The bullet journal or ‘BuJo’ was created by some guy called Ryder Carroll and has been around since about 2013 – though he started using this concept back in the 1990’s when he was in college to keep himself organised after being diagnosed with ADHD as a child.
Ryder’s Bujo had a key of different items such as tasks, notes, events etc that worked for him - however I think it could be argued that a lot of people did the same kind of thing for many years but it never had a name such as ‘bullet journalling’. Today bullet journals are open to interpretation by their owner. I have seen some very elaborate ones with illustrations or doodles on every single page. But I have seen minimal spreads where there are no illustrations at all.
So why did I decided to start bullet journaling this year?
I have been wanting to “try” bullet journaling for ages but was always a bit daunted by other people out there posting their BuJo’s on social media, thinking that I would never be able to do anything like what they do. I was too scared to get a fancy 160gsm notebook, which can be rather expensive, and create something that, quite frankly, might look like crap! As a result, I avoided doing anything about it for ages.
This year I guess I just thought to myself, “right, this is the year to start your bujo!”. So I ordered a bunch of stuff like the cheapest 160gm notebook and some Tombow brush markers and Sakura fineliners in February and I haven’t looked back.
What I love the most is that there is actually no right or wrong way to use the journal. What you put in it, and how you set out your bujo is really up to you. I don’t always have the same spreads as what I have seen most people do in theirs – like habit and mood trackers. I just cannot get into the habit of using them – maybe I should have habit tracker for habit trackers! With my mood tracker, I honestly don’t think I would ever go back and wonder what my mood was on the 4 March 2020 and who has the same mood for the whole day? So, there are two pages that I don’t include in my monthly set up at all.
Other pages I have included in the 3 months I have been doing a bullet journal are:
- Favourite moments – where I included thumbnail photos from throughout the month
- Playlist of my favourite songs
- Brain dump pages
- Mind map
- Month title page
- Quote page
Some of which I would definitely include again (favourite moments, brain dump) and some I might not (quote page.. unless I learn to write or use pre-made quotes)
What I love the most about this new journey I’m on is that I can be as creative as I want to be and do all the things like doodling and using brush markers. Or I can go simple or just use some of the plethora of stickers I currently have. I also love that making mistakes is ok, actually it’s kind of encouraged because that is part of the creative process and I love the support and encouragement I am getting from everyone.
Like I said before, there is no right or wrong way to BuJo.. there is only the right way for you!