My journey with a Bullet Journal – and why I recommend it to everyone!

The sun has just risen filling the skies with a magnificent golden hue and I am sitting in my favourite corner of the house next to windows overlooking the river, with a glass of hot water and my journal next to me. I soak in the peace, meditate for 15-20 minutes, and continue the meditativeness into my process of journaling. This blissful way in which I welcome every day is the reason I look forward to waking up, making mornings my most favourite part of my entire day for the last 3 years. 

This is a time where I allow myself to be completely still physically and be one with my thoughts. Journaling helps me put my thoughts into words, actions, goals and visualise my progress towards them. It is a process of not just seeing where I am today, but a beautiful recollection of my journey thus far and my hope for my future. I start my day by channelling all my positive energy by focusing on how I want to progress through the day. This gives me a sense of accomplishment even before I get to the task and the rest follows effortlessly.

My introduction to a Bullet Journal

I have always loved to plan, organise my work, have a to-do list, but I never had an efficient way of doing it. I had sticky notes here and there, some notes written in my phone, some in my diary and ironically instead of helping me being more organised, it added to the chaos.

I happened to come across a video on Youtube where a food vlogger was illustrating how she uses a Bullet Journal for her planning, and it instantly appealed to me because of its simplicity. I have always loved books and physical forms of note taking, and in today’s digital world where everything can be controlled on a touch screen, I find myself gravitating more and more towards simpler forms of everyday habits.

Bullet Journal is a simple method to plan and be organised with your tasks, thoughts, and schedule. In your bullet journal, you can log tasks, events, and notes in short-form sentences — called “bullets.” What makes it easy to adapt is that you can customise it in infinite ways to suit your needs and your personality. Your BuJo (short for Bullet Journal) will never look the same as another person’s and that’s the beauty of it. It lets you get creative while also helping you stay on top of your to-do lists.

How did I get started?

I recall rushing to a nearby stationary store the very next day because I was way too excited and couldn’t wait to start my own Bullet Journal. I had a million ideas dancing in my head of what I wanted to put into it and how I wanted to design it.

I had some basic supplies with me – few pens, markers, and sticky notes. I’d suggest you don’t go crazy with other supplies at this stage because you need to first figure out your style and purchase accordingly.

Next, I went through all my scattered notes lying in different places and made a list of things that I typically want to make a note of and would be of value to me. Once I had an idea of the absolute must-haves, I moved on to the fun part – putting them all into my Bullet Journal.

Make it your own

I highly recommend using online as an inspiration and not as a mimicking tool. What this does is lets you develop your creativity in ways that are personal to you and along that course you will be given this incredible opportunity to discover and appreciate things about yourself. Take this opportunity to reflect into some essential elements of your life and personality such as your current routine – anything you would want to add or change? Or your short-term goals – how do you plan to achieve them? This process of discovery can be gradual, and you don’t need to have it all figured out by day one. Take your time and eventually you will understand your process.

Personally, for me, this helped me realise that I wanted to focus my attention to a few key areas – health, self-improvement, personal growth and relationships.

Once I had a rough idea about what I wanted to pen down, this is how I went about it. I am sharing a few sneak-peeks into my first Bujo –

KEY page

In this page I listed down legends (indices) denoting what each of them mean. You can use them throughout your journal in your to-do lists, as reminders or simply as notes. You can get more creative and choose icons that are fun 😊

VISION page

I got more imaginative through the years with how my vision page was designed (more on that in another post), but my first journal Vision board was a simple list of things I planned to achieve by the end of the year. Nothing fancy, but important things that are practical and you know you can work towards achieving it.

YEAR AT A GLANCE

This is an example of something I picked from online but didn’t resonate with. I found little value doing this and didn’t use it very efficiently. Needless to say, this did not make it to my next year’s BuJo 😊

I am using this as an example to let you know that it is okay to realise mid-way that you don’t enjoy a certain page or theme and that is perfectly alright. Don’t strive to have the perfect Bujo from the very get go. Be patient and let it evolve!

MONTHLY dedications

This is a great way to reset and start a new month, with a hope that it would progress in the most positive way. Isn’t that what we all hope for?!

I took the time at the start of every month to visualise how I wanted it to transpire and let the theme be in sync with it. I gradually started to enjoy this process and got more innovative by the time I reached half a year (some proof 😊)

I mainly divided a month into the following

• A check in at the start of the month about how I feel mentally and physically and fill in the same next to it at the end of the month. This helped me evaluate at the end of every month and provided me with some direction towards areas that I need to work on.
• To-do list – This is updated throughout the month and believe me when I say that the satisfaction you get when you see all the items checked off is unparalleled! 😊
• A habit tracker – I listed down my existing habits and new habits that I wanted to be more consistent towards and track them each day of the month. This acts as a great motivator with the ability to visualise the number of days you took the time to do something wonderful for yourself and be proud 😊
• Gratitude – I always thought this was overrated but turned out to be a life-changing activity. We go through life so quickly not having enough time to pause and appreciate the many things that are going right, that make you smile or fill your heart with joy. Could be a person, something you ate, or a movie you saw with a friend/partner. I realised when I sat down to write something that made me happy each day, I was far more appreciative and grateful for the life that I have.
• Brain dump/notes – This section is dedicated for dumping my thoughts/feelings on a good or bad day. I use it to pour my heart out about things that affect me, that mean something to me or could be something plain silly or funny. Any which way, I always come out of this feeling lighter and better.

My friend who saw my journals put it quite accurately when she said, “You have an Instagram account, it is just that it is not online”. And that is how I want to keep it – it is my world, with my thoughts and rants and I love it!!

Having the ability to sit with my thoughts and pour some onto my journal has been one of the most fun and fulfilling activities that has become an integral part of my lifestyle.

If my story has motivated you to embark on this journey, please leave a comment and I will be ever grateful to know that I was able to bring in some joy into your lives.