Bullet Journal Band Wagon

Many of you may have heard about "bullet journals", also known as #bujo and many of you may be confused as to what I'm talking about. Whether you're new to them, or have one yourself, allow me to give a brief description as to what they are, and then show you my very own!

According to bulletjournal.com: The Bullet Journal is a customizable and forgiving organization system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less.

This is definitely true for me. Bullet Journals are full of all-of-the-above, and more. It helps me get everything in one place, away from technology. Writing things down physically, rather than tapping it on a phone, tends to help ideas stay in your brain more firmly. 

First things first, how do you start a bullet journal? Well, you buy a journal of course! Make sure it's one you'll want to use a lot, because you'll be using it for at least a year's worth of notes. The "official" bullet journal is on the site previously mentioned, and runs at $25 plus shipping, and comes in two colors. Most consistently, I've heard people talk about the Leuchtturm1917 Dotted Notebook. It has many of the same features as the bullet journal, and comes in many different colors. On Amazon Prime, it runs at about $20. Of course, you can use any journal to your liking, just make sure it does match as many of the qualities of the bullet journal as possible.

The notebook I chose was this:

It was about $12 at Walmart, and I'd been keeping it around, so I decided to use it for my bullet journal. It has 240 pages, only 9 less than the standard, which was close enough for me. You should also choose if you want lined, dotted, or blank pages. I prefer lined, but I think I might try dotted next time to see if there is much of a difference.

Now, before I dove into making my bullet journal, I made sure I had a good idea of what I wanted it to be like. For myself, I started a Pinterest board, and pinned a whole bunch of great resources for bullet journals. Generally, I found that this layout was the one most people use:

One thing that got me into bullet journals was the fact that, since you make it yourself, it's fully customizable!!! So if one person includes pages you don't want to, you don't have to include them in your journal. For me, I didn't like the sound of daily spreads, because I do not plan my days out in that much detail, and after making a weekly spread, it seemed redundant to me, because my layouts for the two were basically the same. So, I forego the daily spreads, and just make my weekly spreads more detailed. 

Depending on how detailed you want your journal, there are some other supplies I would recommend as well. If you're looking for a minimalist bullet journal, all you'll need is the journal and a no-bleed pen of your choosing. I would go for a small tip, in case you do want to do any sort of doodling or small writing in your journal. I went for .05mm for most of the pens I use. For making your journal look pretty and/or colorful, I would recommend getting a few different colored pens, as well as washi tape. Washi tape is nice, thin tape, often transparent, so you can use it to highlight or underline in your journal without bleeding through or using more pen. You can find it basically everywhere. I got mine on sale at Joann's, but I know there's some on Amazon, as well as Etsy sellers that sell it specifically for bullet journals. I'd go for a pack to start with, and then buy singles of other specific patterns or colors you want. 

Now, onto the actual journal. Before you go crazy designing all of your pages, line your whole journal. This is a crucial part of the BuJo, the fact that it has an Index so you can easily look up your pages for quick reference. Some use a whole page or two for their Index, I ended up using a half of the first blank page in my journal, because I used a fairly small pen. Also, using a small tipped pen, I was able to fit more in without feeling too crammed, so I put my Index and Key on the same page, like so:

Now here's where your washi tape will come in handy, if you decided to get some. See that notecard hanging out on the left side of the page? Well, as you can see in this next picture, I used the washi tape and taped the notecard in there so that I can have a quick reference to my key.

This way, no matter what page you're on, you can have quick access to your key so you can be consistent. Next, I put my yearly and monthly resolutions. If you didn't see my blog from last month, it's right here. I figured I'd need two pages for my Future Log, so I split up my resolutions instead. 

Next up was my Future Log, you'll notice I started in February, because that's when I started my Bullet Journal. I didn't see the point of putting up a month that had already passed. I color coded different main events that I wanted to remember. Then I put my Weekly and Daily Resolutions on the page after.

 

I should also note that another thing I bought at Joann's were these neat stickers. They're paper-faced, so you can write on them without your pen smearing. Pretty cool, and they were on clearance, so they were only about a buck each pack. 

I'm not going to put all my pages on here, because there are a LOT. If you want to see more, let me know, I can post them on my Instagram or Pinterest board. But I will show you a couple monthly and weekly spreads, as well as a couple videos I put together drawing my layout for March. 

I always think it's nice to put a quote per month, and if I feel like it, per week. This was the one I chose for February. I love it. :D

The main thing to remember here, is that you should make your bullet journal fit you. If you don't like something, change it. You don't have to do everything someone else does. Have fun making your journal, and share your ideas so others can get ideas from you. It's like a passing a big canvas around, and everyone adding their own artistic touch to one big painting. Feel free to show me your ideas, too! Tag me on Instagram @howwonderful_lifeis so I can see your Bullet Journal, and if any of my ideas helped. Happy journaling!