So, previously I've had a Filofax and I just started to decide it didn't really work very well for me. I'm very creative and so it was just too structured and I didn't have that freedom that I wanted. I couldn't just doodle in the margin or really easily add in a sleep tracker. I'd heard about the bullet journal system before and I started to look into it in a little more depth that I already had. The more I discovered about it the more I realised I really like the system. It was coming up to then start of May so I thought it would be a great time to start. I found a notebook with plain pages that I already had (I bought it from The Range) and got started with the first few pages.
The First Pages
I started off with a very important spread - the future log for the year. I started it at May and just drew out little calendars. I put this in so I could quickly coordinate dates with days and have a log of all the birthdays I needed to remember.
Next I have my reading pages. I am an avid reader so it's really important to me to be able keep a track of all the books I want to read and have read. It's very simple but extremely functional and easy to use.
The final one of these pages is a levels record. In England we get levelled on subjects and we are always doing little assessments and it helps me to just keep a record so I can see if I'm progressing.
The First Month
To start May off I just did a little title page with some washi tape to tab it so I could easily refer back to it.
Then I stuck some nice paper onto the pages to create a noticeboard type thing so I could just easily use post it notes to put quick notes and events that are going to happen. For example, I have a post it note with the two tests I have in May.
After this I have my monthly calendar so I have space to write events that are coming up. This also gives me a easy way to view my month. I also have the goals page after this for my monthly goals. This includes things like 'use my bullet journal every day' and 'finish No Stars at the Circus'.
The final two pages before my weekly spreads are my habit tracker and my blog ideas page. The habit is really helpful for trying to instil new habits in my daily routing and the blog ideas page is great to brainstorm blog posts and design ideas.
Now we move on to my weekly spreads. So far I have three and I've already learnt a lot about what I like in the spread. So my first spread was very simple but it didn't really work me because the sections were horizontal and there wasn't much space to write tasks downwards. There was also a big gap at the bottom and I wasn't really sure how to fill this so I just wrote a quote. I feel like it wasn't a very good use of the space and was not helpful for me.
In the next spread I changed it a lot. I'd found lots of inspiration and I decided to do the days vertically. This gave me space to write more tasks which I often have a lot of. I also had more space generally so I was able to put a sleep tracker into it. I also got some great inspiration for the decoration and I was really happy with how it turned out.
My spread for this week didn't change much. All I did was change the headings slightly and moved the sleep tracker simply for a bit of a change because I don't want all the spreads to be exactly the same.
That's all I've got so far but I know I'm going to be using my bullet journal a lot since I love it already. I can be so creative and can change anything I want. If something doesn't work I don't have to include the next month and you don't get this flexibility with other planning systems. I will definitely update you with my progress and I have some good ideas for other bullet journal posts. If you want a bit more inspiration, please check out my Pinterest board (profile is TangleOfThread) for bullet journals.
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