Hello friends!
Today we’re chatting all things bullet journal and the return of mine into my life for this autumn/winter season. We have so much coming up and I’ve found myself falling behind on organisation even with all my digital tips and tricks. A couple of years ago, I discovered the wonders of bullet journalling and like any good Pinterest junkie would, immediately went out to grab a moleskin journal and some new pens to start journalling away. For those of you who might not know, bullet journalling is a type of journalling aimed at being productive and creative all in the same place. The basics of it involve a simple system of to-do lists and symbols that you can customise to fit your needs and the rest is yours to play with.
A combination of doodles and stickers liven up my pages! Also, this journal has seen FAR better days, since pages have been pulled out leaving that nifty rip right at the top. Also don't mind the half drunk coffee, blogging life is caffeine fuelled.
When I first started journalling, I really went all out with trying to make it as beautiful as possible. After all journalling for me is also about getting my frustrations out through art. My first journal accompanied me all the way through my second year of university and helped me plan everything from essay deadlines to our great big inter-railing trip across Europe. Honestly, sometimes I wonder how I ever stopped journalling because of how much I got done in that year! It’s not too long before I remember why I stopped though. When life got busy and my journal stopped looking as “perfect” as I wanted it to, I just gave up. My pride and joy for the year fell to the side and I went back to managing my time in my messy way. I still got shit done, but I felt a lot more dishevelled doing it.
Since the days start getting shorter in October and winter begins to rear its head, I thought it would be the perfect time to pick journalling back up. I often find myself feeling low and lonely in the winter months (something something anxiety and seasonal affected disorder), so I’m hoping having an outlet to be creative and productive will help me get back into journalling. I do miss cozy nights in with my pencils and a blank journal page ready for me to spill the proverbial beans. Anyway, I have been yammering on for far too long so let’s get into some of the pages I have in my new autumn bullet journal!
1 // Habit Tracker for Vitamins!
Winter blues means a lack of vitamin D, so autumn means it’s time to take vitamins! Habit trackers help me keep track (duh!) of things in a way that gamifies the process. I like the idea that I have to colour in a heart everyday to keep my little grim reaper happy!
2 // Autumn Bucket List
You know I love a bucket list! The autumn one is a little more streamlined a bit Halloween focussed since George and I are totally into spooky season. Most journals also have a bunch of really generic shit and y’all know I'm not about that life. Since we're still in London for a season longer, I've tried to incorporate some of the stragglers from the summer bucketlist that still need completing and add a few new more London centric things. I wrote a bit more about why I choose each thing in Saturday's Blogtober post, so if you’re interested you can peep that there when it comes out!
3 // Fitness Tracker
The age old saying is the summer bodies are made in the winter, and also exercise is just good for the brain, so a new edition to my bullet journal is the fitness tracker. I want to make sure I’m hitting the gym at least 3 times a week for half an hour to get my body moving. I’m hoping gamifying this will get me in there and help me hit my goals!
4 // Social Media Brainstorm + Calendar
What’s a blogger without her Instagram? A YouTuber who doesn’t remind you to smash that like button? We are but shells of humans… I kid. But staying on top of all this stuff can be hard and I have definitely fallen off the bandwagon in recent months. I’ve got a bunch of ideas in my head for things to come and these two pages are helping me get there. We're still quite early on in the month so as time goes on I'm hoping I'll fill up these pages with all the ideas!
5 // Weeklies
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel every time, but here’s what my week page looks like. A lot more streamlined than my first few journals and effectively just a place for me to jot down what I need to do for the blog, the house, and myself. We often see these weeklies absolutely teeming with content but I'm here to remind you that at it's core a bullet journal is meant to be a more streamlined to-do list to increase your productivity. Loads of people use it for mindfulness and daily habit tracking, but if you want to just keep it simple like I do, it'll still work just as well.
Hiding some personal details for things, do not mind my awkward hand. Although it looks so smooth?? Maybe I should be a hand model.
And that's that! It's still early days this month so maybe I'll add pages as time goes on, but I think I've set myself up really well for the rest of the month. I mean, come on, how cute are those pages? Yes, I’m here to toot my own horn because no one else is going to do it for me. I love the fall theme and colours and I’m honestly just excited to get back into tracking and hopefully gamifying some things I’d rather not do to make sure I don’t slack since the sun won’t be out cheering me on every day. Let me know if you’re into the whole journalling thing and if you are what are some pages you use in yours? I’m always lurking in the comments so keep me company!
Until next time,
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Mid Autumn Festival approaches, and the time comes for me to shove an ungodly amount of mooncakes into my mouth. But, before we dive into the cosy autumn months, let's take a quick look at this past summer through the lens of food!