I feel like a pretty competent adult most of the time - keeping to a budget and paying bills is not an issue - but I really struggle with things like eating actual food instead of a bowl of yoghurt because I"m tired, washing up after dinner, putting away laundry, not snoozing in the morning etc. I really don’t know how other people do it. And I love the Tetris idea instead of a boring list.
Loving all the colorful and doodly spreads I’m seeing. I went out on a creative limb (for me) last month and used… washi tape! (* gasp *) I also shook things up a little on the weekly spread front and left myself room for lists and brainstorming. The end result was I hated it and barely looked at anything but my daily to-dos all month. So this month I’ve gone back to my usual minimalism, with only a blue pen for accent.
The weekly spread is actually just dividing each page up into quadrants than can be further subdivided however strikes my fancy for the week. Currently I’ve got my habit tracker in one corner and space to write in meals and steps, but those might disappear next week. Who knows!
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I’ve always wanted to be a bullet journaler but I always fail and get hung up on things looking perfect. I’m starting a new job soon that’s going to have a lot of creative freedom, maybe this could be a fun way to keep organized 
I LOVE bullet journaling. The only thing I didn’t love is drawing out all the dang stuff and doing math with the dang dots. 
Bujo-ing is what actually got my Etsy shop started! I made my own layouts and then started selling them.
This is the first one I ever made. I loved everyone’s hexagon layouts but they seemed like they’d be a pain to draw. The floral/sunflowers are part of the design!
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Just checking in to see how people are planning in the current reality?
I’m setting up my journal for April and wondering whether I should even include my usual weekly spread? That’s where all the work and social planning happened for me, and it’s going to be a while before those things pick back up (work is still happening, but people are finally realizing how many of our meetings could have been e-mails all along, so there’s not as much to keep track of). Maybe I can reduce the weekly space and use it as a place to track healthy choices? My other usual trackers are going strong - reading, crafting, etc.
Just curious to see how others are coping? Are you abandoning your planner altogether and just going with the flow? Are you needing even more structure in your life? Personally my daily bujo has become much more about the journaling and less about the lists and tasks, and I’m okay with that. Yay for flexibility!
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I’ve definitely found my Bullet Journal motivation dwindle in the last few weeks! I’ve also been wondering what others are doing. I haven’t touched mine because I mainly use it to plan for big things, like all my canceled vacations 
I am thinking about revisiting it for April to schedule out priorities, like working out and things that I want to learn (like embroidery!) But I was too sad in March to even look at it.
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Instead of a weekly spread I made a 3-weekly spread three weeks ago. I guess I’ll do that again next week. I haven’t had much interest in anything at all lately but I am still tracking mending/reading/savings goals.
100% work from home is working perfectly for me, I don’t have to juggle all my appointments now. I have so much more time! There are still monthly deadlines in my work that I’m working towards though.
I use a really tiny notebook, so I’ll be starting a new bujo for May. For my past two I’ve used some of my front page for long-term project planning, but that isn’t really working for me these days.
I do like keeping lists and logs in the journal though. What sort of crafty things do people keep track of in theirs? I’ve not had much luck finding practical suggestions with that focus while looking through suggestion pages.
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You’re Dutch!!
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Yes! There are actually several Dutchies on LC.
I tried it for about half a year but I had a perfection problem with it. I had to start over again every time I made a mistake. It would take me FOREVER to make it just right. I would start to avoid it because it was so unpleasant then I would feel guilty and stress-out catching up. It wasn’t functional for me at any point. I think it is a great method but it doesn’t mesh with my personal collection of neurosis.
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I found the best way to get past the perfection problem is using a (relatively) cheap notebook. It at least takes some of the stress of messing up something you paid a lot of money for. I tried a fancy rhodia notebook recently and smudged the second line I drew on the first page and just couldn’t go on. It’s currently sitting at the bottom of a drawer until I can bear to face it again and figure out what can be salvaged.
Since my usual tiny, cheapo walmart bujos are only big enough to fit a four months in at a time, I’m in the process of setting up my last one for 2020. I was looking back at the one I started in May and laughing at how naive I was in the assumption that things would be back to normal by the end of the summer. (I’m in the US - things are definitely not normal yet). All my spreads to record the plays and movies I saw or the friends and places I wanted to visit are completely blank.
This time around I just have a one at the front of my journal for recording long-term stuff before diving straight into the months. Usually my “things to try” spread is pretty elaborate (for me) and covers two pages, but this time around it’s just one page, which it has to share with my “things to maybe buy someday” list. The spread to record books, plays, and movies I’ve consumed has also just been pared down to one list labeled “entertainment.”
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For me, bullet journaling has been a good lesson in letting go of perfection. I need to be able to set up a spread quickly and sometimes a line isn’t completely straight or my handwriting looks terrible. I’ve made a deal with myself that I never start the same spread twice, if I make a mistake I have to live with it.
I started doing three-weekly spreads in March and I’m still doing that now. I have hardly anything to do so few things to write down. I’ll start a new job in November, so I’ll start doing weekly spreads again by then (assuming the new job will be busier than my current job).
I bought a pretty expensive Paperchase journal last year, it cost about €25 and I had expected to use it for a year. For me, if I had started in a cheap journal I may have given up, but I didn’t want to let an expensive one go to waste. But now I’m a convert, so maybe I’ll buy a cheaper one next time. Next time is far away though. 14 months in there are still plenty of pages left, even if I go back to weekly spreads it’ll probably last until December 2021. But there’s nothing wrong with using cheaper journals. I’ve heard people complain about the start up costs but you don’t need anything but a pen and a cheap journal.
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@Immaculata Ha! I was always amused by all the people doing bullet journals on youtube who would preface their set-ups by saying you don’t need expensive materials and then all use the same (relatively) pricey pens and notebooks.
I went with the cheaper notebook option because my worry wasn’t so much keeping up the habit as being afraid to get started for fear of messing up my nice new materials. I did eventually end up splurging on pens once I figured out what wrote best on the paper.
My journals only last 4 months in part because I’m using the pocket/A6 size, and I devote a page for each of my daily logs. My weeklies have just turned into various trackers. The brand I like makes an A5 notebook with more pages and heavier paper that I’m tempted to try and would probably last longer, but the pocket size is just so darn convenient.
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I did not know what bullet journaling was, so I’m getting a book from the library. I’ve seen emotions-a-day charts… but I think mine would be filled with so many colors, lol!
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I’ve seen some really pretty mood trackers out there, but until I can figure out how to put a rainbow of colors for all the moods I go through in one day into a small box I’m going to have to give that particular page a miss.
If you’re just starting out I really like Just Get It Done Quilts explanations since they’re kind of geared towards crafters. (part 1) (part 2)
But the best thing about bujos is that you can make them whatever you want. Elaborate, simple, artistic, messy, colorful, something you look at daily or just a thing to reference occasionally. They are fantastic!
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My favourite Dutch department store is selling those pocketsize journals for a very low price, maybe I should get one to try out having a separate crafting journal! My current one is hardback and A5 size, perfect for work/life/grad school balance, financial and business trackers etc, but I keep it in my laptop bag. I don’t bring it to the craft store. One of the ladies in my sewing circle always carries around a small journal with lists of ideas she has, supplies that she needs etc.
I keep my journal quite plain because I’m not great at drawing and I leave it open on my desk during the day. But maybe I could try out some fun stuff in my crafting bullet journal. I’ve never really watched BuJo YouTube videos but maybe I should, for inspiration! What are your favourite pens? I just use my Stabilo fineliners and markers. The only thing I bought specifically for bullet journaling is a set of markers in pastel colours, because the fluorescent colours I had for grad school were very disruptive in my BuJo.
I really like the pilot G-2 pen in .38 for a good basic pen. The ink is nice and dark and didn’t have much show through (ghosting?) or smearing in my notebook, plus it was relatively easy to find in the stationery section of the campus bookstore.
My splurge pens are the frixion slims in .38. They aren’t available anywhere local to me but I bought some black and blue refills on Amazon for the two pens I picked up while visiting friends. The ink isn’t particularly dark with the black (although the blue is nice and deep) and each refill doesn’t last long, but they have barely any ghosting in my notebook and work really well with my tiny handwriting. The fact that they are erasable is just an added bonus.
I also bought myself a set of pastel highlighters to start out for exactly the same reason. I also picked up a tombow to try out for some plain gray highlights, but the color I chose doesn’t show up well on the yellowish paper in my journal.
I’m really lucky that the bookstore on campus near where I work still sells loose, individual pens rather than just ones that come in plastic packaging. If you have a stationery store like that near you I would definitely recommend taking your journal in with you and trying out as many pens as possible before buying.
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Great idea to bring the journal to try them out! Hadn’t thought of that. I use my frixion pens for tracing patterns on fabric, somehow it has never occured to me to use them on paper? 
will definitely try that.
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