My Cheapo BuJo

I’ve fallen into the Bullet Journal trap, and I can't get out!

One of my friends introduced me to Bullet Journalling a few months ago, and being totally innocent/ignorant/clueless as to what a bullet journal actually IS, I did the most natural thing in the world – I googled it. 

Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I guess I'd been living under a rock.   There are a zillion posts on Pinterest and another zillion websites.  Just. About. Bullet Journals.

 Mine is a cheapo composition notebook with graph paper pages, and I've turned it into sort of a do-it-yourself planner/scrapbook/coloring book.  Lots of people use them to establish new habits.

Most sites I visited recommended starting with two specific pages – a table of contents and a list of 100 dreams, kind of like the Index and Maybe/Someday pages in traditional planners.

From that point, it’s a free-for-all!  

Some people draw their own monthly/weekly calendar pages and use them like a “normal” planning calendar.  Some people make workout logs, running logs, lists of books to read, lists of books read, weight logs, and a myriad of other list-based pages.  Some people use one color of ink; some use a rainbow.  Some people get fancy, using different decorative fonts, drawing pictures, and making artistic borders.  On Pinterest, the posts are overwhelming – so much artistic energy!

There are special supplies for bullet journalling.  There are notebooks with heavy paper that won’t allow ink to bleed through.  There are notebooks with pages that are blank except for faint dots in a grid pattern to help you draw boxes and lines, and to keep your writing straight and a consistent size.  There are notebooks with pre-numbered pages so you don’t have to do it yourself.  There are notebooks with pages expressly for the title page, table of contents, and list of 100 dreams.  There are special pens and markers and clear rulers and stencils.

Because I’m frugal (read "cheap"), I went to the local big box discount store and bought the aforementioned composition book and a pack of ten colored gel pens.

Here some of the things I've put in my bullet journal:

• Quotes I like

• List of 100 dreams (I’m an over-achiever – I have 120!)

• Couch to 5K tracker (I’ve had to stop for now – I’m recovering from a bout of plantar fasciitis in my left foot)

• Daily habits (like empty the sink/load the dishwasher or feed the animals)

• Weekly habits (like clipping a cat’s claws each week – I rotate, so each cat gets clipped every 4 weeks)

• Wish lists for planned vacations

• Daily steps

• Running mileage log

• Books read this year (for the GoodReads.com challenge)

• Bicycling mileage (for the Great Cycle Challenge in June/July)

• Leave tracker (so I don’t run out of vacation days!)

• Running streak tracker (not mileage, just whether I've run a minimum of one mile every day)

•  Pages read (for the library summer reading program)

• Ongoing projects (things I might forget to work on, like clearing out the so-called guest room so it can be used for its stated purpose)
• 
  
  

I use color, but I’m not big on fancy fonts or borders or pictures.  I like to color in the squares, instead of checking things off.  I can see at a glance how consistent I am with my habits.  Getting ready for tomorrow and laying out my clothes – nearly every day.  Vitamins – hit and miss.  I can’t lie to myself when I have the evidence right in front of me in ten colors!

Sometimes when I’m filling in my daily items, I notice I haven’t done something on the list, and I’ll go hurry and do it just so I can color that blasted square!  Mind games.  That's what it is.  

It’s everything in one place.  No more random sheets of paper stacked around or filed away never to be seen again.   No Post-It notes to lose.  No more bulky notebooks, each dedicated to one project.  No more pre-printed forms.  If I decide it doesn't work for me, I can change the layout it so it does.

Have you used a Bullet Journal or something like it?  What kind of stuff do you have in it?