Maybe you’ve heard of it or maybe you’ve seen posts about Bojo’s and thought it meant something totally different. For those of you who’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, Bojo, or Bullet Journaling, is one of many trends that’s actually worth your time.
Bullet journaling is an easy way to express your creativity, or OCD, and keep anything important handy in one convenient location. The name bullet journal comes from the type of notebook typically used, which looks like grid paper minus the lines. The paper makes it easier to draw straight lines and use the bullets as guidelines when designing your journal.
One of the best, and most prominent reasons to bullet journal is to help you keep organized. Bullet journals usually start with an index and then can be as detailed or as vague as the creator wishes, meaning they can include monthly, weekly or even daily calendars.
Every bullet journal is as unique as it’s creator, and it’s not uncommon to see journals without calendars at all. Still, bullet journals are a great way to help get you, or keep you, organized. Even if you're sitting there thinking, “I’d forget to write in it every day” or you just consider yourself a messy person, trust me: the journal will help. You may think it now, but developing a habit only takes as little as three weeks, and it’s still early enough in the year to make journaling your New Year's resolution.
Not only will your bullet journal become your common source for keeping track of assignments and plans, but you can track your habits, as well. My favorite page is my monthly mood tracker. Every day, I pick a color that matches my mood and fill it in. Overall, it’ll be a great way to see how I was feeling each day, and overall, if I continue to use it all year, it’ll be a perfect collection and representation of my year. Other popular habits include tracking your sleep, your water intake, and your exercise, which can either be really motivational or disheartening.
However, bullet journals are not supposed to make you feel bad about yourself if you noticed you haven’t been hitting your average water intake each day. Probably the most important reason I’d recommend that you to try bullet journaling is to clear your mind. Anything and everything can go into a bullet journal, meaning you can track things such as where you’ve traveled or fill your pages with inspirational quotes and drawings. Nothing is off limits when you journal.
If you’re still reading this and are still thinking, “This sounds too hard or complicated” or “I’m the least artistic person,” you won’t be saying that after you give it a try. There are an endless amount of resources online giving you ideas and tips on how to keep a bullet journal.
I myself discovered journaling over this winter break. Something I’ve always wanted to try, my friends and I started doing it together. As a group of broke college students, we used the time to hang out and journal together. It was a great way to share ideas and compliment each other’s work. Every single one of our notebooks look different, but they represent us as people. We all find it relaxing to take a few minutes of the day to clear your head, sit at your desk with your pens and pencils and journals, and let your mind run wild.
