Carrie Willard

putting the "her" back in motherhood

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November 22, 2016 by Carrie

Simple Bullet Journaling

I wrote my first post about bullet journaling back in February. I had been using my beloved BuJo for a few months at that point.

So it’s my first anniversary using the Bullet Journal! And I still love it, probably more than I did back then. It’s the ONLY journaling habit that has stuck with me for any length of time. I think it’s because I keep bullet journaling simple.

Simple Bullet Journaling

I am no artist. I don’t doodle in my BuJo. I do try to keep it as neat as possible, but I don’t let form get in the way of function.

It’s all about making my life easier and keeping up with all.the.things a homeschooling, blogging mom of 7 has to keep up with.

simple-bullet-journaling

This is how I start my day every morning. Six days a week, I’m at the local coffee shop at 6 AM. I don’t have time to sit there and wonder, “What do I need to work on now?“.

I need to KNOW, instantly, when I sit down to begin.

Here’s where my BuJo comes in.

This is a sample spread. Note there there is no real color-coding. I tried that, but as any mom will testify, little kids ruin your pens, so I couldn’t always find the right color when I need it. And to quote Sweet Brown’s now famous words, ain’t nobody got time for dat.

Here is a sample page. This one was on my November business objectives. (Most of the stuff is crossed out, yeah!)

Here is a sample page. This one was on my November business objectives. (Most of the stuff is crossed out, yeah!)

But let me back up. The beauty of the Bullet Journal, and what makes it different from other organizers/planners/journals is the INDEX page at the beginning of the book.

Pure genius on Ryder’s part. (Thanks for inventing this, dude.)

The index reminds you where all the stuff you wrote down IS so you can actually, y’know, find it again. Which is useful.

simple bullet journaling: the index page

If you click on it to see it bigger, you’ll see it’s in French and English.

Unlike many bullet journalers, I do remove pages when I’m done with them.

Clutter really disturbs me visually, so I either neatly tear the page out (if you hold a ruler to the page you can do so neatly), or use washi tape to tape together spent pages so I don’t have to see them and get distracted by their tackiness.

This is the only roll of washi tape I own (Paris-themed, bien sur), have ever owned, and my daughter gave it to me. That’s the extent of my craftiness, folks. And I’m ok with it.

simple bullet journaling

 

I use my Bullet Journal many times a day, for many different things. Recently I added a “Health Notes” spread.

I’ve been waking up with bloodshot eyes a lot, and attempting to figure out why. Is it coughcough perimenopausal hormone changes coughcough? Does it happen when I have wine before bed? When my sleep is interrupted by a thankfully adorable but nevertheless annoying nursing toddler? Or what? This tracker will help me figure it out.

Funny but true story. My 4-year-old (hence the extreme blurriness) grabbed my phone last night while I was cooking dinner, and began snapping pics.

Guess what one of the pictures was of?

simple bullet journaling: me, using my Bullet Journal

Me, writing something in my Bullet Journal.

With my leg propped up like Courtney Love‘s. Which has nothing to do with the focus of this post, but as a Gen-Xer, I had to throw in there. But at least you can’t see my underwear, like you would have at a Hole show. So there’s that.

No lie.

I’m writing in my Bullet Journal, or checking it, many times a day.

Which is why it’s looking pretty awful right about now, but I’m disciplining myself not to buy another until just before the new year. Because I like to use stuff up.

Speaking of spreads (suddenly that feels like an awkward choice of word, but that’s what they’re called people!), here are the ones I currently employ in my Bullet Journal:

  • Monthly online income tracker (amounts, sources)
  • Future log – this is a year at a glance
  • Monthly calendars
  • Grocery price book
  • Basic weekly schedule
  • Gratitude journal
  • Daily goals tracker
  • Monthly business objectives
  • Food journal and health notes
  • Notes on books I’ve read

Then, I have many “collections”. Collections are simple lists.

Reminders, things I want to keep track of for later. They include:

  • Online content publishing reminders (it’s a blogging thing, there are several of these with good writing tips, editing and grammar reminders, post-publishing promotion to-dos, etc)
  • Films I want to see
  • Writing/blog post ideas, new ebook idea
  • Places I want to go/fun things to do
  • Misc to-dos, both short and long-term
  • Things I want to cook (mostly these are in Pinterest, but sometimes I jot them down)
  • Quotes and words I like. (Did you know “avuncular” means “pertaining to an uncle”? Now you do. Now I challenge you to use it in a sentence.)
  • Parenting notes
  • House buying notes
  • … and more

If you’ve looked into Bullet Journaling and felt intimidated because everything you saw on Pinterest had amazing artwork, color-coordinated writing, and all that… don’t be. (By the way, here’s my Pinterest bullet journal ideas board.)

Your Bullet Journal is yours, and you can keep it simple like I do, or it can be as complicated as you want! It’s highly individual.

Writing tools I use with my Bullet Journal:

My favorites are the Staedtler triplus fineliners and also the Pentel Slicci (I buy the 0.25 width, super fine). Both are fine point pens, which work well with the BuJo, but don’t bleed through. This is important.

I do occasionally bullet journal in pencil, though, especially for to-do lists and collections that are somewhat disposable.

Do you bullet journal? How do you keep it simple? 

*affiliate links are used in the post

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Filed Under: Habits & Goals

About Carrie

Carrie is a homeschooling mom of 7 and the author of this blog. More about her here.

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Comments

  1. Ingrid says

    April 30, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    LOVE this – thanks!! I’ve heard people raving about their BuJos, but figured it differed from a regular journal in that it used bullet points sentences. I LOVE the Index page!

  2. Sandra, Italy says

    August 27, 2017 at 5:45 am

    Hi Carrie!! *waves excitedly* You’ve recently changed my life and I’d love to tell you about it… Last month I discovered Frugalwoods and while browsing replies to a blog post, your comment piqued my interest. I “followed” you over here and between reading YOUR blog posts, I came across THIS! Now, as a selfconfessed time management and personal development junkie, I don’t know how I’ve managed NOT to hear about the Bullet Journal but there it is. Now that I’ve researched the Bullet Journal on YouTube etc. I’m even MORE happy I happened upon you and your link to bulletjournal.com FIRST. If I’d seen all the “artwork” BuJo’s out there first, I’d immediately passed on it as something not for me… ain’t nobody got time for DAT! 😉 So thanks!!!

  3. Carrie says

    September 13, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    So glad it was helpful!

Trackbacks

  1. Video: How keeping a Food Journal can help you with TrimHealthyMama – TrimHealthyMama blog says:
    December 5, 2016 at 3:25 pm

    […] Bullet Journal and how I use it to make my life […]

  2. How Bullet Journaling makes my life simpler says:
    December 7, 2016 at 6:41 am

    […] it’s become a daily – no, a several times daily – habit. I wrote more about how I keep bullet journaling simple (my BuJo isn’t filled with gorgeous artwork) and how it helps me stay on top of my […]

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