Are there any bullet journalers around here? If so, would they be interested in a craft-along, giant sharing thread, or something similar to share spreads, collections, and set up ideas?
I love looking at all the perfectly executed, incredibly artistic pages on instagram and pinterest, but what I’m really interested in is seeing the journals in use, trial and error, spreads and collections to help with crafty endeavors, and just real life instead of a curated presentation.
My own journal is pretty minimal, mostly just lists and a few check boxes, with an occasional sticker to cover the worst of the smudges, but I am curious to see other other peoples’ journals!
Ooh, I’d be interested in a craft along/sharing thread/whatever! I however am just a wannabe bullet journaler - as in I bought the journal, I have the supplies, I have a Pinterest page filled with ideas, but my journal is still blank. I originally intended to use it just to track the books I read, but after seeing all the layouts, I was inspired to go full on bullet journaling. I never actually did anything and over time, the inspiration waned. I would love to finally get started! One of the big things that holds me back is that I cannot draw and I cannot do cute, fancy writing (trust me, I’ve proven this myself many a time!). I’m also a bit of a perfectionist. I’d love to get over my hang ups and in fact have a healthy sized bullet journal by the start of next year. So, while I do not have much to offer, I am very interested and would happily join along!
I use a dot-grid planner and use a method that is BuJo-ish, but mine is very plain. It doesn’t look anything like the images on Pinterest. I’m not a super talented artist, just a very busy person trying to keep track of a million things. I’d love to see some step by step instructions for any artsy spreads that any of you make. I’d love to try but I don’t really know where to start.
Hello. I do not do bullet journal, but I did just get a Happy Planner and am a newbie with that. i was actually thinking of making an ongoing craft along for planners/journalers since we can share ideas and many things cross over.
Part of the reason I think a thread like this would be useful is to break out of the perfectionist/curated bubble that looking up bujo and planner stuff on pinterest or instagram can create, and maybe inspire people to just scribble and experiment.
If we start a Planner-Along, would it be best in the Crafty Shenanigans Craft-Along area or in the Paper & Vinyl discussion & Questions area? I admit I’m a little at sea with the new organizations (reptilian brain is taking longer to adapt than it should, but I’m sure it will get there eventually).
I have one as well. I started it when we were in transition between houses and my usual craft stuff was in storage and I needed an artistic outlet. Nowadays I mostly do a monthly spread, which helps me track my family’s appointments. I used to track my steps, like to see how many days/month I made it to 10K (using my Fitbit). I used it to track my New Year’s resolution last year and I also keep a running “bookshelf”, which encourages me to actually read books.
For ideas, I scour Pinterest. I have a folder there with pretty handwriting fonts and other easy elements. My calligraphy is not great, but it’s still a fun exercise. I use a set of pens I bought on Amazon fairly inexpensively, plus a few bits of washi tape and some highlighters.
Love that purpose! Pinterest became my place to mindlessly look at crafts when I couldn’t post regularly in The Old Place. The visual nature is very appealing, but not realistic!
It’s difficult for me to take pictures of my actual pages because most contain confidential information that I would have to blur before posting. But this is a page I created this morning. This is my business turnover for 2020. Every column represents a customer and every box represents X amount of money and over time these are coloured in. As you can see I’ve invoiced half a box worth of money this morning. I write the name of the client vertically above their column.
Of course this info is also available in my spreadsheets but I like having everything on one page in a physical book. As you can see my style is very practical, not particularly good looking (yet). It’s a copy of my 2019 page and that one is filled in but I’d practically have to blur out the entire page to be able to post it.
By any chance do any of you make project planner pages? I ordered some for my HP but since they have not arrived yet I have not played with them. Just curious if anyone does their own and how they set it up. I’m thinking of using mine to track the time I put into it and the cost of materials. Then any notes along the way so if I want to make it again in the future.
This! This is exactly what I’d like to see. I currently just have a list of finished projects but I feel like there has to be a better way. The closest thing I have to a “project plan” in my journal is a master declutter list that I’m terrible at consulting and even worse at actually tackling.
What I struggle with a bit is how to create a page that both allows for a lot of tasks/appointments and still looks nice. In my weekly spread there are usually about 10 appointments and maybe 20 tasks (in 3 separate categories, private, business’ and education). I also write down info about business meetings that I later need for admin/invoicing like duration and travel time.
I’m with you there! I’ve set up my journal so I do all my monthly/weekly pages at once at the beginning of the month, and that’s the only time I’ll allow myself to use a ruler or a second color of pen. All the on-the-go pages are full of scribbles and wobbly lines.
I set up the weekly pages in advance too. I know that breaks The Rules of BuJo but that’s the only way I can keep track of what I need to do.
My journal starts off with monthly pages for every month of the year and that’s where I write down dates until early in the month I’ll set up the weekly pages. In the monthly log the appointments are still in random order and I need stuff written down in chronological order a few weeks ahead to keep my sanity. It’s impossible to plan ahead otherwise - for example for my meal planning I need to know which days I eat home, which days Mr Imma eats at home (he often eats at work) and when I’ll have time to cook and go shopping.
Im similar except I have all that on the family calendar on the fridge. That serves as my monthly, I suppose. Birthdays anniversaries and events. Then I just plug it in to my weekly spread. Thats where meals and goals and “me stuff” get added in. I take a peek at my weekly spread and then the previous days page each morning and then start my daily page.
I guess the monthly log needs to be in the location where you need it the most. If you’re home a lot and that’s where you make plans then a central location in the home is a great place where all family members can see it. I’m away from home most of the time so I carry it with me at all times.
What kind of things do you put in your daily log? Purely practical things or is it more journaling than planning? I’ve started to write down a few words to describe my days off. It makes it easier to remember what I did that day instead of all days blurring into one. I flip back to those vacation pages quite a lot.
I’m also trying out a more pretty weekly spread. Old:
@Immaculata Ooh, thanks for sharing! I really like the simplicity of your weekly set-up - it reminds me a lot of what I used to do back when I had a moleskine weekly planner.
My daily logs are pretty much just to-do lists and reminders. I have the weekly spread for putting in timed appointments and deadlines ahead of time, then transfer those over to my dailies along with whatever else I want to accomplish that day. I’ll try to snag a picture later… It’s almost time to start setting up February!
,’ lol. What does it make you think?
