I’m Lucie Fink and this week is
5 Days of bullet journaling.
Hey guys!
It’s Lucie.
What’s up?
Time to talk about bullet journaling.
Pew!
Not those kinds of bullets.
I got so many YouTube comments asking me to
do 5 days of bullet journalling.
Honestly, I think this might have been
the most requested video, to date
in the series.
I already did 5 days of journaling and
I figured bullet journaling was the same thing.
But...It’s not.
After watching a few videos on YouTube
about bullet journaling,
I totally, totally get it.
No need to push any further,
the video has arrived.
Ryder Carroll, the creator of the Bullet Journal,
describes it as,
“an analog system for the digital age.”
It helps you record the past,
organize the present,
and plan for the future.
So, today I’m just going to dive
right into it and every day this week
is going to be another step to helping
you build your very own bullet journal.
First, the things you’ll need:
A journal of your choice,
a ruler,
and a pen.
Or if you’re like me and that’s a little too
simple for you, you might want to invest
in a hundred rainbow colored markers,
some nice fine point black pens,
a very pretty journal,
and any fun stickers or stencils
to make it a little bit brighter.
When you open up your journal the first thing
you want to do is create your index.
Since my journal is a little bit larger than normal,
I’m gonna leave just one page for the index
but you can leave two for it if your
journal is a bit smaller.
The index will let you know what page
everything’s on so that it’s always easy
to find things.
The next couple of pages will be our future log
or the upcoming year at a glance.
You can make this page as complex
or as simple as you want.
I’m using a straightedge to make little
calendars for the next six months with lines
next to them so I can fill in upcoming events
or goals or intentions for the month.
I’m working with a pen which is not a great
idea if you’re prone to making mistakes.
So if you do make a mistake like I did,
just feel free to cover up with with a sticker.
And when you’re done filling in some
upcoming items, don’t forget to number
the pages
and add them to your index up front.
I have about six notebooks floating
around my desk.
I’m constantly jotting notes down everywhere,
in my phone, I’m sending myself emails
as reminders.
It’s a total mess and it’s getting a little bit
hard to keep up with.
And from what I’ve been told,
a bullet journal is a way to consolidate
all of those random things into one
very organized space.
So, let’s get organized.
Now that we have our index and our future log,
we’re gonna start breaking down this
month further with our monthly log.
You can do this in a number of ways.
Most people start by writing the month
on the top of both pages.
The left the page is going to be your calendar
and the right page is going to be your task
list.
A classic bullet journal in the simplest sense
of the word,
just list the numbers of the month
along the left column and then puts the
letters of the day right next to those.
But I wanted to make this a little bit more
exciting so I used a ruler and I just built
out an entire April monthly calendar.
This calendar gives you a bird’s eye view
of the entire month and then you can go in
and add any important dates.
And on our task page,
you’ll start writing down things
you need to accomplish in the
month ahead.
To break down the month one step further,
we’re gonna make a daily log.
You’ll need to make a new one of these
once a week and basically this page, to me,
seems sort of like an agenda or a planner.
It’s all about rapid logging your tasks,
events, and notes for the day.
So now that we’ve started putting items
into our bullet journal, it’s a good time
to make a key.
This is optional but I think it’s really
helpful to remind you what everything means,
especially if you’re using different symbols.
Bullets are for tasks you need to accomplish.
Open circles are events or date related entries.
A dash is for notes or thoughts that you want
to jot down.
Once you’ve complete a task,
you strike it with an x.
If you migrate a task to another day or
another month, you use the right arrow.
If an event or a task gets cancelled,
just strike it out.
And if a task has been scheduled,
use the left arrow.
And now that we have our monthly log
and our daily log and our key,
add any finishing touches
and don’t forget to number the pages and
put these in your index up front.
Stay organized!
Many people just want a bullet journal to
use it as a planner, to keep their events
and their tasks in order.
And that’s fine but if you’re anything
like me and you have random lists floating
all around that you want to keep track of
separately and individually, you should start
something called collections.
A collection is a list of notes or thoughts
that are related to a common theme.
So today I’m starting a few different collections.
Books I’ve read.
Since my boyfriend can’t eat gluten,
I’m making a collection that’s all about
gluten-free dishes to try with him.
And restaurants that I want to try
in New York City.
And of course, I’m planning on adding
new collections as new interests pop up
and as I get new ideas.
Other ideas for collections are a bucket list,
a gratitude list, my friends’ birthdays,
things my parents say,
animals I want to own in the future.
You get the drift.
And the best thing about a bullet journal
is you can keep on customizing it to fit your
changing interests and personal needs.
I started my daily log for the week and then
I added collections after that.
That might stress people out but
don’t let it.
The bullet journal should unfold as your life
happens so just let it happen.
Let it unfold.
If you’re the type of person who likes having
collections, you will likely love trackers.
This is a way to track your habits and to
make sure you’re doing the things that you
wanna do and it can also be a way to track
negative habits to make sure that you’re
stopping.
I wanted to simplify it but I also wanted
to make it a little more visual so I got a
compass and I drew circles.
I broke it out into the days of the month
and then I wrote in the three habits that
I want to track this month:
drinking eight glasses of water a day,
going to the gym,
and reading my book before bed.
One more thing about pages and the order of
the bullet journal, I put my habit tracker
just on the next available page but a lot
of people like to put the habit tracker right
next to their monthly log so that they can
look at the whole month and see the days,
their events, and habits.
So if you want to do it that way,
just make sure you leave a blank space
after your monthly log
before you dive into the daily log.
Another fun thing you can do here is make
a goal page for a specific goal that you want
to achieve.
One of my 2017 resolutions was to drink more
green smoothies so I’m making a
50 by summer green smoothie tracker.
To make this template, I used stickers and now
every time I have a green smoothie, I’ll
just check off the box.
I think this is a really fun and visual way
to see how close you are to achieving a goal.
And of course, at the end,
you know what I’m going to say...
Don’t forget to number the pages
and add them to your index.
Your bullet journal is really coming along now.
Great job, I’m so proud of you.
Stay tuned.
Yay!
Something that’s becoming abundantly clear
to me is that there are a million and one
ways to organize almost every page
of your bullet journal.
To give you some examples and inspiration,
here are some of my favorites that
I found on YouTube.
Your bullet journal can be out of control
with writing everywhere.
You can keep it very minimalistic and simple.
Also, not everyone is crafty
and that’s okay.
There are tons of companies that sell journals
that are basically like bullet journals.
For example, this 2017 planner from XO Planners
is not marketed as a bullet journal but
when you open it up,
it has some of the same elements.
Firstly, here’s your future log.
There are pages for goal setting,
things you want to learn and explore,
a bucket list.
Then at the start of each month,
there’s a monthly log with a section to write down
notes and tasks
and each daily log gets its own page
and it has so many different elements
to it.
There’s a schedule,
to dos,
what you’re grateful for,
your inspiration,
brilliant ideas, and more.
I’m hoping this video inspires you to start
your very own bullet journal with some
beautiful templates.
But don’t be discouraged if you need to
simplify things from week to week.
I think that’s the point of a bullet journal.
It’s supposed to help you out,
not stress you out.
So if you’re finding that you’re really stressed
but you wanna keep the bullet journal,
pare it down.
Even if it’s the most simple and minimalistic
bullet journal in the world, if it works,
it works.
You’re supposed to learn from yourself
as the months and the weeks go on
and change up templates if they’re not working.
I hope you liked my bullet journal and I hope
you stay tuned because I will likely make
a future vlog video showing you how I’m
keeping up with it.
Keep commenting and sharing your suggestions
of what you want to see me try next time.
I promise, on my honor, not to ignore
your comments anymore.
Even if I think it’s something that’s
similar to what I’ve already done, I will
do my research and figure it out.
And I really, really want to thank all of my fans
who suggested I try bullet journaling
because I think you’ve changed my life.
Thank you.
See ya next time!
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Let’s be best buds!
Yeah!