I’m Not As Organised As I Appear
So I ran a poll on twitter to find out what I should do my next blog post about, and a majority of people voted for a peek inside my bullet journal. I discovered the world of the bullet journal through Pinterest and Instagram and decided to give it a go myself, to begin with, I just used an old notebook before purchasing a high-quality journal. I ordered a Leuchtturm1917 (£12.99) in the A5 size with dotted pages, I chose the emerald colour because it looked really bright and summery. Along with this, I ordered a new set of Stabilo point 88 (£11.88) as my existing set are well loved and are no longer as precise as I would like them to be, and I also thought it was about time I bought a new set. Since I am still very new to using a bullet journal I use other people’s spread designs that I discover online, and if I need to change them slightly then I do so.
I began with creating a key in which I could follow throughout the whole of my journal and I hoped this would help me to stay a lot more organised, particularly over the summer months where it’s easy to lose track of what needs to be done. I used a simple, pre-existing key, that satisfied all the things I required and more. Since starting my journal I have been able to keep track of more things, and the analogue system means that due to the fact that I’m writing something done I’m more likely going to remember it, rather than putting it into my phone calendar.
My journal began to come to life on the 9th May, however I was a bit over-ambitious with my daily layout and therefore ended up getting bored/ too busy and missing days out, this is when I re-adjusted how I did things and I tried to continue with daily spreads but it just wasn’t working out for me. Despite the fact that I loved the layout I had, it was too time consuming and meant I wasn’t doing them to the standard that I would like. At this point, I didn’t use weekly spreads, and therefore I was forgetting about important things I need to do, and it just caused me to stress out and become unorganized when in fact, I should be using my journal to de-stress and improve my organization. In the week which I missed out days I placed quotes on the blank pages, one of which was by Boho Berry and the other one I found on Instagram (but currently cannot find the link for). I thought these were really fitting for these pages of my journal where I had gotten overwhelmed at everything and ended up feeling disappointed that I hadn’t finished the week successfully.
I decided to half the size of my daily spread, as I still wanted to make it work for me, and this meant that it took a lot less time to draw out my layout for the week, however, I was no longer a massive fan of the layout, and wanted to try something new. Although I was unsure as to whether or not I wanted to keep using daily spreads to try using weekly ones. This is when I tried to use them both, but I found this completely and utterly pointless as I was basically just repeating the tasks just in a different layout. Although I did enjoy having the daily spreads I decided to switch over to weekly ones as it meant I was easily able to see my full week at a quick glance.
I like to switch between two different weekly layouts depending on my mood, one of which was created by plantosucceed on Instagram, and the other an adaptation of the original. I enjoy them both equally and they take roughly the same amount of time to create. Sunday’s are the day in which I draw in next week’s layout, and one thing I like on both spreads is that I can keep track of my eating habits (particularly what I eat for dinner as this is normally the meal which I lack to keep healthy or eat at all) and although my diet so far this week hasn’t been that great (seen in the bottom picture) at least I know I have actually eaten dinner. I also like to include a box for ‘next week’ so that I can write something in there that will give me something to look forward to, or something important I need to include.
One key component of my personal bullet journal is my habit tracker, I find this incredibly important as it means I can track everything across the month, and see which areas of my life I need to improve upon or change. For example, in May one of the things I wished to achieve was to get up before 9am, and I didn’t manage this once and therefore I change it to 11am for June and I have been able to achieve this a lot more. On the page opposite my tracker, I have a list of goals I wish to accomplish in the month of June, I have placed these here as I use my tracker daily and can, therefore, remind me of my goals at the same time. I have chosen goals that are easy enough to achieve but will also push me slightly and help my development as a person, as well as the financial goals benefiting me once I go back to university. I kept my layout for these pages simple and went with a black and purple colour scheme (something I have used for several other pages).
I also have a page in which I keep track of the TV shows I’m currently watching so that I know when I have completed one, particularly if I’m watching it on live television as it’s easy to loose track of which episode you are one. Or if like a couple of shows I’ve taken a break half way through a season due to exams or because I’m too busy to spend time dedicated to one show at a time. Plus if I accidentally remove a show from my watch history on Netflix then I can quickly return to the right episode and I don’t end up re-watching episodes or missing them out. Another thing I have included in my journal is a list of films and books I wish to experience this summer, although my life of films is far from complete (so if you have a recommendations for films do let me know) and I still need to purchase a large majority of books on my reading list. I’m hoping to complete these both before I go back to university in September, as my free time will be minimal.
I have personally found that my bullet journal has not only been a way of organization but also a creative outlet, and I highly recommend giving it a try for anyone that wishes to, just remember you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a high-quality journal if you don’t want to, you can literally use any notebook you wish. I obviously have a lot more pages in my journal (including expenses, monthly spreads, blog post ideas and travel information) but these are things I wish to keep private and not post on the internet for obvious reasons.
I really hope you enjoyed this peek into my bullet journal, and that maybe it has inspired you to create your own…and after forgetting about mine for a while I picked up using my bullet journal for keeping organised in 2018 and you have peek at it in this post New Year, New Bullet Journal
Love you lots like jelly tots x
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