Happy Friday and welcome to week two of BuJo (That’s short for Bullet Journaling in case you aren’t yet up to speed on the lingo!)
This is my first foray into the BuJo world so like you, I’m learning as I go!
Remember – this is your journey so don’t compare your Bullet Journal to anyone else’s. There are tons of folks on Instagram who share their elaborately decorated journals filled with stickers, wasi tape and more colored marker doodles than I care to look at! If that’s your jam – go for it but if not, don’t feel like you are a BuJo failure if your entries are black and white text only.
The goal is to be more productive, more inspired and create habits.
Here’s what I learned so far in my first 2 weeks. (I began in late November)
- If I don’t keep it near my bed, I didn’t pick it up first thing and for me doing my journaling first thing is critical to set my day off and create those habits. So…when I drink my morning coffee I bond with my bullet journal.
- Keep it simple. At first I made the mistake of googling Bullet Journal layouts and I had started to get overwhelmed. Again – there is no right or wrong way of doing this and it’s totally ok to start one way and change!
- I like the BOXES to check off. So for my weight loss, running 100 miles a month – I created a page with boxes to check off as I go. Some people put these type of goals into their daily pages – I like to see progress so I put them all on one page and then in my daily pages I put my thoughts around them. If I didn’t do well or missed my walking/running – WHY? Not to beat myself up about it but to figure out the road block. That’s how new habits are born.
- Learning this is I GET TO versus I NEED TO. I don’t like rote processes – and I’ll admit around day 7 I caught myself saying “I have to go do my Bullet Journaling!”. Immediately I recognized the mindset and understood I was overwhelmed at that moment and it was exactly why the gift of the bullet journal is important FOR ME! The purpose isn’t to make BuJo another “task” to do, but to think of it as a gift you are giving yourself to allow you to be happier.
- The more I use the bullet journal – creating the habit – the more I like it over regular journaling. It’s vision board, meets calendar, meets journal, meets goal tracker all in one happy place and it’s fun!
If you haven’t started on your BuJo journey yet – maybe you are gearing up for 2022 – here are some sections to consider
- Daily Habit Tracker – I’m using my running, water intake, and logging of my food
- Daily Tasks – what needs to happen today!
- Meal Plans
- Vision Board
- Journaling – Daily Thoughts
- Calendar for the month, the year, the week
- Workout plans – also add to habit tracker and daily tasks if you like
- Travel/Adventure plans and checklists
- Debt pay down, managing finances, budget goals
- Seriously any kind of list you want – from favorite quotes, to movies or books you wants read, to countries you want to go, to languages you want to learn. Let your mind just go and have fun with it all!!
Let me know how it’s going – or even if you just want some help fleshing out what works for you!!
Cheers and have an awesome weekend journaling!
CD