Bullet Journaling — An Experiment
My brother loves to learn as many new things possible through reading, interacting with people and the internet, mainly YouTube. While YouTube is my go-to for watching music videos, funny videos, or simply feel good videos, he focuses on being well informed about various things that are key in today’s times. Learning the art of spending wisely, minimalism (material and digital), improving your daily routine, grooming, nutrition and leading a healthy lifestyle are some of the things he follows. so much more is available on YouTube through some really amazing people.
My brother has introduced me to certain pages that he follows/looks up to on a daily basis, one of them being Sadia Badiei’s Pick Up Limes. I’d have to admit, I didn’t listen to him at first — following a vlogger is something I didn’t want to do. I have watched her minimalist lifestyle videos and the vegan soups video, but what caught my attention was a 14-minute video of her bullet journal.
Confession — I am terrible with remembering things and am extremely forgetful. Birthdays, simple tasks, my belongings, doctor’s appointments, I FORGET EVERYTHING. Which is why I am extremely dependent on Siri. I ask my phone to remind me everything and that’s the only reason why I am well on track with most of my tasks in life. At the same time, I like writing in notebooks. I love to write, scribble, doodle and make notes, so when I watched Sadia’s video, I knew what I had to do!
Most people might think that making a bullet journal is a waste of time. It is a lot of effort, might as well pick up a planner than can do the job for you. But ideally, I like my things personalized and suited to my liking. I like specific colors and inks and would prefer to have certain pages in abundance and some not at all. A bullet journal is for people who are either:
- Unable to manage their time properly and have had problems with time management trackers in the past (I’m definitely in this category)
- For creative/artistic people who would use the journal frequently to manage their tasks well, as well has be their escape from work to create their own artwork (writing, doodling, painting etc.)
So I created my very own bullet journal for 2020. Yes, I do realize we are in 2022, but guess who wrote this blog and completely forgot to publish it 🥲. (Quickly getting back to the blog) Ideally, the pages should have some kind of marking on the pages — like dots, lines on them to make your work simpler with dividing the pages equally, making rows and columns, being artistic (basis your liking). Most bullet journals I’ve seen in videos are with standard A5 sized pages. I chose a simple ruled notebook with a rather (Joker-y) catchy cover, because I still don’t know if this would be an exercise I would continue or ditch, like every other New Year resolution. But two weeks in, I really look forward to making my entries. Here’s why!
Page 1 — Name
I decided to take inspiration from a lot of other bullet journalists and decided to make my first page, which would probably be one of my neatest, cleanest drawings I must have ever made. It’s simple, it’s cute, it’s very very me. :)
I decided for circles and ferns, leaves to be my theme for the rest of the journal, with limited color schemes.
Page 2 — Key
My key simplifies my type of task/details on whether I have completed my task or not. In the past two weeks, I have used my top 4 key pointers the most.
You can add a couple more — like a gift icon for birthdays/anniversaries, strike-through in case a task is complete, etc.
Pages 3 & 4 — Year At A Glance
So in the top half of both the pages, I have written out the month-wise calendar for the whole year (tiny and time consuming, sure, but so much fun!) The dates on top could be circled, marked for better reference. I have chosen to leave them as is, because I think it look too overcrowded.
Under the month-wise calendar, I have listed the dates out one below the other, so that I can list down the most important activities aligned on those particular dates. Birthdays, anniversaries, doctor’s appointments, important occasions and events could be mentioned here for easy referencing. These pages are important to get a quick recap of important reminders for the whole year.
Page 5 — Month At A Glance
This page would help me with a recap for the month. I have copied all the important events from the ‘Year at a Glance’ pages for my reference, along with any things that need my urgent attention. It may seem repetitive, but it’s actually quite helpful. On the top right, I have stuck some tape for it to be as my marker to go back on the monthly calendar, rather than skimming through all the pages.
Pages 6 & 7 — Just Checking In and Brain Storm/Ideas
Picking up from Sadia’s journal, I decided to make not three, but two parts to my just checking in — Emotionally and Physically. Although Sadia put down all her notes for the whole month in those two specific areas, I decided to write down what I feel everyday, just as an exercise/something to look back on in the future. Whether I feel great or horrible, whether my body aches or I feel fantastic after a workout, I decided to put in all of those details here. The mistake I made though (which I will fix in February) is that the space I allocated was too small, basis my idea. Two full pages for checking in next month!
I host parties and corporate events, and recently started a YouTube page where I post videos about my experiences and experiments, (just like Medium :)), so I decided to add a page with all of my ideas, which I would like to work on and implement this year.
Page 8 — Tracker and Gratitude
I think these 2 pages are the most important pages to me in my bullet journal, because this would help me be a better person in all aspects (I think.)
The Tracker would be different from person to person. In my case, my tracker will help me through the 6 most important activities that have defined my life in the past couple of years. Sleep and working out are pretty essential to me, something that I haven’t been focusing on enough. Junk food and sweets like I said earlier, have defined my earlier years and I would like that to change. I have started eating healthy since 2019, but due to recent changes in life, my healthy lifestyle has gone for a complete toss, hence this tracker would help me out. Instagram uploads and shopping are for tracking my mental peace. Might sound lame, but whenever I am sad or low, I prefer doing either one of these two things, and that is not a good sign.
Practicing gratitude benefits, where one takes time to reflect upon things they are thankful, makes people happy, sleep better, express more compassion and kindness, and also have stronger immune systems. Crazy right? I am doing this mainly to look back on people and experiences that make me feel grateful every single day. Seems highly difficult given the line width, but I try and accommodate all my gratitude in one line.
So if this inspires you to start your own bullet journal, I would consider my job done! Let me know what you think in the comments. :)
