One of the items (that I actually did!) on my 18 in 2018 list was to start a bullet journal. I had heard about them ALL OVER the place and it sounded like fun and a good place to keep track of the multiple lists I have going at any one time. A lot of people seemed to use them for daily or weekly planning but I mostly wanted one for lists.
For Christmas 2017 Matt got me this journal and these pens. I was ready to start. I meant to write about my first couple months bullet journaling but then we got a Sam and life was a little crazy. The post kept getting pushed back but now here I am! Talking about (slightly over) one year of bullet journaling. Just in time for me to no longer here nobody else talking about them. I am really good at being behind on trends. #parenthood (Also, I don't always care. I heard riding boots are "out" but you can pull mine from my dead, cold hands, thank you.)
So, what is a bullet journal? The general consensus seems to be taking a mostly blank notebook and making it into some kind of perfect journal/planner for yourself. The book I got has dotted pages which makes drawing straight lines and boxes MUCH easier. I would probably never get out a ruler to do so and then everything would be wonky and crooked.
I didn't see much of a need to have a daily planner (THEN, see here). We keep a family calendar in the kitchen and my brain seems to be good at remembering dates and plans. Also, our lives are pretty simple. Matt works weekdays, Luke goes to school. I work about one morning every other week, which is very flexible. We schedule play dates and doctor appointments and all that but I never found it difficult to keep track of on my paper calendar (at home) or on my phone (when out), which I could then put on the paper calendar when home.
BUT I am a huge fan of lists. I keep many, probably not as many as I do spreadsheets but multiple. I liked the idea of having a place to put all my lists. And that's what I could use a bullet journal for. I think of it as sort of a manual to my life but it's more a place to dump all the lists that are rattling around in my brain.
The ones I do most often are my monthly book lists (wrote about those here) and my monthly to-do/project lists (wrote about here). I've done those both every month for 14 months now. I usually update them about once a week and I like having all my old lists handy. It helps me remember the things I do, say every February. So I guess I do use it a little bit as a planner.
Other lists I've added to mine are my 18 in 2018 list, my 19 in 2019 list, a list of things I wanted to do/watch/read/plan before our New York trip last year, a list of movies I want to see, and a list of things we needed to do to prep Luke for kindergarten last year (registering him, getting a shot, buying supplies, paying tuition, etc.).
Part of "official" bullet journaling is not skipping or saving pages but using the index at the front of the book and page numbers on each page to keep track of where everything is. Then there are symbols and arrows and things to draw as you are flipping pages to keep track of where a list might continue. I do use the index but I don't do the rest of that. None of my lists have ever overflowed one page for starters.
I do skip some pages because I always want my book list and to-do list for the same month to be facing each other. But then I go back in fill in the blank pages when I have something to put there. So things get a little out of order but they all have a place, eventually.
I still have a blank page WAY back in the middle of last summer, where I've been intending to make a tracker for the summer, of how many hours I read each week, how many miles run...but here we are in February and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll do that for this summer and then catch up last summer. (I DO have a spreadsheet where I have tracked how many hours I've spent reading every week for the last 21 months, thank you for asking.)
Maybe I don't use my bullet journal enough, maybe I should have tried using it also as a planner before I asked for one of those for Christmas. MAYBE. But after 13 months of fairly regular use, I am happy with what I've used it for. I like having my lists together, I like being justified in keeping list, I like an excuse for a pretty journal and pens. I feel slightly more on top of things, having these all in one place. It has been a good exercise and certainly one I've stuck with longer than drinking green smoothies.
If you are interested in starting, here are some resources I've found helpful:
The Lazy Genius Bullet Journals (podcast episode)
Modern Mrs. Darcy on My Favorite Tips and Tricks After 3 Months with the Bullet Journal
I'd recommend NOT starting with a Pinterest search because that's a good way to get very easily overwhelmed with how beautiful everyone else's journals seem to be.
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