Starting A Bullet Journal
2018 for me, is the year of the bullet journal. I've always loved stationery, buying new notebooks, diaries, planners, pens etc but somehow always ended up with having a very messy assortment of notes, ranging between different notebooks, pages, my phone and my laptop, thus being the underlying factor as to why I've started a Bullet Journal. At first, the idea of a bullet journal didn't appeal to me as I thought it looked complicated, time consuming and something I would never keep on top of but after reading posts and watching videos from Lily (video 2) Anna and Kate, I decided that it is in-fact for me and is a modern concept I wanted to add into my daily life.
Having completed the first month of bullet journaling, I thought this would be a good time to run through mine, what I think so far, how it's made me more organised and to hopefully give you a little inspiration if you are thinking of starting one.
GETTING STARTED
When initially researching the bullet journal, the one thing that kept coming up was to use a dotted notebook, no lines, not plain, squares can be distracting but dots are perfect - room to be creative and you aren't restricted with lines. I picked up this Paperchase Agenzio Black Dot Notebook which comes with an Index, making the set up even easier.
There are so many different ways to set up a Bullet Journal. Simple and minimal with a black pen and some underlined headings or a more colourful version with headings, bold writing, headers etc. Originally I imagined mine being minimalistic however when it came to setting up the pages, I found myself adding in colour, different writing styles and putting boxes around my headers so I continued this theme throughout and mixed things up a bit. Looking back, this was very time consuming and some pages can look a little messy so next time I think I'd keep things a bit more low key.
PAGES
Future Log - These are the first few pages of my bullet journal and I've just laid out three months per page with the date and day so I can circle key dates such as birthdays, holidays and events and jot a one line note underneath with some extra detail. A really easy way to see what you have coming up in the next months and a great way to plan ahead easily!
Monthly Log - The monthly log is a more detailed version of the future log and I've got one month per page with the date and day again down one side allowing me to write more detailed notes and things that are happening such as Uni deadlines, appointments, blog deadlines etc. This has been a good day to set out my month and easily recognise gaps between days when I'm not so busy or months when I've got a lot on.
Monthly Content Planner - This section is really helpful for planning my monthly blog content and has made such a difference in terms of my organisation. With the dates and days lettered down each side of the page I'm able to easily plan in advance my blog posts and ensure my content is mixed up enough - for example, no skincare posts in a row. I've also added a little tick box system for P (photos) T (text) and S (scheduled) so I can stay on top of things and know when each post is ready to go. I've also added a notes section at the bottom of each page for any ideas I think of for next month that I don't have a specific day for yet or any reminders.
Monthly Favourites - This page is definitely going to be one of my most used and the most helpful. I've split the page into four months and it is basically an area where I can write down my favourites of the month as I go and remind myself of products I've previously featured in last months favourites toe ensure I'm not talking about anything over and over again if it's a product I love and use regularly!
Product Tracker - I've just left two pages for this but thought it could be helpful to track samples/products I am sent or if I know I am receiving something I can write it down and tick it off when it arrives. So far this has been really helpful but I'll keep you posted on whether it's something I update regularly or forget about!
Blog Ideas - A handy two page spread for me to just dump ideas on, non specific just when any idea comes to my head whether it's a product I want to talk about, a style piece I've loved, a new routine, any edit style posts. I've already filled out this page quite a lot with ideas that come to me as I'm working or flicking through a magazine so I this will definitely be a most used page!
Newsletter - As I've decided to start a monthly newsletter which you can sign up for HERE, I've added in some pages with each month on to jot down ideas that I want to talk about that month, any blog posts I've seen and loved, any new blogs/Instagrams I've come across etc. Again, a good way to ensure I'm not doubling up on anything and somewhere for me to drop ideas as and when.
Weekly Log - The final pre-filled pages in my bullet journal are weekly logs - I've written about 6 of these already but this section is something I'll do as a new week starts. It's split over two pages, each day of the week and a 'to do next week' section essentially it's like a diary where I write down the things I have on or need to complete that day. For example, Uni lectures, deadlines, blog post writing, shoot days, events etc etc.
Other Pages - Once my weekly log is finished (I've pre-counted to the end of the year and marked where it ends), I have about 1/4 of the journal left where I can add pages as I go or leave them as blank pages for more idea dumping.
So far, I'm thoroughly enjoying the Bullet Journal. Despite the set up taking about 2 hours, once it was done I felt so much more organised, ready to be productive and look forward to planning my work, future content ideas and filling out the pages.
I really hope you enjoyed this post, found it interesting and/or it inspired you to start your own! Let me know in the comments if you've got a Bullet Journal and how you set your pages up.