Bullet Journal: One Year On

The end of this month will mean closing my first bullet journal and beginning a new one. I have absolutely loved using a bullet journal for the past year.

I was reading through some of my older blog posts and it was a joy to remember why I started the BuJo in the first place. I had moved and was starting a new job, and writing everything down in the one notebook was so helpful to me, with the addition of allowing myself the freedom and creativity to make it look how I wanted it to.

Even though I use my bullet journal predominantly for daily to-do lists, it is so fun to look through. My bullet journal contains the list of houses I applied for and inspected before I moved into this one. I have my spread of books I’ve read, blog ideas, house tasks I wanted to do and items to buy when I first moved. I also find it vaguely amusing to see how when I first started my job, I wrote down every little detail as a to-do because everything took so much energy; I even wrote reminders to clean my teeth, even though I have always just… cleaned them without thinking about it.

But that is the beauty of it, and why a BuJo is so functional; it does exactly what you need it to do.

In my new bullet journal, I’ve already planned a few spreads to make it more focused on my writing. In my first one, I did have a spread for blog ideas, but I never really used it. But now that I have the head space to write more and prioritise blogging and my novel, I think some writing spreads will be beneficial. Both to motivate me onwards and track how it’s going but also as a reminder to see and celebrate what I’ve already accomplished.

I should confess; I created my first spread in my new bullet journal because it’s a health tracker that I will mostly use in September and October. The confession? It is so ugly. It looks bad. Really bad. And it’s the first three pages. Am I disappointed? Slightly. But overall, it doesn’t really matter. Again, it does what I need it to do and I’ve learnt to never make a page look like that again.

I consider myself creative, but not particularly good at Artistic Endeavours. Drawing, painting, handwriting are definitely not my strong points. I constantly tell myself to write slowly or take a calligraphy course online because other people’s notebooks look beautiful, but in reality I write quickly and it’s messy. We know this and we move on. I mostly decorate my bullet journal pages with stickers and stencils, which I’m happy with. It also keeps the notebook low maintenance, which suits my lifestyle because, as I said, it is predominantly a to-do list to organise my current and future tasks as I work full-time and plan around that.

So what pages will I use in my new BuJo?

/ Daily log

This is what takes up a majority of my bullet journal currently. At the end of each month I write out the day and date of the month ahead across numerous pages and organize the tasks I need to get done. It’s helpful to know if I have an event or something specific to do so I know to plan around it.

/ 2023-2024 reads

Because I started my BuJo halfway through last year, and now in the second half of this year, it is a mix of books I’ve read across multiple years. But I do enjoy drawing up two pages with bookshelves and filling in books as I read them. It’s one of the few spreads I actually draw.

/ Health tracker

I mentioned this briefly. Basically, this is a way of keeping track of the days I go for a walk or workout, how much water I have, and if I had sugar that day. This is the tracker I have already drawn up, and yes, ugly. But functional. Which is what counts.

/ Blog ideas

I love the thought of keeping notes of blogging ideas, because at the moment I think of my blog post… as I’m writing it… which is the day I post it… I don’t feel the need to schedule posts far in advance, but it would be helpful to have a few ideas up my sleeve for those days when I have less time but still want to write.

/ Novel tracker

I don’t quite know what this will look like yet. Maybe a word count graph, with the day I wrote and how much I wrote? Or even having a summary of each chapter or character profiles so I have everything there when I need it. I’m not sure yet, but I’m looking forward to researching how other writers use their bullet journals and how I can create something that works for me.

While I did enjoy my spreads I used to make for meal planning and grocery lists, in reality I no longer need them. It was helpful when I first started working full time, because I needed lunch every day and had less time to cook outside of work hours. But I now have a routine of meal planning on a Wednesday night and writing a grocery list on my phone; I don’t need to think about it as much because I have a rhythm with cooking now.

Speaking of cooking, the pumpkin soup on the stove should be just about finished. With spring on the way, this might be the last week I have soup for lunches, which means meal planning for delicious salads. (Sweet potato! Chickpeas! Feta! Haloumi! Bocconcini! I am now just naming cheeses!)

Have a good Saturday,

Sarah xx