Deprogramming the 'Perfect or Nothing' Mentality About Bullet Journaling

Bullet Journaling is a method that has really helped me to regain some control over my days. I think that everyone deserves to give themselves a fair shot at it to see how it can actually help them.

So if you’re feeling downtrodden about BuJoing and looking to give it another shot, please keep reading.

The number one remark I get from people who abandon Bullet Journaling is that they’re “not artistic enough.” They typically tell me that they feel frustrated, thinking they have to decorate their pages, and that they feel sad that their BuJo doesn’t look as good as other people’s.

I want to squash this idea that your BuJo has to be artsy in order to matter.

It’s just not true. And I’ll tell you why.

So I’m going to guide you through a sort of deprogramming from this idea that your BuJo has to be artsy in order to be valid. My BuJo is nowhere near that of @bohoberry’s or @prettyprintsandpaper, and to be honest, I don’t exactly want to put in that kind of effort to make it so, because that doesn’t make me happy. And it’s my journal anyways. It’s not the reason I came into Bullet Journaling in the first place. Here are some things to remember when bullet journaling starts to feel overwhelming.

{You don’t need to learn watercolor to BuJo.}

First of all, the idea that the Bullet Journaling world is “artsy-BuJo-or-bust” is stupid. All bullet journaling has to do is serve a purpose for its own unique, individual owner.

THAT’S IT.

In fact, as exhibited by Ryder Carroll’s OG Bullet Journaling video, the very basic elements of Bullet Journaling are based in functionality—having all your odds and ends and randomly scrawled little notes and papers all in one place in order to decrease overwhelm in your everyday life.

Actually, I should have this video bookmarked on my toolbar, because it’s the video I immediately show everybody who comes to me saying they don’t know where to start with BuJoing. And I totally understand the overwhelm because the world of Bullet Journaling is a clutter-y, crazy, messy, rabbit hole.

{Your journal is tailored to you and only you.}

I always feel bad when people show me their pages and then immediately apologize for how “ugly” or “messy” their BuJo is, or how “it’s not like the ones on Pinterest.” I’ve been guilty of calling my work ugly too, believe me. It’s like we think the bullet journal police (how weird would that be?) is going to arrest us.

The beauty about having your own BuJo is just that—it’s YOURS. Yours and nobody else’s. So don’t let anyone else dictate what your BuJo is going to look like, and be proud of the fact that your journal is as unique as you are. The fact is, all BuJos should look different because they’re tailored to the person who created it.

That means if you don’t have a habit tracker because it got to be too much, ditch it (I’m about to ditch mine again). If you don’t have time to color in a mood page, don’t do it.

You should never feel shame when creating your Bullet Journal pages—ever.

{When in doubt, go back to basics.}

Even Ryder Carroll, the creator of the BuJo method, has started a campaign for 2019 to go back to basics. Check out his blog post about it where he talks about basically everything I’ve been saying up to this point. It’s a serious divide in the BuJo community that needs to be brought to light.

{It’s okay to make mistakes.}

Some people, while showing me their journals, apologize for the mistakes they’ve made on their pages. Sometimes it’s a crossed-out page, or a ripped out page, or maybe just a page they held on to so they wouldn’t waste paper. The thing is, you should never feel ashamed of making mistakes. Mistakes are what makes bullet journals so great. You can make a mistake and learn from it so you know how you want your pages to look the next time. You can keep tailoring your style as often as you want until you get to a style you’re satisfied with! And you can even do something completely different—even if you were satisfied with where you were. To me, that’s the only thing that should be creative about Bullet Journaling: the process of discovering yourself and your style that serves you the best.

{A personal anecdote}

One example: I love lettering. However, some people are really good at lettering. For a while, I felt like my lettering was so bad that I gave up for a while. But then I bought a little baby lettering brush and just started doing my own thing. If a page looked messed up, I just waited for the next weekly spread to do something a little different—tweak my lettering style, shade things differently, play with the weight of the brush pen. Eventually, I got more comfortable with it.

However, I only worked that hard at lettering (and I still wouldn’t call myself a proper letterer) because it brought me joy. If that sort of thing does not bring you joy, DO. NOT. DO. IT.

Yes. It’s really that simple.

Do you bullet journal? Have you always wanted to but didn’t know where to start? Do you prefer weekly or daily spreads? I’ve started doing BOTH actually, which makes me feel way more engaged with my journaling 🙂

Originally published on my blog on August 28, 2019.