little bit. As far as it being a lot of work, it is a fair amount of work. It's work that I don't mind though, and I don't think it's quite as much work as it might seem. To hurry things along each month, I've made templates of my most used layouts, so I can just quickly trace them without having to measure them out again every time. And months that I am just incredibly busy and don't have a weekend naptime to devote to making that month's pages (that's all it takes), I super simplify my pages so they only take a few minutes to put together. The initial set up is probably the most work because I have a few trackers set up to track things that I do all year long. But those are done now! Those trackers are all set up for the whole year. If you have been intrigued by bullet journals before, but have been nervous about messing up or not having enough time, I encourage you to just try a few pages in any old notebook you have laying around! It might not be the right system for you, but you also might find just the kind of planner you've been needing (and gain a fun hobby too!)

So we'll start with your tools. When I first decided to try bullet journaling, I used a blank notebook I just happened to have laying around, and a plain pen. That's it. I didn't want to get too fancy until I knew it was going to work for me. After a few months of that, I knew I wanted to keep it going, so I splurged for a Leuchtturm notebook with dotted pages. I knew I wanted either dotted or grid pages, to make it easier to make little boxes and whatnot, and the dotted pages looked cleaner to me. I chose the Leuchtturm over other dotted page journals because it has an index and numbered pages already. I also got a set of Stabilo colored pens. But please, let me make this very clear, you do not need fancy pens or notebooks to bullet journal! A $1 spiral notebook from the drugstore and any pen you have lying around works just as well. I feel like I need to emphasize this because I initially got very caught up in having the "right" tools to do this, but while I'm very happy with my fancy-ish notebook and pens, I was just as happy with my drugstore notebook and Bic pen! It's also helpful to have a ruler or something similar to help make straight edges.

You can see my templates on the right of this photo. Super helpful once you've found layouts you like!

When I'm ready to set up a new bullet journal, I like to first make a list of what I need. I've tried daily pages before, but it was too much prep work for me, so I personally need a monthly calendar page and then weekly planner pages. I also do monthly meal planning (more about that here!) so I need a place to write all of that down. I follow a cleaning schedule and like having a way to track that, bill tracker, monthly budgets. Basically I just make a list of everything I want to track and keep in the same place. Then I scroll through Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration. Using some ideas I find and some of my own creativity based on my personal needs, I draw up some rough drafts to see if what's in my head translates to paper. This year I had some pages at the end of 2017's journal to sketch and plan in, but the previous year I just used scrap paper.

Once I have a good idea of what I need, I group them into yearly and monthly. I put all of the trackers that cover the whole year in the beginning of my journal, and then after that I group the monthly pages together and just do one month at a time. These are my yearly and monthly "collections". The first page I do is the key. Mine is loosely based off of the original bullet journaling approach that I referenced earlier in this post.

Something that I'm changing up this year is actually utilizing the index and numbered pages. I didn't keep up with that last year and I really wished I had!

I like my very first page, before any trackers or lists, to be the 'theme word' that I've chosen for the year. I came across this idea last year, choosing a theme word rather than making a lot of resolutions, and I've been a big fan! This year's word is 'joy'.

Then I get all of my trackers that cover the whole year, as well as a copy of my cleaning schedule. The cleaning schedule is just for reference, I use a tracker in my monthly collections to actually keep track of what is getting done. Covering the whole year I have monthly habits, bill tracking, birthdays, and a "year at a glance" calendar for reference. I also like to keep a running "waiting on" page to track what packages I have coming in (especially helpful around Christmas time!!) This year I put that in with the yearly collections, but I'll likely need a new one later on that I'll put wherever I am at that point.

2 Thursdays? Hmmm. Mistakes happen. That's what white out is for right? Although, to be honest, I haven't fixed this yet. I'm learning to let some things slide 😛

After my yearly collection was in, I went ahead and did my January collection. Monthly I do a cleaning tracker, daily habit tracker, budget, month calendar page, menu, grocery list for monthly shopping, and weekly spreads.

I think habit tracking might seem silly to some, but personally I am very motivated by things like this. I am more likely to run back upstairs to make my bed if I know I'll break a streak of neatly colored squares if I don't! I know I can't be alone in this. Right?!

We are Dave Ramsey groupies and this is the layout that works best for our income. Expenses are listed on the left and the dated columns are paydays. We assign every dollar of each paycheck to expenses.

This is not the grocery list I actually take shopping with me, but this is where I write out the ingredients I need for all of the dinners on the menu. I do the menu and list all at the same time while I have the cookbooks and recipe links in front of me. Then when I go to make my grocery list, this part is already done and I can just fill in what I need for our other meals and snacks.

My monthly spread is usually the same, but sometimes the left side changes up a bit depending on that month's needs. This current incarnation has been working for several months now.

My weekly spreads change often, but this is working for me right now. I fill in the top section with my tasks and appointments and use the bottom to journal a few lines about the day and write out at least one thing I'm grateful for.

This cleaning tracker is a new layout I'm trying. Jury is still out on this one. I think it might be too messy looking for me. 

So those are my main pages. At the end of each month I take a little time to put together the monthly collection for the next month. I promise it does not take long at all!! Each Sunday afternoon or evening I fill in my tasks and appointments for just that week. Big events I write in the monthly calendar and then put it on the weekly spread when that week rolls around. In between monthly collections, I put whatever I need. Some examples of other pages I do:

Packing lists for vacation

Planning pages/menus for parties

Notes for a book I'm reading or a speaker I hear at MOPS

A list of prayer requests to go over when I have some quiet time

A list of books I want to read and a list of books I've read (look for a blog post soon about a book challenge I'm super excited about doing this year!)

A tracking page for a workout plan that I'm following

Lists of areas to declutter

Big to do lists leading up to events (like Christmas)

Basically anything I need. Any list I need to make or anything I want to keep track of, goes in my bullet journal. Sometimes I make them really pretty with borders and little drawings, but sometimes it's just a list with nothing extra. The act of list making alone helps me calm my brain down when I have a lot going on, adding a little bit of doodling makes it even better! Sometimes after a particularly trying morning, I'll sit down with my journal after putting the kids down for naps/quiet time and I'll make a very random list or just doodle a page with scripture or even song lyrics. A lot of bullet journalers get into hand lettering and that's a goal of mine for this year! Writing and doodling is so soothing to me!

I hope this post has answered some questions (and I am more than happy to answer any more!) and I really hope it has presented bullet journaling as a very helpful and achievable thing to do! I know it seems like a lot. I know it seems like you couldn't possibly devote any time to something like this. I know it might even seem like a total waste! And for some people, it might be! Bullet journaling definitely isn't for everybody! But it is absolutely the right fit for me.