In Practice Bullet Journaling In My Life
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in just trying to post one "pretty" picture to my instagram every week that I forget this website exists where I can talk a little more about how I bullet journal. The bujo world has gotten taken over by so many intimidating artists that I feel like sometimes my content isn't good enough. But then I remember: THIS HELPS MY LIFE EVEN IF IT IS NOT GORGEOUS. And I thought I'd kinda just break it down to a practical use today.
This is how this week looked starting out on this Monday morning in my bullet journal.
NOTE: I knew I was going to photograph this week's spread for this post so I took a picture after I filled some of it in. Every week looks different. That's part of why this system works for me, I don't get bored. My brain gets to focus on something different looking every week. It also exercises the creative side of my brain to come up with new layouts. I'm not an artist so it's mainly about shapes of boxes and colorful ink. If I hear a quote or a poem I like I’ll include it on my weekly spread, just to give me something creative to meditate on as I deal with a lot of anxiety.
Whenever I had a full-time office job, I tended to do "daily" pages that had a "work" section of the page. I don't find that's necessary anymore so I do a full "weekly" spread.
I like to take the time every week to find a quote or a poem or something I can read every day to meditate on, usually it's focused on something I'm already thinking about.
The square bullets are WEEKLY tasks, things I'm going to that set day but just need to be done this week. The circle bullets are DAILY tasks and need to be done that day.
Anything that has a scheduled time just is listed with the time stamp.
I often use other colors of ink to mark things I need to "remember" but aren't things that need to be checked off or marked with a bullet.
This week I did my meal planning in purple. My meal planning is like a weekly task, I have all of the ingredients for all of the meals and every day I choose what to cook based on how I feel, and then just cross it off.
I set up the week's pages on either Saturday or Sunday mornings. It helps me plan the week and not be too overwhelmed to get anything accomplished. I look at the previous week or other spreads I may have going regarding certain projects and I spread out my "square" bullet items so that no one day seems too overwhelming. I try to sit down every morning and add/check off things. By Sunday these two pages will look A LOT LESS ORGANIZED. I may try to remember to do a "Before/After" look later.
I also use my weekly planning day to go through my email. I use my inbox as a holding area for anything that needs my attention and so those days I go through the inboxes and see if there's anything I need to schedule out for the week to do, or tend to, otherwise my inbox becomes a repository of tasks that never get done.