“The Bullet Journal is a customisable and forgiving organisation 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.”
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts this month, one of my “resolutions” (is it a resolution…or more a target?) is to keep a bullet journal this year. I have been looking at them for a couple of years but have been too scared to give it a go myself. However, after much lusting on Pinterest, I finally gave myself the kick I needed and ordered myself a Leuchtturm 1917 dotted line notebook just after Christmas. It’s a beautiful book, and I was terrified about ruining it. I think my issues with perfection are probably my biggest hurdle – what if the lines aren’t straight, what if the ink bleeds, etc. So far I am doing well though, and have even made a couple of mistakes that haven’t resulted in my binning the whole thing *twitch twitch*.
So after a few sessions of drawing things up and getting organised, it is looking pretty snazzy. I have opted to try and draw a different weekly spread each time, as I quite enjoy the creative aspect of it and am still trying to find out what style suits me best. I have a couple of different trackers too, which I am enjoying filling out. Here are my first few pages…
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| Annual calendar spread |
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| A Year in Pixels, and January header |
The pixels page is a mood tracker. It’s already looking quite cool, despite not having finished a complete month yet. It’ll be really interesting to look back on at the end of the year (I’m hoping the majority of it will be yellow!). It took me ages to draw up the grid on that page but I think it’s worth it – it looks nice. I’ve opted for pencils for the colours, partly because the pens I had bled through the paper and also I think it looks nicer in this case.
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| Week 1 |
So this was my first weekly spread, and I was actually hella proud of it! It took forever but I am really pleased with the result. It looks cute now it’s all filled out as well. Over to the left, I opted to have a hobbies tracker, to see how often I am crocheting/reading/blogging/colouring/journaling/completing my Line A Day book. Next to that is my housework list, which I can check off as I go. Menu for the week was the other “tracker” I thought would be nice, so I can look back on eating habits, etc. I was so happy with this layout though – I think it’s really cute, it just took me ages!
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| Week 2 |
My second week was a lot more simple. Went for a horizontal spread this time, and established I think I probably prefer the vertical ones, like the first week. I do like the simplicity of this weekly spread though, and the little colour pop on the bunting (the tiny bunting under the trackers is also blue and yellow but you can’t really see that on here).
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| Week 3 |
Went even simpler – hated it. But it’s a learning process, I guess. I just feel this page is a bit lost – nothing seems to match, and I hate the circle on the right hand page.
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| Week 4 |
Back to those nice vertical grids again, and absolutely in love with this spread. I used gold glitter dot washi tape along the top to highlight, and then used a pastel orange highlighter on the day headers and trackers. It’s simple but detailed, and I love it. I’ll be sad to see this week go – although I can do it again in future weeks, with a different colour scheme! I was also super happy with my little January banner in the bottom right hand corner.
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| Week 5 (part 1) |
The fifth week of January is the funny one, as it’s s split week. I spent quite a while thinking about how I wanted to approach it, and in the end decided that I wanted to do a header for each month, so I would split things up. So here is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and trackers (in hindsight I shouldn’t have done 7 days worth of trackers haha!), and on the opposite page my book tracker for the year. Not 100% happy with it, but hoping it’ll grow on me as it fills up throughout the year. I’m working it that I write in the book title when I start reading it, and then colour it in when it’s finished. I’m intending to embellish those shelves a little bit throughout the year and add some personal touches as I go, so this page is a work in progress really.
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| Double spread reading challenge |
This is the spread I put together for the reading challenge I’m doing this year (mentioned in this post) and it’s one of my favourite parts I’ve added to my journal yet. I found a “how to” on drawing the little kitty, and then coupled it with the highlighter calligraphy, then added my own tick boxes and doodles throughout. I’m just ticking things off as I go. This is 100% how I wanted it to look though, and better, so I’m so happy! Can’t wait to start seeing the ticks appear as the year goes on.
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| Week 5 (part 2) |
My February header was something I found on Pinterest – I think I managed to do the calligraphy reasonably well, considering I was just using a marker, and had no clue. Needless to say, I have a separate practice notebook where I give things a try first – just so I don’t mess up the nice one! Opposite February’s header are the 4 remaining days of week 5. Nice and simple, washi tape embellishment, and my trackers…again, I added in 7 slots on the hobbies one because I got carried away, but never mind.
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| Week 6 |
This one is a bit of a cartoony mish-mash. I found a “life’s a journey” style spread on Pinterest that I liked, and then tailored it to what I wanted. I’m reasonably happy with this one, but feel it’s missing something at the moment. I quite like the fact it’s monochrome and one colour, but feel it needs some more doodles or something. Saying that, it will puff out more once I add the meals on the bottom right, and tasks throughout the week, so I think it’s one of those spreads that’ll look better at the end of the week, as opposed to beforehand. I do quite like it though.
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| Week 7 |
Love love love this one. It took quite a while (especially the leaf garlands under the weekdays) but it came out great. I especially love the leaf frames around my trackers and menu. Am really looking forward to filling this one out when the week arrives! Definitely a style I will go for again, with different foliage and colour (going with a colour pop again, which I quite liked).
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| Week 8 |
Sweet and simple again for this week. I used my pastel highlighters to mark out each day, and simple boxes for the trackers. I think it works nicely, and was fun to do after such an illustrated page on the previous week. As before, undecided on the horizontal layout, but it’s good to mix and match I think.
So that’s what I’ve been up to! That’s as far as I have got at the moment. Hoping to add a little more into it later on, when I’ve done a bit of housework. I’m feeling pretty unwell today, so not sure how much I will manage on the housework front, but we shall see. I was meant to be going out to buy some new work shoes, but I really don’t feel up to it, so I figure I’ll have a shower in a second and then take it easy again today – yesterday was filled with journal designing and crochet, so more of the same sounds nice to be honest. I ordered another ball of pastel rainbow yarn last night, as I’m not quite going to have enough to finish the blanket I am making (which is a shame). Hoping I can get that project finished and posted off by the end of the week if I can though, and then it’s onto another teddy for a colleague. On the crochet front, I am hoping to add a project tracker into the bullet journal – maybe with little illustrations of each project I finish this year. We shall see though.
Do any of you keep a bullet journal? How do you find it? Do you have any tips or tricks you would like to share? I’m new to all of this, so any pointers would be much appreciated! Have a lovely Sunday, guys x