There are lots of different styles of bullet journaling. In fact, it’s a very personal and personalizable way to journal, plan, and keep track of your busy life.
Once you have got the hang of the basics of bullet journaling, you can use these styles as a starting point and feel free to mix and match to come up with a system that works for you.
Keeping The Bullet Journal Strictly Practical
The Daily Planner and Organizer
One of the most popular uses for the bullet journal is as a daily planner and a way to organize your busy life. It will keep track of your appointments, tasks and anything else that comes up. It’s the ultimate daily planner that can be customized to work for you, your work and personal life, and keep track of just about anything and everything for you. Color coding or adding different sections makes it easy to keep track of different aspects of your life.
The Ultimate To-Do List
If you love making and working from daily to-do lists, you’ll love the bullet journal. It’s the ultimate to-do list system since each daily section is nothing more than a list. The same goes for collections which are nothing more than thematic lists that you use in addition to your daily to-do lists. Since everything is collected in the journal, you don’t have to go hunt down random scraps of paper.
The Personal Improvement Tool
A bullet journal is also a great way to keep track of goals and make sure you’re doing something every single day to help you move forward. Trackers help you track your progress and you can add monthly and daily reminders to help you create positive habits. Use trackers, mind maps, and dedicated lists for books you want to read, courses you want to take, or new things you want to try. The bullet journal makes a great personal improvement tool.
Using The Bullet Journal As A Creative Outlet
The original bullet journal was a super simplistic analog system for keeping track of tasks, appointments, and random thoughts. It was an organizational tool and for most of us it is still just that. But because the basic idea is so simple and beautiful, it can also become a creative outlet for you.
Quite a few creative bullet journalers use their notebooks as an art journal in addition to keeping track of their daily tasks. They look forward to creating beautiful weekly or monthly spreads to track appointments and play with pretty hand drawn fonts for their daily headers.
If you enjoy drawing or practicing handwriting, consider using your bullet journal as a daily creative outlet. In addition to keeping track of your day, you can spend a few minutes here and there to add a little drawing or try out a pretty new font.
Get out your water colors on the weekend and create pretty backgrounds for the pages you will fill up throughout your work week. Collect ticket stubs and other mementos, print out some pictures, or use stickers and washi tape to create pages that are as useful as they are beautiful.
You can even turn your bullet journal into a scrapbook of sorts that not only captures what you need to get done, but also provides a stunning record of what you’ve done for posterity. Keep it for yourself or share it with your loved ones down the road. No matter what you decide to do, your creative bullet journal will become a way to capture memories for years to come.
How creative you get with your journal is entirely up to you and the mediums you use are almost endless. If you find it fun and helpful, go for it. Don’t be afraid to experiment or mess up. It’s a journal after all and there’s beauty in imperfection.
For inspiration for your creative journal pages look no further than the internet. You’ll find a thriving community of fellow artsy creative bullet journalers on YouTube and Instagram. Get new ideas and try new techniques by joining in the fun.
Don’t forget about the creative opportunities the cover pages of your journals offer. Try out some decoupage, sew a custom cover, or get out those leather tooling tools to give your bullet journal a personal touch. In other words, let out your creative side and have fun with your journal.
Turn Your Bullet Journal Into A Memory Keeper
Time flies when you’re having fun, or are just plain busy, and who isn’t. Sometimes it seems like life is passing us by and it’s hard to look back and remember all the amazing little things that have happened to us even just a few months ago. With a few little tweaks your bullet journal can also become a memory keeper. You’ll love thumbing through the pages in years to come and having the pages take you back in time. Here are three ways to do just that.
Look Back And Reflect
Even without any special entries, your bullet journal will be a great tool to walk back in time. Seeing your past entry about ordering a raised garden bed will remind you of the early days of growing your first few vegetables in the garden, or the “Take down and wash the curtains” task may remind you that this was the day your washing machine broke and you ended up taking six load of laundry over to your parent’s house. Without paying any special attention to recording memorable events, your journal will already act as a memory keeper for you.
Make Note Of Daily Little Events You Want To Remember
Before you head to bed at night, add a little note, or even just a bullet or two about memorable things that happened today that you want to remember down the road. If you have little kids, you may want to record their accomplishments or funny things they said. It’s up to you what you want to record and in what format. If you’re so inclined, add a picture, draw something, or stick a something in your page that reminds you of the day’s event. For example, you could include the ticket stub for the movie you went to see on tonight’s date. It will be fun to look back and read about these memorable events of days past.
Add A Monthly Memory Page
Last but not least, you can decide to add dedicated memory pages to your journal. Think of them as little scrapbook pages. How you design them is entirely up to you. Do what’s fun. It could mean making a traditional scrapbook page with photos and washi tape, it could mean writing a short essay, or it could be a page of doodles and words that represent things you want to remember from the month.
Remember this is your journal and there’s no right or wrong way to use it as a memory keeper. Figure out a way that makes sense for you. As an added bonus this focus on recording little memories will make you live in the moment and help you appreciate the fun and interesting little things that happen every day.
How you use your bullet journal is up to you. Use the list above to inspire you to come up with your very own style of creative bullet journaling. Remember, it is a tool that’s supposed to make your life easier, more enjoyable, and more inspired. Make it work for you.