What is Bullet Journalling? by Rebecca Peter

Do you even BUJO? 

Nancy and I were introduced this year to Bullet Journalling through our friend and co-worker Becky and we love it so far. Nancy is a bit obsessed. She has already set up her journal as far as August! It's that much fun. We initially started a "BUJO Club" at work as part of a wellness initiative. Everyone that joined agreed that it was a great break from the day and we looked forward to it every month. So much so that since we have been working from home during the Covid-19 quarantine period we have been meeting online more often. It's been a great way to take our minds off of things and just enjoy each others company. 

I have to say though when the idea was thrown out there and Nancy and I started googling and researching Bullet Journals we got very overwhelmed. There are some pretty artistic bullet journals out there. We thought there was no way we could do it and the more w looked the more overwhelmed we became. Finally we decided to just dive in and start. Every month we make change things up, come up with fun themes and surprise ourselves with how artsy we actually are!  We convinced Becky to do a quick intro to Bullet Journalling in hopes that it might inspire you to start your own too!

The most important question to answer first is, “what is bullet journaling” or bujo for short, if you have seen it while scrolling through social media.

I love answering this question but I also find it difficult to summarize all of the great things about bullet journaling. In short, it is a type of journaling based on a system developed by Ryder Carroll, which attempts to help you organize yourself and increase productivity. To take a quote from him when describing this method he states it is to “track the past, organize the present and plan for the future”.

While this is the simplest way to describe bullet journaling I also want to talk about the flexibility behind it. It can be whatever it is you want it to be. For example, do you want to keep track of your habits, your mood, or sleep, remember all of your kids’ soccer game and maybe create some doodles along the way? Then perhaps you should keep reading as your bullet journal could be all of these or none, it is entirely up to you.

I began by own form in mid 2018 and I can’t see myself giving it up anytime soon. If you are anything like me or many others I have helped get started on this then you may already be overwhelmed. If you have scrolled through Pinterest or watched any Youtube videos then you know what I’m talking about. There seems to be a divide in the community of what some refer to as simplistic or “og” bullet journaling and then the more creative bujo’s that I stare at in awe. While I consider mine to be more on the creative side of things I still get overwhelmed from time to time.

 This brings me to the second question that I want to address and that is to ask yourself, “why do I want to start bullet journalling?” It’s probably a good time now to simply take a minute to think about this, as your answer will help you to move forward. Some ideas to prompt your thoughts may be that:

-        you want a better way to organize appointments

-        you want a fancier method to keep a diary

-        or maybe you simply want a space to be creative and feel adult about it

No matter your answer I promise you this is important to keep in mind so that you actually start and pick that journal up!

Image from https://www.anhthology.com/blog/2017/4/17/bullet-journal-supplies-as-of-2017 

The last question to answer today and quite a common one is “what supplies do I need or I don’t have enough to get started.” I would hazard a bet and say that many of you already have these supplies at home and IF you do need to purchase something to get started it may be a journal or notebook.

You need very few supplies to get started. You may not be ready to here this but ALL you need is a writing utensil, (pen, pencil, marker, crayon even) a notebook (I prefer a dot-grid journal format) and maybe a ruler. That is all! Of course as you move forward you may wish to expand this stock of supplies. I know I have. However, for now and if you want to get started the excuse of not having enough supplies is not valid.

For now I will leave you with this. Figure out what it is you want your bullet journal to accomplish, or perhaps not accomplish for you and simply get started. Open the book up and start sketching doodles or making a list or writing down your thoughts. I can guarantee if you keep with it you will improve with time. If there is interest, in the next post we can discuss what spreads you may wish to begin with and different ideas to add to your journal. Oh, and a spread simply means a page in your book! In the meantime stay safe and healthy everyone. Here is a link from Ryder Carroll showing the basics of his method and also I will involve a spread of a mood tracker from when I first started to now so you can see my progression.

Ryder’s Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm15cmYU0IM&t=32s