The Story & Intention of The Bullet Journal📔

I. About journal

The bullet journal📘 (bujo for short) is an organizational system to log, track, and organize personal things in your busy life. It was developed by designer Ryder Carroll in New York City in 2013 and has become very popular all over the world. It is a hard-copy version of the digital organizer you might be already using.

The contents are all written down all in one journal book compose of bullet-pointed (mainly)⚪, gridded, lined or blank papers📝. You are free to create your content like to-do tasks, planning📆, reminder, or even used as a brainstorming🧠 tool in a systematic way and follow some general formats.

II. Why do we need to write a bullet journal?

The ultimate goal of bulleting journaling is to organize things in your mind🤔. Here are some reasons people love to do journaling:

1. 🎯 Achieve goal
2. 📈 Track progress
3. ⛅ Boost your mood
4. ⚡ Boost productivity
5. 💡 Unleash creativity
6. 🧠Other reasons like an answer want to be answered in your mind

Please share these benefits✔ with your friends and encourage them to do journaling too!

Goal achievement🎯

“As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you live your days, so you craft your life.” - Robin Sharma✍ 

It takes effort to achieve a goal, especially a long term goal🏹. With a bullet journal on your hand, you can write down your goal in a yearly plan, divide a goal into smaller goals, and put them into a weekly /monthly plan. In your daily plan, you could write down any actions that allow you to step towards your small goals.

@quietcollections

@stethoscoping

Goals setting in bullet journal can be done in a form like a planner, to-do list, budgeting, etc.

Overview and progress review

A goal setting alone isn’t enough for you to achieve a goal. You also need to see the whole picture🖼 of the goal and keep close track of the progress. A yearly, monthly, daily planner and performance tracker can help you with this.

Days make a month and months make a year. Once your daily plan works well every day, so do the monthly plan. Therefore the key is on the daily planner.

In your daily planner, it is highly suggested to include an overview and review section apart in the to-do list📄. The purpose of it is to make sure that you are on the right path and good progress toward the goals🎯. You don’t want to go to the wrong way that leads to delay or even fail to reach the goal, right?👍

@cayaline

@bulletjournal_veronica

Lastly, mark your daily progress📈 on a performance tracker that records at least 30 days to ensure that you are proceeding. But more importantly, it also provides you fuel⛽ of momentum that encourages you to keep moving!!! This spiritual support will be discussed in the next section👇.

Spiritual improvement🧘‍♂️

If you straightly follow the schedule and try to achieve your daily goals like a machine, as days become weeks, weeks become months, you will deplete like a car🚗 without refueling💧, this is a reason some people give up writing journal at the very early beginning. So don’t let it happen to you!

With a bullet journal, you don’t have to be exhausted😣. Simply by recording your daily or monthly progress itself can give you a source of motivation. Some people use it as a therapy💊 to boost mood and momentum every day. It can be done by creating a meditation🧘‍♂️ like section writing down something like for example:

1. 🙏 Gratitude, self-love, happiness (what you thankful for)
2. 🗣 Affirmation, mindfulness, faith (emotional encouragement)
3. 🔝 Your top 3 values in your life
4. 🖼 Vision board or dream collage (visualize your goals)

@mashaplans

@journal_with_mel

They are all tools🔧 that you can review them as you start your day in the early morning🌅. Spend a little bit of time like 10 minutes⏱ to refuel yourself that can make a difference in your day! Try it today!😃

Do whatever you want

A bullet journal📓 is not limited to goal setting that organizing things in your mind, it could be anything you want to record✍📝.

III. Style of your journal

The uses of bullet journal are still evolving, here are some common styles in the bullet journal community, they are minimalistic, doodle🎨, super-organized, scrapbook💟, artsy🖼, and digital💻, etc. They will be discussed in full later in our blog.

@amizaomar

@cj_bullets

IV. Tool🔧 needed

To do bullet journaling, two things you may think of: notebook and pen. Yes. It is simple! These two basic tools⚙ can create any possibility by your imagination!💡Don’t be overwhelmed by some fancy bujos😣. Some color pens🖍 may help you highlight things and quickly search for the information you need. It is important to find a style that suits you the most. To maximize the benefits of journaling, remember that simple always wins!

Notebook📔

You can buy a ready-made notebook designed for bullet journaling or simply create your own planning content on a blank📃 notebook for maximum flexibility. Your option depends on how much time you dedicate to it⏳, it would be more time consuming if you create content from scratch on the blank page rather than a notebook📕 which is printed with a calendar📅, to-do list📝, etc.

Pens and accessories

The tools🔨 may include colored pens🖌, brush pens, markers, highlighters, rulers📏, stickers💟, washi tape, stamp, etc. Apart from writing content pen will be used, some tools🔧 like marker or highlighter are used as an indicator. Some of them are for decorating🎈 purposes like washi tape and sticker.

This is all about the basic thing of bullet journaling, I hope it can be served as a brief introduction to bujo! Want to start by knowing what to write in your journal? Here is a list of thing you could consider to include in your first bullet journal. Questions❓ Please comment to ask below👇 or share your journaling ideas with other bujo lovers🙂.

In the next blog, I’m going to talk about what elements including terms are in the bullet journal. If you like our article, please subscribe💌 to our newsletter to get a notification on our last blog updates! And you will get a 10% discount coupon🎟 for your first order too!