How to Organize Your Life With Bullet Journal?

Organize your life with bullet journal – is it as easy as it sounds? Is a simple notepad and a pen really all you need? Just imagine: clear, simple, and in the style you want. In this article, I will show you how I made my bullet journal and how you can easily make one yourself.

What is a Bullet Journal?

A Bullet Journal is the perfect system to collect your appointments, tasks, plans, to-do lists, etc. in one place. Nowadays we use a lot of digital apps to keep this information up to date. Yet it feels better now and again to get in the pen again and put everything on paper. That is why this system is also called ‘The analog system of the digital age’. The nice thing about a Bullet Journal is that you can customize and complete it according to your own wishes. Men may prefer a simple and sleek design, while women get creative with washi-tape and the like. You can at least do all sides with it!

What can you note in your Bullet Journal?

As I already indicated, you can go in all directions with a Bullet Journal. You can note all sorts of things. So you obviously choose from things that fit your life! For example, think of

• Monthly goals
• Annual goals
• A wishlist
• A Bucket List
• A planner with appointments
• To-do lists
• Books that you have read this year
• A checklist
• Movies I want to watch

Do you need to start a Bullet Journal?

Actually only a nice notebook and a pen. That’s it! A child can do the laundry. As you can see, I did stick a number of other frills in my Bullet Journal. That just makes it a little more fun and happier to work with. If you do not like all those frills, that is of course not necessary. The best thing is to use a notebook with dotted paper like the notebooks from Nuuna.

What is important to keep the overview?

Index: Make sure you start with an index on the first page. As you can see, I do not have a lot here yet, because I started my Bullet Journal. As you use this longer, you will note more and more subjects and page numbers. That is why it is also useful to number the pages. I do this myself at the bottom of the corner, just like in a book.

• Keys: This is extremely useful. You can see this as a kind of legend. You can create a different icon for different activities and get a nice and clear overview.
• A monthly overview: Here you can write a global overview of monthly events and activities. I myself have chosen not to do this very extensively, because I generally do not have many birthdays and other events on the schedule. At least not a month in advance.
• Day planner: As you can see, I have also highlighted the days separately. I find this very useful, because you get a good picture of what has to happen that day. Because I work full-time and almost full-time with my own blog, it is important to keep a good schedule. Otherwise I want to become chaotic sometimes and this gives me a lot more rest.

In my Bullet Journal, I have chosen to also make a checklist with all the things that I want to take with me on a trip. Very handy. I did this in a quiet time. A few days later I packed my bags. Now I am sure that I will not forget anything! I also intend to keep track of which series I have already seen, which I want to see, and which books I have read. In the course of time, much more will be added.

Use a bullet journal with squares or dots when creating. This makes it easier to create the check boxes, and you have enough rules on a page to write out an entire month.

Bullet Journal monthly log

The Monthly Log: aids in the organization of—you guessed it—your month. It consists of a calendar and a work list.

To begin your first Monthly Log, navigate to the next available spread of facing pages. On the left tab will be your Calendar Page, and on the right will be your Task Page.

The Calendar provides a bird’s-eye view of the month. To get started, title the page with the current month’s name. List all of the dates for that month down the remaining margin, followed by the first letter of the corresponding day. Monday, the 15th, will be “15M.” Allow space in the page’s left margin for Signifiers.

You may use the Calendar Page to record and/or plan Events and Tasks. Just keep the entries as brief as possible, as this page is intended to provide a simple bird-eye view. Since this page serves as a summary, keep the entries as short as possible.

The Task Page on the right displays a list of Tasks that you want to complete this month as well as unfinished Tasks that you’ve imported from the previous month or the Future Log.

TIP: Set up the next Monthly Log at the end of the current month, not far in advance. You can never know how many pages you’ll need in a given month.

Choose a timeline that fits best for you. Some Bullet Journalists often maintain a Weekly Log in which they transfer things from the previous week to keep them fresh in their minds.

With all this being said, how do you organize your life with bullet journals? The answer is simple, you just log everything. You plan and you log.

Plan and log.

Log your life events, your feelings, what you have been eating, thinking, buying. Plan for the day, week, and year ahead – make your plans easy to see – what’s what organizing your life with a bullet journal means.

Now, let’s explore a few ideas:

Bullet Journal Daily Spread

A daily bullet journal layout is essentially a daily to-do list for a journal.

You keep track of the activities, events, and appointments that you have each day in this section. It is also a place where you can write down your goals, keep track of important ideas, and make plans.

Isn’t there a lot to fit in one spread? Since this daily journal planner is at the heart of your Bullet Journal, getting it just right may seem like a daunting job.

After all, these spreads are the tool for organizing your life!

The good news is that, as with anything Bujo, you can tailor these pages to your exact specifications, it is an ever-changing and evolving practice.

What Do You Write In A Bullet Journal Daily Log?

While the day will be different for each person and their lifestyle, some essentials will make your daily work amazing for your rapid logging by using simple signifiers.

• Tasks to be completed for the day on the date
• Important meetings and appointments
• Notes and suggestions can be jotted down in an empty row.
• Are there any objectives for the day?

There are many other fantastic items to add to your daily spread, as you can see from the ideas below, but we believe these are the must-haves for all.

How to Make Your BuJo Daily Spread Work Best for You

The very first piece of advice we have is to make this a daily routine.

Find and stick to a routine that works for you.

Perhaps it’s better if you build your daily bullet journal layout the night before? Or, by waking up early and building your daily routine, you can incorporate it into a lovely morning routine.

Make a spread that represents your life, routines, and objectives. Perhaps you’d like to get in better shape or live a healthy lifestyle.

Add a habit tracker to your daily page to keep track of the new habits you’d like to develop… or old habits you’re attempting to break.

I’m not sure if you know this about me, but I’m a big fan of trackers. 

I don’t differentiate between trackers and logs. In any case, I’m a sucker for gathering data in order to learn more about my behaviors and preferences. The information is essential for improving your life because you won’t know what to change or how to change it if you’re operating with incomplete data. That’s why I wanted to make a Year in Pixels map so I could see my moods and emotions from a different perspective!

If you haven’t already seen this extremely successful trend, you’re in for a treat. Have you heard of year-in-pixels spreads? It’s pretty easy, but it’s also incredibly awesome!

A year in pixels is essentially a compilation of a mood tracker for each month of the year using a grid and is usually color-coded to represent a particular emotion. The goal here is to fill in one block every day based on how you feel that day.

And believe me when I say that the finished product will astound you with its beauty at the end of the year!

So, if you want to learn more about bullet journal year in pixels or try out a few layout ideas, we have everything you need right here!

Why Should You Make A Year In Pixels? (Pros & Cons)

You may be wondering if including this in your bullet journal is really important, but learning more about it may help you decide what to do. Having one isn’t absolutely necessary or needed at the end of the day, but you might be surprised.

Advantages:

Camille from Passion Carnets developed the idea of Year In Pixels with the intention of being more conscious and consciously aware of what to concentrate on.

We’re all going to have good and bad days, but when we challenge ourselves to resolve those bad days, knowing that we’ll have to write it down eventually, we might be tempted or encouraged to turn a bad day into a good one.

It’s also a perfect way to integrate self-care into your daily routine by reminding yourself to try new things that would help you.

This year in pixel spread may assist you in overcoming negative emotions and adopting a more positive attitude.

Drawbacks:

The only disadvantage of this form of spread is that in order to see if it is completely finished, you must make it a daily job to complete, which isn’t difficult because all you’re doing is coloring in a small block every day.

Also, if you enjoy monthly mood tracker spreads, you could find it tedious to monitor the same thing every day.

Now that you’ve probably decided to hold a year in pixel spread, it’s time to get to the good stuff!

What you will need: To begin, you’ll need a few basic art supplies for each spread:

• A good bullet journal
• Pencils,
• Markers,
• Pencil Ruler for drawing the table

How To Make Year In Pixels Spreadsheets

Step 1: Choose a layout.

As you’ll see in a moment, most year-in-pixels spreads are done in portrait mode, but there are a few designs that can be done in landscape mode. It all depends on what you want or who you want to use.

Step 2: Pick a theme.

These spreads can be themed, or they can simply be decorated as normal. Make them fun with markers and washi tape, or keep it plain with black and white.

There are several options to choose from, and each of these spreads is worth a try.

Step 3: Make a grid.

This will help you decide how many rows down you’ll need to go depending on the style you want.

Build 31-32 rows (one for each day of the month) going down and 13 blocks (one for each month of the year) going across for the portrait style.

A dot grid journal will make it much simpler and faster to draw this out and work out the best design, so you’ll know how much space you’ll need for stuff like your header and doodles.

Following that, you’ll want to include the type of key or the method by which you’ll be monitoring your moods. It may be as plain as a color-coded pattern or as complex as a line doodle pattern. Either way, it will look fantastic.

Year In Pixels Themes & Inspiration