How My Bullet Journal Has Changed Over the Years and Where It’s Going
Hi friends! Welcome back. If you are interested in bullet journaling at all, you may want to read this! Hearing about other people’s experiences helps you to gather research on what might work for you.
I have always used a planner to schedule my life, pay bills and remember things. It wasn’t until mid 2018 when I started my very first bullet journal, mostly from the influence of Amanda RachLee on Youtube. I loved the creative aspect of it mostly. I always viewed notebooks as a place to journal only (I personally like to keep my journaling separate from my planning), and never thought of creating my own planner from scratch. It seemed like a lot of work (sometimes, it can be), but it can also be very rewarding.
I started out in my first notebook (which was a lined journal) very unorganized, with no direction in mind. I think it was a way for me to figure out what I liked best. I had no plan at all - I created spreads in whatever order I wanted to, listened to music while I drew and had a candle lit in the background. It was a time for me to relax, and unwind from a very stressful time in my life. This is one of the main reasons why I started bullet journaling - to destress and do something for myself.
At this time in my life, I was also thinking of starting a YouTube channel and sharing my bullet journal spreads on YouTube. It took me awhile to do that (I started my YouTube channel officially February 15, 2019) and I started with makeup videos instead of stationery. To an extent, I would say that creating for my channel did have an effect on my bullet journal. Sometimes you tend to create for an audience instead of doing things for yourself personally, which kind of defeats the point. You also have to be careful that you don’t fall into the trap of perfectionism, especially when creating for an online audience.
Bullet journaling was a way for me to stay organized and express my creativity without having to commit myself to a larger art project. I have always enjoyed many types of crafting and art projects, more specifically, painting with acrylics and drawing, but my projects are very time consuming. Since having my children, I found I couldn’t immerse myself in my projects the way I used to.
About a year later, I started adding new goals and projects to my business. The busier I got, the more I found I didn’t have time to create the beautiful elaborate spreads in my bullet journal like I wanted to. I wrote a blog last year on why I switched from a bullet journal to a Franklin Covey Planner, and that blog really took off. Even today, it’s my most popular blog on Medium, coming in at over 17000 views.
After converting to a planner, I found I wasn’t ready to give up the artistic nature of my bujo. I still enjoyed creating in it, so I simply switched how I did things. Sometimes, instead of concentrating on planning or scheduling in my bullet journal, I added drawing or lettering challenges. I would sometimes add affirmation, gratitude and daily success pages. I also liked to add in trackers of all sorts, because I found I wasn’t as on top of that in my Franklin Planner. It allowed me to keep tracking things like my weight and water intake, and still make something pretty. Most planners are pretty straight-forward for business minded people. The pre-dated planners are easy and fast to use because you write in your plans and you’re good to go.
This September, I decided to add some more detailed planning spreads back into my bullet journal. Despite that I feel like sometimes I do twice the work - I have my Franklin Planner after all, I think it would be nice to break the planning up. For example, my bullet journal could house the weekly spreads and my planner could take care of the monthly and daily items. That might not work for everyone - you may want everything in one place. That’s what is so exciting about a bullet journal - is that it can be different for everyone. Some people treat it like a daily log book, other people treat it like a journal and still others place more artistic value in it.
I do not know what the future holds for my planner and bullet journal. I do know that I always intend to have some type of planner in my life - for my business and personal life. I also know that I get bored really quickly, but organizing and planning are some of my life’s biggest passions. As the times change, I like to change too.
It also depends on what I watch on Youtube. If something catches my eye, sometimes I try it out for myself to see whether I like using the product. If it has something beneficial to add to my planning system, sometimes I incorporate that into what I’m doing, or I switch it up and change everything. It’s simply a matter of what I want at the time.
Thank you so much for reading! Take care!
SANDRA
