HOW TO START YOUR BULLET JOURNAL!

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I have been bullet journaling for over 6 years now. I know the most daunting task is actually picking up the pen and starting. I personally always think I am going to ruin my brand new sparkling journal by putting pen to paper. But I am here to tell you JUST DO IT. This is your sign to start it! The best thing about a bullet journal is the fact that you cannot mess up. It is all your own.

WHAT IS A BULLET JOURNAL?

The bullet journal was created by Ryder Carroll to help improve his productivity. I recommend you check out the videos on www.bulletjournal.com to see where the bullet journal we see today originates.

 

A bullet journal is a planner, a journal, a tracker, a calendar, a sketch book, a finance tracker, and so much more. Anything you can think of or anything that will help you to stay organized can go into your bullet journal. It is completely unique to you. It fits your needs and allows you to fully customize your organization.

 

We have all seen the pinterest photos of the beautiful bullet journals that are absolutely perfect, like something out of an art museum. But the reality is that most of us don’t have hours on hours to spend making it look like a literal piece of art (not saying I haven’t tried to make these perfect spreads!). Don’t let these perfect looking journals get you down! Yours can be whatever you need it to be. The best part is that when you look across your bullet journals you start to see improvements in your weekly spreads, in the doodles you use, and in the different pages you’ve tried that month. If you flip through my journal from last year I have lots of intricate and beautiful pages, pages that look like a toddler drew them, and pages that have been left blank. And that’s okay because it works to keep me organized even if I am not the best about doing it. Just start it and it can only get better!

 

Now that you know what a bullet journal is, let’s talk about how to start one!

GET YOUR SUPPLIES!

Now as I said before, your bullet journal is all about you! So that means you can use whatever works best for you. I just want to share with you what works for me to give you some inspiration!

 

For the journal itself I tend to use the Leuchtturm1917 with Dotted Paper. I always get different colour journals and even started to match them to the rest of my supplies for the year! I love that it is a hard back cover so when I throw it in my backpack before class it is sturdy enough to withstand my day to day life. I also love the size of this journal. It is slightly smaller than the Moleskin I used to use and I have found perfect spreads for this journal! I loved my Moleskin but since transitioning to the new journal I have never looked back, but obviously that is my personal preference.

 

Get yours here! (https://amzn.to/31LQu9u )

 

I use tons of different coloured pencils for my bullet journal. Mostly just some normal ones from your nearest WHSmiths or the Works but I also have a pack of artists pencils if I ever need some more in depth colours.

My favourite pens to work with are the fineliners. Get yours here(https://amzn.to/3fZGZZq ) or the dual tip brush markers (https://amzn.to/3kKy5CP or https://amzn.to/311QXFL ). They’re really fun for more cartoony drawings or general colour coordination throughout the month.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?

When I plan out my bullet journal for the month, I pick a theme. For example this month I am doing donuts! Then I pick a colour scheme which for my donut layout is pink, brown and a pale yellow. Then with pencil I plan out a full month of pages. 

 

I did a month page, a 2 page calendar spread, a habit tracker, a quote page, a ‘memories of the month’ page, mood tracker and then 2 page spreads for each week in the month. I might add in my new class schedule and my class information pages before the week University starts again but I am not sure yet! This definitely seems like a lot of pages for the month and it is! But don’t feel discouraged! Last month I only did the monthly page and the calendar spread. The month before that I didn’t even decorate my calendar so it definitely only reflects what you need/ want to put into it for that month!

 

Now that I have it all outlined in pencil, I will start to outline the main outlines in pen and will colour the decorations in. Most of the time I leave the weeks until the week before or 2 weeks before to set up just in case I need the extra pages for something (like my class schedule) but I like to know where I’m headed for the month ahead of time!

 

My suggestion to you is to not get bogged down in all the details and just get started. Any journal or piece of paper works! Just try and see what happens and what works for you!

 

Good luck!!

 

Happy Bullet Journalling!

Charlotte