What is Bullet Journaling?
The concept came from designer Ryder Carroll as a method of self organisation. It involves creating a journal that’s customised to your needs, and often includes to-do lists, scheduling, organising and brainstorming.
Bullet journals are usually created in dotted notebooks which makes it easier to draw tables, lists and lines. They are traditionally handwritten but there are apps out there if you want to create a digital journal.
What Does a Bullet Journal Look Like?
The wonderful thing about bullet journaling, is that you can tailor it to your own needs and aesthetics! You can go for the classic black and white minimalist look, or a bright colourful style full of drawings and stickers. It can be messy and chaotic or neat and pretty, but whatever it looks like, it needs to work for you and be something that you’ll enjoy using.
When I first started bullet journaling I would spend hours creating neat and intricate charts surrounded with illustrations, but I always found myself too scared to actually journal in case I messed it up or didn’t like how it looked. As I became more unwell with my health I didn’t have the energy to draw so much, so switched to using stickers and stamps for a more messy look.
How my journal looks changes monthly. I adapt it for how I’m feeling, and what I need it for at the time, and that’s the beauty of a bullet journal! Your journal doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t expect it to immediately look like the neat and beautifully decorated ones you might see on pinterest. You’ll create spreads you never fill out, or will make mistakes and cross them out. You might forget to use your journal for a month and come back to it later leaving it with missing dates, and that’s okay! Part of creating your journal will be experiments with what works for you.
What Spreads Should I Have?
Before you put pen to paper in your journal, spend some time thinking about what you’re going to be using your journal for. Is it for work, for personal time management, your wellbeing, or a bit of everything? This is worth putting some thought into as it will determine what kind of layout and spreads you create.
Personally I use my journal as a mixture between a calendar, a to-do list and a symptom tracker for my health conditions. I’ve experimented over the years with more ‘fun’ spreads such as writing my favourite song each month, and writing one good thing each day, but I found that I often forgot about them or couldn’t be bothered to fill them in. I found having a simple layout that is easy and low effort to fill out each day works best for me. It leaves room to add more details if I want to but isn’t overwhelming to look at.
I’ve also realised that unless my journal is full of beautiful colours and stickers, it just doesn’t interest me! It needs to fit in with my current interests and hobbies. Here’s an example of a spread I lost interest in due to how overwhelming it was:
Your journal also needs to work around your schedule, rather than you trying to work your schedule around your journal! For example; if you can only fill it out once a day, then creating a morning and afternoon mood tracker isn’t going to work. If you only want to use it once a week, then you’ll need to create weekly overviews and notes rather than daily habit trackers. When I first started I had a spread where I’d colour in a glass of water for every one I drank throughout the day, but that meant using my journal six times a day, and that just wasn’t realistic.
If you’re struggling for ideas, here are some spread ideas you might like to use:
- Space for daily tasks
- Symptoms and health tracker
- Mood tracker
- Fitness Journey
- Habit tracker
- Money and spending overview
- Films you want to see
- A bucket list
- A yearly overview of birthdays and celebrations
- Your school or work schedule
- Weekly meal planner
How do I Come up With Page Ideas?
Once you have a list of spreads you’d like to create, it’s time to plan how it’s actually going to look. You might want to come up with a cohesive theme for the year or month, or change up the layouts and themes monthly or even daily for a fresh and exciting look. Personally I found myself getting bored when each month and spread looked the same, so I enjoy changing it up regularly. It’s something you will have to experiment with to learn what works for you.
Pinterest and youtube is a great place to start if you want to see how people layout their spreads- remember though that a lot of time and effort goes into them, and it’s okay if yours doesn’t look like theirs.
A general layout tip is to have an index and the very start of your journal. This way you can write down page numbers to easily find spreads, especially if you’re creating more long-term and ongoing pages for things like bucket lists or yearly goals.
Although my page layout changes each month, I stick to a consistent pattern of;
- A monthly title page with a calendar on
- A weekly spread for the month on each page
- A sleep tracker page
- A symptom and mood tracker page
I choose a colour for the month and base my theme around that.
What Supplies do I Need?
A notebook: You don’t need to invest in any expensive supplies, especially not if you just want to try out bullet journaling for the first time! Although it’s traditionally done in a dotted notebook, you can use a plain or lined book, which can sometimes be cheaper and easier to find in local shops.
Pens: I use seven main different pens in my journals. Two fineliner for writing, 4 colour brush tip pens for drawing thick lines and writing and a gold metallic pen for decorative details. It’s completely up to you whether you use a biro, brush pens or even watercolours!
Optional supplies: I prefer to use stickers instead of drawing, and lots of people like to use washi tape as decorations and for creating page breaks or lines. If your book struggles to stay open flat, you might want to use a bulldog clip to hold them down. I also sometimes use a white gel pen or tipex to cover larger mistakes.
Adapting Bullet Journaling for Accessibility and Ease of Use:
If bullet journaling has put you off since it involves a lot of writing and reading, there are ways you can adapt it. Instead of writing down your do-to lists, you could create icons and small drawings, or give meanings to different stickers. As long as it makes sense to you, no one else needs to be able to understand it.
If holding a pen can be tricky, there are online templates you can fill out online and print out and stick into a notebook or folder.
Online journal apps exist, you can customise the colours and fonts for your needs, and use their pre-made drawings and templates to create spreads.
If white paper is tricky, there are journals with black paper you can write in using a white gel pen, or journals with different paper colours.
Personally I struggle with energy, and purchased calendar stamps to see if that helped. The small calendars are amazing as I can print as many as I need and just colour them in. The individual days of the week and numbers I found more tiring than just writing it out, so would recommend stickers for those!
It’s worth experimenting with different papers, spreads and tools to see what will work best for you.
Good luck getting started with your bullet journal adventure! Do leave a comment if you have any questions I can help with 🙂
Bullet Journal Supplies
I’ve put together a list of supplies I use, and budget friendly alternatives. Please note these are affiliate items, meaning I get a small commission from any sales: Bullet Journal Supplies
