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Real Life Bullet Journal: Monthly Planner

Ah, the bullet journal. This discovery has truly changed my life because it enables me to be organised at the same time as being wildly disorganised! I’ve tried to convert those around me to the system but to no avail so it’s a lonely endeavour. My only gripe with it is that there’s something of a cult for beautifying them, for primping them, for showcasing creativity and your commitment to self-reflection and self-improvement. Is that because it’s attracted a lot of scrapbookers? I have no idea. But for me it’s not all that. I don’t have time and I’m not sure I have the interest. If I find myself with more time I will be sure to do something more interesting (to me) with it than primping my bullet journal! It sometimes feels a bit competitive and I think much of the prettiness may put people off from using what is in fact a simple but brilliant way of reorganising your thoughts, ideas, and tasks into one place. It doesn’t need to be beautiful to be practical! Just search Google for “bullet journal” or search for it in Pinterest or Instagram you’ll see what I mean. All those BJ posts; so beautiful, so thoughtful, so colourful! And then there’s mine; practical, functional, and not pretty at all. But actually, that’s how I like it. I figured I can’t be the only one using it this way so I thought I’d be part of the counter-revolution in normalising bullet journal. This is BJ for pragmatists rather than dreamers, for nerds rather than creatives. That is not my current phase of life. When I first drafted this post (it’s taken me over a week to get if finished so it was started before Christmas) I had a to-do list of about 50 things and bullet journal got me through. I’d still be staring at the wall feeling overwhelmed by it all if I had to worry about the looks of the thing!

So here’s my first proper BJ share: my (current) favourite monthly planning layout. When I first started with BJ I used the “classic” vertical list, like the one on the main bullet journal page, but it wasn’t working for me. I like to be able to quickly see what day it is an I like a more visual layout and a more traditional calendar-style layout makes more sense to me. I’m almost at the end of a notebook and I’ve been using this approach the entire time. I like the at a glance organisation into weeks. No colour coding, no fancy key, no pre-formatted lists for tasks.

This is it. Warts and all.

BulletJournalDec2017

Because I’m busy trying to learn French I’m writing days of the week and most other headings in French. It didn’t take long for me to get the hang of the months and days of the week – and numbers up to 31 – by doing this. Now it’s second nature to use French for the labels and headings.

In a few days I’m starting a new book as there are only a few pages left in this one. Happily that will coincide with the start of the new year. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried to! Starting afresh gives me a chance to think about what worked and what didn’t in the old book, like the key, the index, list pages, etc. I am also thinking about any templates I can create to save time moving from book to book in future. I have a few favourite pages that I return to again and again that will need to be carried over and I’ll write a post about that once it’s done, but I think most of it can be archived or copied onto a digital list for future maintenance (I use Wunderlist.) Plus I’ll be setting up my year-ahead planner and other reference pages.

So that’s me and my bullet journal. I hope you like it and that by sharing my shabby scribbles you’re inspired to use the system as a tool and get organised. If you’re living a busy life short on time you really don’t need to about whether it looks pretty or not, if that’s not your thing. And if you are one of those people who does manage one of this Instagram worthy notebooks, I salute you! I’m sure in days gone by (pre-kids, maybe) I’d have put more time into mine. I love looking at the beautiful sketches, the calligraphy, the carefully crafted layout – but this system is too good to be all about looks. At the end of the day it’s a tool, a method, of organising every aspect of your life. The beauty of it, I think, is that there is something for everyone. Make it look pretty, if you want to, but remember – looks really aren’t everything!

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