Touring my Bullet Journal

by Ally Gall

Last spring I had multiple, neverending to-do lists, all living between separate notebooks and my brain. When COVID-19 hit mid-semester, I was really struggling to keep track of everything. So one night to soothe myself, I went down a rabbit hole on Instagram and I came across videos and photos of folks creating their personalized notebooks, planners, and journals. I loved watching people organize their thoughts, to-do’s, and all the while making it look absolutely gorgeous. Overnight, I had filled my social media feed with people bullet journaling — which is a fancy way of creating and maintaining a personalized planner.

So, I started doing it myself.

Bullet journaling was invented by Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer in Brooklyn, New York. He was diagnosed with learning disabilities when he was young, and through a lot of trial and error, finally found a method that helped him — bullet journaling (bulletjournal.com).

Bullet journaling is beneficial and fun for so many reasons. It combines different aspects of organization and creativity, two things that I crave. There are many different ways to organize it, personalize it, and be creative with it, even if you don’t have a lot of experience with drawing.

At a Glance:

This is how the beginning of my monthly themes look: the month’s name with the theme (June was lavender). The next spread is my “At a glance” page, which lays out the entire month. This is where I’ll put important dates: birthdays, holidays, etc.

Habit/Mood Trackers:

Every month, I pick eight habits I want to keep track of. I color the boxes of what habits I complete that day. Then I slide on over to the next page, where I track my mood for the day. I pick the overarching feelings I had that day, and decide between five different moods.

Goals/To Do:

Every month, I write down goals for myself. I usually have three themes: mind, school, and money were the three for September. I try to focus on what I need the most and what I'm struggling with. The "Things to Do" list was something new that I incorporated. I liked the idea of having a running list throughout the month, of maybe bigger things that I didn't necessarily need to keep track of day to day.

Gratitude:

My gratitude log is one of my favorite parts of my notebook. It forces me to think about what I appreciated during the day or what I liked, even when I have a day that wasn’t all that great in general. I tend to only write a few words, but I leave space if I want to write a longer sentence. My pumpkin patch page is unique to October, since it’s fall and there are pumpkins everywhere. I decided to create a page where I could go to see what I needed the most, which is why there’s a range of things that are helpful and motivated for self-care.

Weekly Spread:

This is a weekly spread I had during July, which was a primary colors themed month. During July (and the rest of the summer) I had my entire week on one page spread. I’ll make small to-do lists for each day, and move them to the next day if I don’t finish it. Looking at my entire week at once is helpful in planning when I have time (or when I don’t). Since school has started, I changed my layout.

End of Month/Blank Page:

This is the end of my monthly spread. I usually leave it blank until I get to the end of the month, so that I can shape it with how I feel then. The blank page next to it is where I’ll start my November theme, which I’ll start with planning pages out with pencil.

Photos taken by Sabrina Merritt