Starting my Bullet Journal

Finally! Can you believe it? I've done it! I've finally found a way to combine my love of organisation, using lots of pretty pens, and making To-Do lists. I've jumped on that Pinterest bandwagon and started a Bullet Journal.

I first heard about bullet journaling in my senior year of high school - thanks Za! I only decided to start my own one this September as I head into my second year of University because I fell into what felt like an inescapable rut halfway through my first year. The thing that really pushed me into starting my bullet journal was this article from Buzzfeed which detailed how to use a bullet journal to track your mental health. This was something that I definitely wanted to do going into my second year, so that I could track my anxiety and hopefully keep it at bay. 

Before I bought a journal I scoured Pinterest for page layout, content and even header ideas - check out my board here! I even pinned a couple of articles on what's "meant" to be in a bullet journal. The one I found most helpful was from Creative Pink Butterfly, she really takes you step by step in how she sets hers up and touches on a lot of the common pages found in bullet journals. 

I've been using my journal for about two weeks now and I'm slowly figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. That's one of the reasons why I love this method of organising yourself. Bullet journaling has really allowed me the freedom to add or remove what I want depending on my needs for the week. 

This month I started off with a title page, for aesthetic and goal setting reasons. Next to that is a monthly calendar for important dates, however I'm about two weeks in and I think I'll scrap this for next month as I normally use my phone to remind me about events. 

Any guesses what my goals could be? 

Any guesses what my goals could be? 

My incredibly exciting plans this month. 

My incredibly exciting plans this month. 

After trialing daily layouts for my first three days, I realised I didn't actually have that much to do, so I switched to weeklies at the start of the next week. Immediately I found weekly layouts would help me get out of my journal what I wanted. The first immediate change for the better was having a weekly tracker, which I prefer because it feels like a better visual representation of my habits. It also motivates me to "compete" with myself the day before, especially if I haven't filled anything in. 

My appalling attempt at dailies 

My appalling attempt at dailies 

The much better weekly layout. 

The much better weekly layout. 

Now I'm on to week two, where I've switched up the layout once again because I found the long vertical boxes a bit of a pain to write in. So far this layout has been working pretty well. I also feel like it looks a lot cleaner than last week. 

Woohoo! Week two, looking super bare because once again I have very few plans. 

Woohoo! Week two, looking super bare because once again I have very few plans. 

Anywho, that's the beginning of my bullet journaling. Hopefully I won't give it up like I have with all my other attempts to keep organised. If these past two weeks have taught me anything, the total creative freedom to design each week as it comes has made bullet journaling feel less like a chore and more like a hobby.