I Love Bullet Journaling!
I have discovered the amazing world of BULLET
JOURNALING! After many years of trying
to juggle home, teaching, and church schedules (and failing miserably), I was
about to give up. I’ve tried different
kinds of planners, but they never seemed to be flexible enough. I think at one time I had a planner for
schedules, a notebook for to-do lists, and random loose notes everywhere for
things to remember to put in one of these places. Needless to say, my life was pretty much in
complete disarray!
Then I found bullet journaling. I was looking through Pinterest and saw a pin
about it. I read through the blog and
was almost convinced that it might work. Bullet journaling has the flexibility
to include all of the parts of my complicated life in one place, and to make
changes as needed. And I loved that I
could doodle and keep it looking “cute.”
So, I bought a journal, some fun Flair pens (my favorite!)
and got right to it. I didn’t want to
invest in an expensive journal, so I settled with a thick spiral notebook with
a sturdy cover. I knew it would be
thrown into my school bag and needed to be quit durable.
After reading many different blogs about how to bullet
journal, I decided that, since it’s supposed to be tailored to my own needs and
style, I would adopt the things I liked and change those I didn’t. Here’s what I include in my journal:
1. Monthly
Calendar – I keep this because I need to see what’s going on at a month’s
glance. I use color coding to know if it’s for school, family, church, or TpT.
Under each calendar, I list the days of the month so I can record important
things going on for each day.
Monthly
Tracker and Tasks – I want to track things each month, such as how much water I
drink, exercise, hours I work with teaching, hours I put into my TpT store,
piano practice, etc. Placing a tracker
chart with in my bullet journal just made sense! I also keep a task list for the month near my
tracker so I can track things and be reminded of things that need done.
Daily To-Do list – After the monthly calendar, I
keep a section for each day, keeping an “on-going” list of what I plan to
accomplish for the day. I’ve found that
others use a coding system that was a bit too complicated for me. So, I modified. Check mark for those tasks that are finished,
exclamation point for those that are of immediate importance, a diagonal slash
for those things that are partially completed, and an arrow for things that
were not finished. Those things just
simply get moved to the next day.
Other sections I include in my journal are a business goals
page, books I want to read page, piano lesson notes, church notes, and recipes
I want to try. As the summer ends, I’m adding sections showing shopping lists and
sketches for how I want to set things up in my classroom. I’m sure there will be more parts added
later. That’s what I love about this; I
can modify and adjust for my own needs.
Finally, I feel like I have a little bit more control over
my life. Too bad the journal can’t help
me eliminate the busyness of life… but
that’s for another blog entry!
Here's a few other helpful blogs about beginning your own bullet journals:
