What I Wish I Knew Before I Started Bullet Journaling
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I’ve been bullet journaling for about three years now. It started as a way to organize my life after graduating college, and grew into something so much more. It can take time to find a journaling style that suits you perfectly. Bullet journaling is beautifully flexible and, thanks to the internet, is constantly evolving. After a few years, I’m happy to say that I’ve found my own personal style. Here are a few things I learned along the way.
Mistakes are a part of bullet journaling
Getting used to a dot grid journal is hard. If you’re a bit of a perfectionist like me, it can be frustrating when you overshoot a box by one square, or draw a less-than-straight line. It happens to the best of us! Just do your best and, if you must, carry a small ruler at all times! Learning to cover up mistakes and work within the dot grid system is what helped me develop my personal style to begin with. If you make a mistake, don’t get frustrated and give up! Try to figure out how to work with the mistakes you make. It’s a lesson that’s applicable to more than just journaling.
It doesn’t have to look like something you saw on Instagram
Admittedly, my journal is pretty illustrated. But it hasn’t always been like that. Bullet journaling is a process and a journey. When you start out, it probably won’t look as pretty as you imagined. Don’t give up! Find a system that works for you and stick with it, whether it’s minimalist or over the top. The beauty of the system is the flexibility to work for anyone. Instagram can be intimidating at first, but remember it’s not a contest!
You don’t need to buy $100 in stationery to start out
I first started bullet journaling after reading a BuzzFeed article on the topic a few years back. For some reason, I convinced myself that I needed a $40 pack of Tombow brush pens and a $30 Leuchtturm to start out. I had absolutely no idea how to brush letter at the time but the article suggested the Tombows as “great for bullet journaling”, so I bit.
Naturally, I’ve bought a fair few items over time that I just don’t really use or need. I’m trying to get on the minimalism bandwagon a bit and take the “less is more” approach when it comes to bullet journaling supplies. If you opt for a decorated journal, it’s definitely nice to have some fun supplies around, but it doesn’t mean you need these items to journal. You don’t need to splurge either. To prove it, I even created a list of my favorite stationery items under $5.
Bullet Journaling is not about being productive all the time
When people see my bullet journal, they’re often confused. “I thought bullet journals were supposed to help you be more productive?” or “How do you spend that much time on one spread and still have time to do anything else?”
The bullet journal concept, at its core, was designed to help people be more productive. However, “productive” is a loaded word. Journaling is a massive part of my self-care routine every day. Having a space to draw and create (While still planning my tasks for the days and weeks ahead) has given me remarkable clarity of mind. If you want to spend an hour drawing intricate sunflowers while binging Game Of Thrones (like I might have done below), you do you! It might be part planner, part art journal, but it’s all there to make you feel better and more in control of your day!
If you’re planning on journaling daily, consider a collections journal.
Ashlyn wrote a great piece on the benefits of a collections journal a while back, but this is something I would strongly recommend for beginners. I fill up a journal about every 5-7 months, which means that any collections that I created in that journal need to be migrated over to a new book as well. After doing this three times, I got pretty tired of it. Enter the collections journal – a place to keep all of your running trackers and collections without having to migrate from book to book.
You can read more about keeping a dedicated collections journal here.
One final tip
If there’s one bit of advice I can give beginner bullet journalists, it’s don’t give up. Seriously. Just stick with it for a few months as much as you can, and figure out what works best for you.
Happy planning!
I’ve never heard of a collections journal but it sounds like such a smart idea. It can be so tedious to transfer your trackers. One thing I wish I’d known was to embrace my mistakes; at first I found it so infuriating because I wanted a picture-perfect Instagram bullet journal, but the more I’ve done it the more I realise that when I embrace my ‘mistakes’, the page actually looks better for it!
Hannah | Whoops It’s Hannah
I am a home school of an 8-year-old. She absolutely hated traditional journaling. I noticed she liked to make lists of things though, so the idea of a bullet journal was born. I created a monster! lol She now journals anything and everything. Because she journals so many things (including her math notes and language arts, history, and science notes) I decided to use 3 ring binders. I make our dot grid paper by using a template and running Michaels cheap white cardstock through the printer. I got five packs for $10 this week and there are 50 sheets to a pack-using front and back that is a 500 page journal for $10! This way, I can take out the particular sheets she makes that I love and want to keep as memories. It’s working great for us!
That is fantastic! I really wish I had gotten into journaling at a younger age; I would have been so much more productive!
Instead of making a dedicated collections journal (I lose books if I have too many to keep track of), I am going to start my collections with a good left margin, so when I am done with the journal, I can cut it out and Washie-tape it to my next journal. ☺️
That’s one way to do it. I’d love to hear how it works out Alicia!
What is funny is when I started bullet journaling I bought tombow pens because all the blogs told me…but I had NO IDEA what they really were. A lot of people used them to highlight and I always kind of thought that was weird when I could use highlighters. But I bought all these pens and no joke I would use them to highlight and color coloring books and stuff.
Then last year I learned about brush lettering and how people use them to do brush lettering calligraphy and about 50% of my tombow pens were frayed and ruined from me using them incorrectly and I’ve been slowly throwing away the frayed and dried out tombows. Thanksfully Michaels often puts their artist loft and tombows on sale for $15 so I slowly restock them every now and then. I actually think the artist loft brand pens work just as nice as the tom bows.
Michael’s also sells Tombow pens in singles! Try the Lemome brand version on Amazon. I got a pack dirt cheap through their FB page when they posted a sale. They’re nice.
Yes, Jennifer! Michael’s is starting to carry more journaling supplies which is amazing.