I recently started bullet journaling (bujo for those of you in the know). If you know me, you’ll know that I’m not a very organized person. I try to be organized and it works for 2 weeks and then I go back to being unorganized. I love to write and doodle and make lists, and remake those lists. I will rewrite my post-it notes multiple times until I’m satisfied with the writing. This is sort of surprising because I don’t think I have consistently nice penmanship. My mom on the other hand, had beautiful penmanship. Once in a while I will write an L or an F or a T, just the was she did. That makes me happy.

I tend to write this is especially true when I’m in meetings, where my mind can wander. When my mind wanders at my day job, I tend to draw, and make lists in the margins during these meetings. Most of these lists are to-do lists for my personal life, or my crafty life. I’ll take these home and they all eventually end up in the recycling bin. I have all this great intent to come home after work and get shit done. Sometimes it gets done, sometimes (lately) only small amounts of shit gets done.

SO, I thought that one way to help this, and keep me organized with getting blog posts done, keeping ideas for projects and signs in one place, tracking habits and making me more accountable to myself.

I first saw something about bullet journaling on my Facebook feed. I did a little research over at bulletjournal.com to find out what this whole thing was. I learned that it’s a rapid logging using a few words for tasks, events and notes with a key for tracking the status. For more info check out the link.

Supplies:

• Journal
• Pencil
• Pens
• Markers
• Ruler
• White-out
• Washi Tape (Optional)

To get started I needed supplies. Most importantly, I needed a bullet journal. I stopped by Barnes and Noble and made a bee line right to the journal section. I proceeded to browse the options. I knew what I didn’t want. Anything that was a guided/prompted, an inspirational/spiritual, travel/journey, etc. was a no. Soft cover was also a big no. If this journal would be with me daily, it’s going to be tossed in my purse or bag and I wanted it to hold up. Another thing I had to consider was lined or dotted. I kept going back and forth and ultimately I decided on one with dots. I thought that one with Dots would be cleaner and one with lines would annoy me too much. Finally, I had to decide if I wanted a decorative one, or a simple one. I decided on simple. After all of my mulling, and back and forth, I ended up getting simple teal Leuchttrum1917 journal.

Next I needed pens and markers. I already have a fairly good supply of pens and markers. I already had on hand Pigma Micron pens and two sets of Tombow Dual Brush Markers (Bright and Secondary colors) for other crafts. I did pick up a pack of Paper Mate Flair pens in Tropical Vacation and another pack of the Tombow Dual Brush Markers in Primary.

Before I got started, I looked for some inspiration on Pinterest, and proceeded to get sucked into the black hole of Pinterest! You know, and got sucked down the Pinterest hole.

I started simple. I used the basic key that was included in my bullet journal, but slowly added my own identifiers. I’m not 100% satisfied, but I don’t want to make too many changes. I’ll save that for the next journal. I created my Future Log., which was just each month laid out with enough room to have a high level list of Birthday’s, events, appointments. I changed my key up a bit, as you can see I started to go in one direction, then changed my mind.

What I really like about the bullet journal, is the fact that, I create it. Nothing is pre-created. I really like that flexibility, it allows me to add doodle pages like the one below.

It also allows me to really find and hone my style. So I’m trying out a weekly spread. I’m keeping it simple and keeping the same weekly spread for a few months and flesh it out a bit.

So last weekend, there was a Vintage Shop Hop, that has over 400 shops from Northern Illinois all the way up to Northeastern Wisconsin. Last year I went and found some cool things. So this year, I kept a list of shops I want to go to during the Vintage Shop Hop in my bullet journal. My list included places I want to make sure to stop at, the City, and any notes. for each stop I kept track of what I purchased.

Finally, I added some washi tape to add a little flair. I picked up some washi tape with llamas on them- cuz I’m the Crafty Llama! They were cute and on clearance! Win-win.

I’m trying a new weekly layout for March. I didn’t think I had enough room on my February layout. But that’s the beauty of bullet journaling, If I choose to change my mind, I can.

Do you bullet journal? Do you have any favorite pens, tools, additional tips or resources? I’d love to hear from you in comments!