Bullet journals have been all over Pinterest for a while now and frankly I’ve never really thought much about them. I mean, it’s just writing lists right? I’ve always had notebooks and written lists. Lots of them – otherwise I would forget more things than I remember!
Years ago when scrapbooking became an adult past-time rather than something you did as a kid after a family holiday, I never really understood it – I mean, scraps of stuff glued in a book and very intricately done. I always thought “what’s the point”? Well, it seems to me that bullet journals are a bit like scrapbooking with purpose. I have always been a secret hoarder of notebooks – there is just something about a pretty bound notebook with lovely clean pages waiting to be written on – I can’t resist them in the shops.
So I pulled out my stash of unused notebooks (yes, I have a stash of those). I love these Cath Kidston ones – they come in a pack of three from Manor. I like the fact that they are bigger as you can get more on a page. Also they don’t have that many pages – so I can fill it and use a new one quicker, which appeals to me. I was debating on using the owl one, but size prevailed and I started out with the flowery one.
Now, I needed some supplies for filling my journal. You only actually need a book and a pen, but half the fun in this type of journalling is making it look pretty. So I got out my coloured pens and pencils and some stickers I found. I made a little pocket in the back of my journal with some origami paper so I could keep my stickers in there.
So then I had all my supplies, what now? Well, here is when it’s up to you. You can track, list or plan just about anything. Before I started in my notebook I got some scrap paper and noted down the things I wanted to record.
My list goes like this:
- Goals
- Weekly / monthly planner
- Daily to-do
- Craft room class ideas
- List of happy things
- Places to go and things to see and do (bucket list)
- Craft projects in progress and planned
- Garden tasks and notes
With my list in hand I opened up my notebook and grabbed my pen.
I left the first page blank – thinking I would add some kind of index or table of contents, and I started page 2 with a monthly calendar. I had a printable colouring page mandala calendar from Hattifant that seemed perfect for this so that was stuck on page 2, and then I added a list of events and activities for the month on page 3.
Then I put in my weekly planner, with a weekly to-do list. This included things I had to do around the house and garden, and with the kids, shopping I need to get and other tasks that need doing this week (one of those things was “write a blog post about bullet journals”). I added this weeks menu. I always plan food for the week because I find it reduces waste, makes my shopping easier and stops me eating junk because there’s nothing in – also with slightly fussy kids it’s just easier to plan ahead.
Then I wrote my list of craft room class ideas! This was really fun – I want to run classes on home organising and time planning with added crafty details, I want to find a way to do sewing at the craft room and not just one off classes. So many things to think about!
And then, the most fun thing – a page filled with things that make me happy. This seems rather frivolous in all this planning and organisation, but let me tell you – just writing this page made me happy. And looking at it now also makes me happy. So that’s definitely a good thing. I think I’ll keep on looking at it for as long as it makes me smile!
So far that’s all I have, but I am working on the other parts.
You can also add trackers in there – exercise plans, recording the amount of time you are on Facebook, how much money you spend on going out each month – really anything can be tracked. Pick one or two things though otherwise you will spend a lot of time writing this stuff down. I’ve not worked out things I want to track yet, but I can definitely see the benefit in that.
Coming up soon will be a bullet journal class at the Craft Room, so watch out for that if this topic interests you.
