Bullet Journaling for the Busy and Not-So Artistic Soul

Just when you think that there is nothing more versatile than pasta, there's bullet journal. A combination of letterings, doodles, washi tapes, colour-coded weekly spread in one tiny notebook; bullet journal is probably the most artistic productivity tool out there. Everybody talks about it, they rave about its benefits and how they can be a powerful tool for your mental health. So naturally, after hearing about the bullet journal hype, I got myself a notebook and a nice pen and decided to start bullet journaling. But just like everything in life, nothing really comes easy. Get this: I write bad cursive and I am terrible at drawing.

Four years ago when I started my bullet journal adventure, I gathered my inspirations from study blogs on Tumblr and was immediately intimidated by their impressive lettering techniques and cupboard-full of washi tapes and brush pens in every pantone colours. It seemed like so much work with very little room for errors. I was a little taken aback, but I got started anyway with my first notebook. Now four years in, I think I have found a journaling method that works for me and if you're looking for a sign to start journaling or just browsing for inspirations: this could be IT. So let's get started.

Pick a notebook

It does not have to be fancy and expensive, but make sure it has thick enough paper so that it'll prevent ink bleeding. Most notebooks for journaling are tiny, probably B5 at maximum. You can pick the size of the notebook that suits your needs the most. Personally, I have been using A5 notebook and I think it's the perfect size for journaling.

Plain, ruled, or dotted? When picking paper for your notebook you will be faced with these three most common paper type. Some notebooks offer mixed pages so they have combination of those three in one notebook. But if you're like me, I like consistency in my pages so I always stick with one type of paper. Now I definitely don't trust my eyes enough to go all-in with plain paper and I think ruled pages constrict my writings. I see a winner! Dotted pages have been my go-to for the past three years. They are so convenient, plus they don't make your doodles or sketches look weird (I always think a full-page drawing on ruled paper looks wonky somehow). I'd recommend my current MUJI W Ring Dot Grid A5 Notebook as a good notebook to start.

Set your intention(s)

Although there is no right or wrong way to do your bullet journal, it is nice to have a set intentions before starting your journal. A few examples:

• To monitor my to-do list and feel more productive throughout my days.
• To have an outlet for my thoughts and feelings.
• To keep track of my healthy habits.
• To experiment with art.

Now something worth remembering: it is more important that your bullet journal captures your intentions than looking pretty. I remember putting too much pressure on trying to make them Instagrammable I ended up hating the result because my intentions were not met. Your bullet journal is yours, while it is exciting to share aesthetically pleasing snaps of your pages, don't stress too much about it. Enjoy the process, it's a part of the craft!

Notebook set up

(p)en garde! Grab your coloured brush/marker/pen and your trusty black pen and let's get down to business. Starting a bullet journal can be daunting especially when you don't really know where to begin. May I interest you in making your own calendar? How about table of contents accompanied with page number? I also like to add my yearly resolution and a nice little list of books I want to read this year.

After you've set up your first couple of pages, let's talk about the spread. I prefer to start my spread with a more detailed calendar layout where I can add preplanned stuff happening in that particular month. Then I dedicate one page for each week, creating a weekly spread.

A habit of mine is adding a 'Brain Dump' page on the last page of every month. In there, I would list out songs that I really vibed with, thoughts, reflections, packing list, movie tickets, anything that stood out to me that month goes into that page.

Speaking of habits, I noticed a lot of people put trackers in their journal—either for habit, moods, or water intake. I tried implementing water tracker in my journaling once but unfortunately I found it to be quite a hassle since I don't carry my journal with me all the time. Trackers may or may not work for you depending on what you do and how your day looks like, try it for a week and see if it works!

I can't draw

Neither can I. I really was dying to have pretty visuals in my bullet journal. Actually that was one of my motivation to start a bullet journal: dazzling art pages. I tried my best doodling and I ended up tearing the pages because I didn't like how it looked. But I didn't give up on art, though. My alternative? Collage art.

Oh the wonder of the world that is collage art. All you need is photographs, printed out poems, magazine cutouts, or even pressed flowers and suddenly you're a mixed media artist creating arts in your bullet journal. Collage art made me realise how I underestimated my own art skills and how narrow my concept of art was.

Art pages are a great way to have fun with your journal so it's not 100% work/productivity-related. I make my collage during the weekends when I'm just winding down from the busy weekdays. But in unfortunate circumstances where I have lots of errands to run and no time for art, I would print out illustrations or comic strips to fill in empty pages with refreshing visuals (I sometimes add washi tape as picture frames too).

I find decorating my journal even in the simplest ways like sticking pictures very calming. I get anxious really easily especially when I'm chilling (my mind wanders), and having something to focus on that isn't physically demanding helps me ground myself.

Finally,

Journaling has been a pleasant journey for me so far and it has helped me stay sane during the weirdest times. Right now the world feels like it's in a chaos mode and I could really use a sense of control in my life. Planning my mundane days and weeks with my journal gave me that. I realised that there will always be things outside of our control and stressing about them brings no joy whatsoever. So I began working with what I have, and the sense of accomplishment I got afterwards? Muy bien. Hopefully I got you inspired to start a journaling habit and let's get this 2021 planner.