anyone else doing the bullet journal thing?

I started up a bullet journal in october for my adhd and fell in love with it

I've pretty much found that if I make the planner myself, and indulge in making it cute when I have time, I'm a lot more likely to use it, and even if I'm not even that productive, simply having a physical object that gives me a sense of time passing and when things are happening is REALLY good for keeping me out of the whole time-has-no-meaning-existential-hell thing

soooo yeah, if anyone else is doing the thing I'd love to hear about it/see it

I was gifted a stack of washi for christmas so here's what I've been working on:








also it's a good excuse to finally use the stickers I've been hoarding

 

oh my gosh that is so so cute! :DDD i love the little borders of mushrooms and fruits and things!

 

thanks! I'll probably start doing some actual drawings in the next layouts, but I wanted to try out all the new washi I got cx

 

@rats you were doing this at some point, right?

 

oooh yes thanks for the tag!!!!! i did it for a really long while on folded graph paper in high school bc i had No Energy or Money, started trying with a real notebook this year but i did not have a good one for it so i got frustrated pretty fast :UU ive been thinking of buying this to try again

bullet journaling is soooo good omg im so here for this thread

 

update: this thread reminded me that i wanted to do this and i went and bought a good nice notebook and 10 pretty washi tape rolls so I Am Hype and will post updates ῍̩̞(∗ɞ⌄ɞ∗)◞

 

yesssss

feel free to show it off here for me to see >w<

 

I've started working on some weekly spreads! going with the strawberry/pink theme for january c:




second spread was inspired by this adorable picture

 

AAA THAT IS SO CUTE....

 

.....this is really cool but like
how do
how do the thing
I wanna do this

 

I started one in mid-January of this year. It's completely text--no washi or stickers or colors. I can't post any pictures because it is full of client names.

For those just checking out this thread: A bullet journal works because it is simple. You don't need to make it pretty or cute or kawai. It is YOUR journal. It is a very simple system and if you feel overwhelmed by it, you're looking at too many Pinterest pages. You don't need any complicated stuff--just a notebook and a pen/pencil. If you want to add extra stuff, you can, but you don't have to. This is not a competition.

That all being said, I just got a new batch of fountain pens and a Rhodia WebNotebook and I'm kinda psyched for 2017!

 

!!!! I am going to finally start mine for the new year and I am Excited!!! I have pretty highlighters and washi tape (but I'm probably getting more of that bc it's so pretty....) and of course the actual journal so I am Ready To Go! Just gonna look @ other people's spreads so I can figure out how I want to do mine....

(I'm gonna do my best to keep it simple but. School/craft supplies are kind of one of my Interests so. I can't Not try to make it pretty)

 

yeah legit, you really don't *need* any sort of special shit. . . like, when i say i used graph paper, i literally mean that i used graph paper. my algebra and calc teacher in high school had a huge stack of graph paper that was somehow really nice? like, it had zero bleed, it was great

my first "bullet journal" was periodically stealing ~3 sheets of paper from her stack, folding them in half like a little book, and using that for like a month

and i mean, now i wanna try putting a little more effort into it making it aesthetically pleasing bc i have less executive dysfunction now and im tryna make my whole life a lil more tidy, so

basically ~*~*~ follow ur heart ~*~*~*

 

What exactly is a bullet journal?

EDIT: Oh, looked it up! Here's some info. I think I'll prolly try it for just observations and thoughts...

 

that looks... really cool. i don't think i'm artistic enough to pull off some really nice designs like these but the basic concept seems similar to stuff i've already been doing to organize my life, so maybe i'll give it a shot and design my own sort of?

shouldn't be hard to find some grid-ruled moleskine around here somewhere. (i have way too damn many.)

e. fortuitous discoveries:
- i have been informally bullet-journaling for years: it's how i got through my last two years of law school, for example. need to teach myself the actual bullet points though, and start using it as a journaling (events)/chronicling (ideas) repository as well
- moleskines that are L (8.5" x 5") have exactly 31 lines per page
- i have some really lovely extra-fine felt-tip pens that i can use

happy new year everyone!!!

 

Here's the basics: http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/

I use only three signifiers.

A dash is something that happened. Ex. Seebs called to talk about shoveling
A square is something I plan to do that day, but not at a specific time. Ex. Shovel seebs' driveway
A circle is something that I have to do at a certain time. Ex. 5:00 p.m. dinner with seebs.

That's enough for me--other people set up lots and lots of them and color-code them. That's a lot of work from my perspective.

At the front, just after the index pages, I have four pages (two, two page spreads) broken up into three months per page. If something is going to happen in a month in the future, I put it in the right month box. Ex. If I get a notice in March scheduling a trial in June, I write something like "14-16 Seebs v. CaDan trial" in the June box.

Then I have simple month two-page spreads. On the left hand side, I have the name of the month at the top and then the day numbers going down the left hand side.
Ex.
JUNE
1
2
3
4.

Etc.

On the right hand side, I make a list of things I want to do that month, but don't have a specific date. Ex. "Clean basement".

I make one of these at the end of each month for the next month. So on May 31, I spend like three minutes making the June spread on the next page. When I make it, I check back to the month pages at the beginning and copy anything written in the month box to the date line on the monthly spread. Like I said, the whole process takes about three minutes.

Once you have that done, you just turn the page and write a line at the top with the date. Ex. "Wednesday, June 1". Under that, you can start filling in things you have done or want to do or just popped into your head. If it takes up the whole page, just go to the next. If it doesn't, just keep on using the same page.

Two things make bullet journaling super useful. The first is the Index. Reserve about four pages at the front (or the back, if you prefer) of your notebook for an index. Each time you start a new month, write the month name and the page number it starts on in the index.

Second, any time you want to make a new doodle or thought or list, just turn to the first blank page and write it down. Then enter it into the index. After you've been going for a while, you will find you have a compact record you can carry around with you of what you have done, what you want to do, and what you think about it all.

This sounds complicated, but it really isn't. The whole thing just takes a few minutes a day and it's spread out throughout the day. Once you get going with it, you can decide whether you want to break out the washi and highlighters and go to town on it. Some people create really elaborate spreads and carefully curated "collections" (pages of lists that aren't attached to days). But you don't have to. You can do as much as you like.

I've found it really helpful. I didn't find the YouTube videoes and Pinterest pages helpful (although they are really cute).

 

nice, thanks, @rigorist!
I think I'm gonna do this for 2017, it would help me a lot in keeping track of things, and I think having made the thing I'm keeping track of stuff with myself will make me more likely to use it.

 

A bullet journal is kind of meant to consolidate all the sticky notes and slips of paper you scribble notes and lists onto into one place. At least that's how I approached it.

 

....that would be very, very useful for me
especially considering I tend to write shit on sticky notes and slips of paper and then immediately lose them

 

i generally use square to be "task to do today" and circle to be "event that happens today" :> i have a list of all the days in each month to mark out general events, and from there just go day by day. i also normally have little "generic do every day" boxes per week, so like at the beginning of each week i'll mark out a grid that's seven boxes wide and then add things down the list as i go and mark each one as i do it
normally i have "take meds", "exercise" for monday/wed/friday, and "drink full water bottle"