Let me start by saying “You’re welcome”. If you have yet to look into the wonderful world of the Bullet Journal and this is your first time hearing about it, again, you are welcome. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my girl Amber Salhus, for it is solely because of her that I discovered my BuJo (yah, that’s the abbreviation, NOT bj…that is something else).
If you have heard of Bullet Journaling and looked into it on Pinterest or Instagram or just the plain ol’ internet you probably became slightly overwhelmed at ALL OF THE BUJO THINGS. There are videos, blogs and countless pictures and examples of how you can set up your very own Bullet Journal.
To start at the beginning though, let me say that a Bullet Journal is basically a calendar / planner / journal that you customize completely for your own life. I always liked the idea of using a planner, but I have never found one that had room for all the things I needed without a bunch of extra crap I didn’t want to use. So for the last however long I’ve put kiddos sports practice info, birthdays and important events on a wall calendar and set up all the day to day appointments I need to remember in my phone…with multiple reminders. It’s a system that’s worked, and if it’s similar to what you do then you might be thinking “I need not this Bujo crap”, but that’s where you might be wrong, friend.
Just answer these following questions and if any of your responses are “yes” then I’m just saying…bullet journaling might be your jam.
- Was your second favorite day growing up (Christmas is always the favorite) the day you went school supply shopping?
- When you go on a trip of any sort do you make a list of all the things you want to make sure you pack?
- Do you have random flyers from your work / church / kids’ school listing when certain party supplies are due, when baseball signups are and what code you need to put into the website in order to get it done, or birthday party invites with the necessary address, etc?
- Do you have any kind of project that needs to be worked on, cleaned out or organized, but for whatever reason still remains unfinished?
- Do you have random notes stored in your phone of favorite songs you want to remember to put on a playlist, books you want to read, places you want to vacay or products you wanna buy?
Okay, if ANY of these have you nodding your head up and down, then do yourself a solid and buy a Leuchtturm 1917 (my choice of notebook) and a set of super fine tip pens (Staedtler 0.3mm fineliners) and get a-going.
I could show examples of my BuJo, but honestly there are a ton of layout options all perfectly explained online (check Pinterest, it was the most helpful for me). Instead, I want to give the three favorite realizations I’ve had since starting a bullet journal and why I think it’s something that’s gonna stick for a while:
- It marries my creative and practical side. I’m not super artistic. People that can set up amazing parties for their kids, write in calligraphy and sew basically anything, I’m in awe of. The cool thing with bullet journals is that if creativity IS your niche, then you can make a beautiful art project out of the whole thing. And for us semi-artsy folk, it’s just fun to make simple banners and borders for pages, making the various spreads look like an uber-cute planner. Love. Oh, did I mention all the list making?
- It has made me more efficient. There are a couple around-the-house tasks that I’ve been meaning to get to, but they constantly get ignored because, well, life. In the two weeks that I’ve started this BuJo though, I’ve been able to X off at least 4 different random jobs that were always bugging me, but not to the point that I’d take time to actually do something. But seeing the outline of my day / week / month, how much time I really do have and then listing the things that I'd like to do in any given day / week / month has pushed me. In a good way. Since I’m not overly spontaneous, my go-to with empty time is chill. With this I’ve been surprised that I still have time to chill, but it’s with a cleaner conscious knowing that I accomplished above and beyond my normal. Good stuff.
- It’s detached me from what doesn’t matter. I heard somewhere recently that we touch our phones around an average of 150 times a day. I go through seasons with and without technology, shut out TV for a time, go without checking social media, etc. It’s always refreshing, but I find myself back at it before too long. And not that it’s bad, goodness, I love myself a good panda frolicking in the snow video or multiple clips of people falling off boats while fishing. And seriously, I can’t get enough of all the Tasty videos that show how to make some delicious dessert or dinner in what looks like 5 easy steps. But if I were to tally up the time spent on devices every day, I really don’t want it to be a significant piece of a 24-hour pie chart. I want it to be minuscule. And I’ve been shocked at how well my brain has worked with keeping all the events, practices, and appointments just by putting pen to paper. I still have alarms set in my phone, but now when they go off I’m already headed to where I need to be going. Dare I say I might be able to go without using my phone for that soon? Maybe.
So. If you feel led, do check out this awesome, creative, freeing idea. It might just be the thing you didn't know you always needed.
