Planners can either be the greatest thing in the world... or the worst. I like to stay organized because I have about a million and two things to do on a daily basis. I've tried traditional planners and failed miserably. I recently bought a non-dated one and it has nothing in it. The only time I've ever been successful with them is when a teacher made me get them signed in elementary school, or my senior year of high school where one class where the grade depended on it. The method my AP Literature used was similar to the bullet journal, which is what I'm trying now.
The bullet journal method was developed by a digital designer named Ryder Carroll (which is probably why I like it s/o to all my digitally focused people) and it's supposed to mix the concepts of a planner and a journal. The thing that most people, including myself, love about it is that you get to make it completely your own.
After doing a bunch of research on bullet journals and a handful of failed attempts, I decided to put myself to the ultimate test of remembering to use it for one entire month and giving my feed back to anyone who feels like reading about it. Good plan, but then I had to actually plan it.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a notebook I could throw away in a months time, so I just picked up the cheapest grid paper notebook I could find and Meijer and decided to use the gel pens my mom sent me for coloring (yes, I'm 20 and my mom sent me gel pens get over it.)
This video gives you the basic concept of how to set up your journal. I tried to follow this and it looked like a unicorn vomited in my notebook so please follow at your own discretion.
So, after an intense Pinterest hunt and about 1,000 articles later, I decided I was ready to start a non-unicorn vomit bullet journal. Here's what I'd come up with after week one.
The Monthly Log
I love monthly planners. They give me the outlook for the entire month and so much organization goes into them. Being able to plan out an entire month, especially as school starts is a phenomenal feeling and I highly recommend it to everyone.
You can see my color-coded key on the right-hand side!
Food I Want To Make
This is the first one that I've been interested in drawing for. One day at work I was skimming through Pinterest and that's when I decided I wanted to make this page. I've seen a lot of people suggesting this page, but I've never seen it actually put out.
I split it into 4 categories: Breakfast, Lunch/Dinner, Drinks, Sides Apps & More. I was most excited about the drinks because I just bought a blender.
Week At A Glance
I love Google Calendars, but hate putting in all the events. I thought I loved weekly calendars, but I could never find one I liked. I decided to mix the two together and create a hand colored Google Maps inspired weekly calendar.
I matched up the color coding to the monthly calendar so I can easily find things on both as well as put in "to-do lists" on some days. I really like how this layout looks and feels and I hope I find it useful.
Week one may just be beginning, but I'm actually really stoked about how it will end up working out. I've heard a lot of success stories and hope I end up being one of them and incorporating this into my everyday routine! So here's to week one!
