Have you heard of the term Bullet Journal? I can honestly admit I hadn’t until recently. I came across the term on a facebook post penned by a 44 yr old mother of 7 (Yes 7!) – Not Your Average Mom – and was intruiged. I read on…
…and discovered that it’s the:
“Analogue system for the digital age.
The Bullet Journal is a customizable and forgiving organization system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less.”
Sounds pretty good huh? I thought so. I’ve not kept a journal in years. Pre-parenthood I used to buy a weekly moleskine diary every year that had double page spreads with the days of the week on one side and the blank page for notes on the other and I’d fill it with my to do lists week by week. I’d review at the end of each week and migrate any unfinished tasks to the next week. I’d plot birthdays, holidays, events etc and it went everywhere I did.
Then I had a baby, went on maternity leave and as each day drifted into the next and I lost track of time and which day of the week it was, I no longer found any point in keeping a journal as I had nothing to track, had no lists to make, as I wasn’t working.
I’m not really sure why I didn’t get back to keeping a journal once I returned to work but I wish I had.
Now my days are spent juggling a million tasks and I’m constantly feeling overwhelmed, stressed and constantly running to keep up. A week goes by and I question ‘what have I accomplished/achieved?’ and I’m disappointed with the answer. I’ve got lots of notebooks scattered about with lots of notes, lists, ideas and plans but as they’re all disconnected I feel like my brain is constantly going off on tangents and I can’t keep track of my life anymore.
So when I saw lovely images of lovely organised lists, I couldn’t resist finding out more. The idea of a bullet journal really appeals to me right now but can I ever be organised like I used to be I wonder? Will I be defeated by it quickly and give up? Can my handwriting be that neat and legible again? Who knows?
The only way to find out is to give it a go I guess, so I’ve taken the plunge and gone ahead and oradered a Leuchtturm1917. The simple fact that the pages are all numbered and I can have an ‘index’ excites me – my fetish for stationery is reaching a peak just thinking about it!
I’m hoping I can cram into it all my goals and plans for 2016 and keep on track of all the things I want to do and achieve this year. I’m actually quite excited. I’ve been feeling really low lately and overhelmed by the year that lies ahead and the constant dreich weather hasn’t helped much and only served to weigh me down even more.
I’m hoping that by putting effort into planning and list making again I can regain that sense of self and that determined streak I once possessed to succeed in all my endeavours. I just got an email confirmation to inform me that it’s on it’s way.
I actually dreamt of list making last night…
Are you a list maker? Do you have a bullet journal? I’d love to kmow your thoughts and if you have any tips to share, please do so in the comments below. How do you organise your life?
I am very disorganised. I have all these thoughts, and to do lists fluttering about my head or on bits of paper.
I have been thinking about the bullet system since I read your blog and I have decided to give it a go. Hopefully it will organise me but it is worth trying. I have used a notebook that I already had, and I have set it all up ready to gol
Yay! I started half way through January and really enjoying it. I’ve now got somewhere to store all my blog ideas, my trade show ideas, my weekly plans and monthly plans etc. I’ve followed a traditional layout this month and some of it just doesn’t work for me, so will do something different in February. I’ll post an update on the blog in FEb with some photo’s of my pages.