- All right, everyone, let's talk bullet journals.
So I started using the bullet journal system
last year for the first time
and was surprised to find how much I loved it.
I'm usually quite of app person,
like I don't enjoy writing by hand 'cause
I have terribly messy handwriting.
But yeah, I was surprised to find how much
I connected with the bullet journal system
and how much it allowed me to get things done.
So obviously throughout the course of using
it for my first year, I figured out what I liked best
and what worked for me, because that's
the beauty of the bullet journal system,
is that you can adapt it to fit
whatever you wanna use it for.
So I use mine mostly for work.
It's definitely purely for organizational purposes.
This is not gonna be one of those beautiful bullet journal
videos with lots of stickers and colors and stuff.
So yeah, hopefully you're interested in seeing
a bullet journal that's super functional
and set up to help me achieve a lot of things in 2018.
♪ All I do is adore you all of the time ♪
(upbeat music)
- First I guess let's talk about the notebook itself.
So last year I used the official bullet journal.
This is a Lookterm, Lecterm, I don't know I screwed up
saying that in my bullet journal video I did last year too.
But you know the one, it's this guy.
It's got dotted pages and it's got page numbers
as well and it's got like the bullet journal
instructions throughout too.
This year though I'm using something a little bit different.
I was given a Baron Fig, I think this one's called
the Confidant hardcover notebook at our
Convert Kit company retreat as like a little
gift last time back in August.
So I saved up, thought I would use it
for my bullet journal this year.
It's got dotted pages as well which is really beautiful.
This one doesn't have page numbers,
but I don't think that's going to be much
of a problem for me because last year I didn't end up
using the index part of bullet journal anyway.
So I think it will be fine.
And I will hand number pages myself
if it turns out that I need it.
So yeah, it's this beautiful gray hardcover notebook.
It's like a linen texture which is really nice.
And on the inside the pages are like just
really nice paper to write on as well.
And it comes with this yellow ribbon for marking your place.
So I thought I'd take you through the setup
process as I start off this 2018 bullet journal.
And transfer over some things that I did like from 2017
and also try some new things as well.
Before we get too far further, hopefully
by now you already have sort of an understanding of
what the bullet journal system is.
But I'll leave a link down below to a video
by the person who created it that explains it really well.
It's basically an analog system for arranging your life
essentially and because it's analog
it's not like a pre printed book you get.
It's not an app.
It means that it can be really personal to you
and work for however you want it to work.
So with that said, let's get into taking a look
at the setup of my 2018 bullet journal.
I really liked the way that I had my future log set out
last year so I've just done the same thing, to be honest.
I have the calendar on one side,
and then space on the right hand side to put
any key dates and things.
So that's what I'm gonna go in here and set up.
Basically I'm just dividing the page into thirds
and then drawing my little calendar at the side.
A little tip for this as well if you wanna set it up
is to have the calendar app open on your computer
so that you can copy the dates in like where
they fall in the structure.
This is where some personalization comes in
right at the start for mine.
I draw a circle around the date if it's
a public holiday like a bank holiday.
I'm gonna have the day off work.
And then I draw a square around the date
if it's a day I'm taking vacation.
Because that way I can just go through and count them up
and know exactly how many vacation days I've taken,
and therefore how many I have left.
Also because I'm not always on vacation
when I'm away from home, I do a lot of travel for work.
I do a lot of remote work when I travel.
So yeah, I like to draw a solid line
underneath the dates that I'm gonna be away.
In the space to the side is where I write like
key things happening so it's trips.
It's also if I have a concert,
I'll write the date that that's happening.
You know, anything in particular I might need to
keep in mind when I'm scheduling other stuff
is what this future log is for for me.
And sometimes I will also write down
ideas in here for things I want to work on in that month
if it's something I feel I should put off for later.
So yeah, that's how that works.
Next in my bullet journal I have a couple of custom spreads.
I did a bunch of custom spreads at the start of last year,
which you can see them all in my 2017 bullet journal video.
But I ended up not really using any of them, to be honest.
I had things like tracking finances,
tracking my like statistics of online stuff,
I don't know I didn't find it very useful for me
but I got some new ideas for things
that I might wanna try out this year.
And just like last year, if it doesn't
work out that's okay too.
So this first one I've got is a spread about 2018 travel.
I'm often booking a lot of trips at once
and so I just wanted one place where I could
come and like check on the status of each trip essentially.
So in here I've got the first three trips of my year laid
out, that's California, Spain and then I'm going to Japan.
So as you can see, California is all organized.
But I've still got some stuff
to organize for the other ones.
I like this because I think it's gonna give me
a good overview of what I still have to plan.
Next up, something I ended up doing a bunch
in my 2017 bullet journal was just taking
over a whole page to plan out a project.
So like this one for example for planning
my patrian launch.
I really liked having these spaces to make like a
to do list of everything that I think I might need to do.
So at the start of this journal as well
I'm gonna leave a page for working on my font
and a page for working on my website.
And then I think some extra ones as well
for any other big projects that I wanna take on this year.
But for now, those are the main two.
And eventually later I'll go in
and fill these out with some to do lists.
All right, next up something that I didn't do last year,
and that I see a lot of people do in bullet journals,
but I just never really felt like it was
right for me, is a habit tracker.
People use these to mark the days
when they do a certain thing.
There are two main habits that I want to build
this year or like get better at.
And so I'm gonna try out a habit tracker
and see if it works for me.
So to make a habit tracker I'm basically just drawing
a block for all of the days of the month.
And then I can just mark across whenever
I actually do the thing on that day,
hopefully it makes sense.
And this one here is gonna be used for tracking
the days that I go out on my skateboard.
I'm really trying to learn to skateboard.
I know, I'm 28 and I'm probably too old to be doing this.
But hey, it's fun and it's a thing that I've
always wanted to do and I just decided why not, you know.
And so yeah, I've been out a couple of days
already this month which feel good to see.
And hopefully seeing this in here
is just gonna make me excited to go out more
and like remind me that it's a thing that I should be doing.
So that's it for the special spreads for me.
Next up is getting into one of the months.
So this is how I set up January.
I really like how I did my like month spreads last year
so I'm gonna keep it up for now.
Basically I just have all the dates down one side
and on the other side I plan out like
what I'm doing in each week.
So yeah, having the dates and the days down the
side here I can write key things that are happening.
It's mostly the things that are marked
on the calendar in the future log,
So trips when I'm leaving,
when I'm coming back, and concerts,
things like that, vacation days.
On this side as you can see at the top
I have this month focus block.
That's because every month I try and pick
one thing that I'm gonna really try and make the focus
and try and get more done with it.
That was a really confusing explanation,
but I have a podcast all about this if that
sounds interesting to you, I'll link that down below.
The focus of January is my year planning.
Hence, setting up the bullet journal.
Even though I'm doing it halfway through the month,
so I'm kinda late but whatever.
Underneath this I go into my weeks.
So in these blocks is where I write
main things that I know I need to get done this week.
So it's not the day to day, it's not like
you know the little things.
It's the main things that I know I need to achieve
and that I know I need to fit in at some point in that week.
And then we get into day by day.
So I just decided to fill in what I did today
as I was setting this up so I could show you.
So, again, I really liked what I did last year,
I just wrote the date at the top,
drew a haphazard square around it, and then wrote two lists.
On one side I have my work tasks,
that's on the left hand side.
And then on the right hand side I have all my
tasks for my side projects.
I love having these things both in the same bullet journal
but keeping it separate being in separate lists.
Something new I am trying this year though,
is I wanna make sure that I'm aware of the one
single most important thing that I need to do that day.
That's why at the top here I'm written film video
and then underline it because
when I look at my journal I want to know that
that's the one thing that I need to make sure I do.
And if I don't get the rest done, that's okay.
This will probably mostly apply to my side project
stuff because I tend to plan my work tasks out per week
and I like I know what's going on with them
a little bit more than I do with my side project stuff.
So I think this will come in useful
for that though in helping my prioritize.
So that is the start of my 2018 bullet journal.
It's pretty simple, right?
And it's not very pretty.
It's not very neat.
I think I am living proof that you don't need to have
good handwriting to first of all make a bullet journal
and second of all find it useful.
Really honestly it doesn't matter how beautiful your
spreads are the main point is that they're functional
and that you can use them, you can understand them
and that they help you get things done.
If you're someone who takes a lot of joy in the craft of
like making things beautiful and if you find that
inspires you then by all means go ahead and do that.
But yeah, I just wanted to share this video
and show you that you don't have to be super neat
and creative to use the bullet journal system.
I think one of the reasons why I like it so much,
especially being someone who is definitely
I would consider a digital person,
as I said this the only thing that I really
write down is in my bullet journal.
But I think it's because in all the apps that I use
you've got all of your tasks, right.
So I've got all the ideas for projects.
I've got like all of my work tasks
and things my workmates have added
and things that they need to do are all in there.
It can get cluttered really easily,
and so what I really like about this is just
seeing everyday what I need to do.
I tend to fill it out the night before,
so I will actually go and fill out January 17
after I film this video and write down
yet what those tasks need to be.
But it's just so nice to just see two little lists
of the few things that I need to get done that day.
It makes achieving thing much less overwhelming for me.
I think seeing those things on their own
rather than in the context of all the other projects
and all of the other things I need to do
that I haven't quite tackled yet.
If you did find this video interesting,
then please make sure you give it two thumbs up.
I'd really appreciate that.
And leave a comment down below telling me
your thoughts on bullet journals.
Are you a convert, are you a little bit unsure
have you tried it, did it not work for you.
I'd love to hear about it and hear about
any particular special spreads that you have
perhaps that maybe I might be interested in trying out.
So yeah, let me know that down below in the comments.
I hope you have a good day and I will
see you in my next video, bye.
♪ I'd like to love you love you ♪