Bullet Journaling Saved Me From Quarantine Blues

I came across the concept of bullet journaling or BuJo, as it is known amongst its lovers, a couple of summers ago, when it was all in rage. Every other influencer was dabbling with the art in their tiny, little notebooks, and raving about it.

At that time, I didn’t care. My life was on track with a healthy dose of self-discipline. My college assignments were on track. I was eating healthy. My sleep schedule was fixed. The sun was shining bright.

Then came the great pandemic.

The organization turned into chaos. I wasn’t unable to work on my research. I was binging on snacks and Netflix all the time. My sleep schedule was erratic. I was falling asleep at odd hours and then losing my night-time sleep. Life appeared to be spiraling out of control.

I discovered Amanda Rach Lee.

Amanda is a popular Canadain youtube who has been doing monthly BuJo spreads for 3 years and has her own line of journals. With her soothing voice, she takes people through the journey of sketching and organizing their entire life on a piece of paper.

After binging through her channel (instead of Netflix, for a change), I was motivated to bring out my tools from their resting place, out in open and use them for their designated tasks.

Bullet Journal is a method of personal organization developed by designer Ryder Carroll. The system organizes scheduling, reminders, to-do lists, brainstorming, and other organizational tasks into a single notebook.

The aim of this methodology is to organize your daily, weekly, even yearly tasks into neat and clean columns and rows. It is particularly good for people who:

• have a lot of work to do.
• need additional motivation to get work down.
• love planning their entire lives.
• Unless you’re someone who wants to live your life completely spontaneously, without any planning regarding the future, this method of bullet journaling is for you.

How to start

To get started, you need a notebook of your choice, a couple of pens and time on your hand. That’s it. Depending on your personal preference, you can get stickers and colored pencils to decorate the notebook and doodle artworks to relax.

The Key

The key contains symbols to signify the progress of the task at hand. For instance, an X in front of the task can symbolize it as finished. Similarly, a P could mean that the task has been postponed to another day. Like this, a code can be given to the various status of the tasks. This will allow you to know where you stand regarding a task and help organize your days.

Habit tracker

This is my favorite part of BuJo. Using this feature, you can track daily activities. For example, a separate column can be made for ‘exercise’ and marked to indicate the days when it is done. This allows you to keep track of your activities and stay encouraged.

Water intake, multivitamins, finances, and sleep time are some of the habits that can be tracked using this wonderful feature.

Daily Log

This is similar to ‘to-do lists’. Everyday tasks are jotted down based on the level of importance, in ascending order. As a task is finished, mark it using the codes from the key.

Finishing a task provides a great level of satisfaction, especially when it is in front of the person. The instant gratification doubles the joy coming with the completion. I have been motivated to finish my daily log just to feel the satisfaction.

Future Log

In this section that you write down important deadlines, events, and goals you’d like to make happen in the upcoming months. Divide these pages into thirds, and you’ve got six blocks to represent the next six months. You can map out your future log as far in advance as you’d like.

This component helps give your life some sense of order. By preparing to deal with future activities, it ensures that you are well prepared to handle your future commitments and work.

Mood tracker

This is similar to the habit tracker, except you can record your daily mood in this section. This allows you to have an idea of the factors that are influencing your mood and manage them.

Other than productivity, BuJo really helped me with my mental health during the quarantine.

“We’re bombarded by stimuli from electronic media, which can be very overstimulating for people. Bullet journaling takes away those distractions and can help you focus on what you want to accomplish” says Jessy Warner-Cohen.

In a review study, it was published that creative arts interventions, like drawing, may help to prevent or reduce stress. Doodling on the bullet journal, thus helps reduce stress and anxieties. Another study suggested that expressive writing can promote self-distancing, which can improve how you handle your feelings, like anxiety, and the physical reactions that follow.

Some examples of ways we can use a bullet journal to help us manage and track our self-care include creating a list of ‘emergency self-care‘ items or a crisis plan for the difficult times. Having a list of self-care ideas can mean that we don’t have to try and remember the things that help because they’re written down in front of us.

We could also have a page of distraction ideas, distress tolerance ideas, ‘bad day meals’ ideas, or lists of other things that help us.

5 months have passed and I am still loving my BuJo. It has helped me organize my life and my mind. It has made life predictable, during the time when nothing seems certain and sure.

Along with this, it is also like a time capsule of the time that has passed. I can flip through the pages and see what kind of person I was back then. It has served as a great memory keeper.