Hey friends! Elizabeth here from Plant Based Bride, and today I want to share with you 10 things
I wish I knew before I started a bullet journal!
I've been bullet journaling for over 4 years now and in those 4 years I have learned a lot.
I try to share nuggets of wisdom
here and there throughout my videos on my channel
but I know not everyone watches every single video and I know some of you at least
watching my videos are new to bullet journaling or haven't even started yet.
So I wanted to make one video that was sort of an amalgamation of the most important things I think
someone should know before or as they're starting their first bullet journal.
Feel free to leave a comment down below with what you wish you knew before you started bullet journaling or
conversely, if you haven't started a bullet journal yet,
let us know in the comments down below one thing that you're worried about or a question
you need answered and myself or one of my many amazing subscribers will be happy to help you out!
There is no right or wrong way to bullet journal.
I talked about this in my first-ever Bujo babble episode, which was discussing
kind of the split down the middle of the bullet journaling community between people who are
productivity focused and people who are aesthetics focused and
how those of us who are sort of in the middle sometimes feel a little like we're
drifting in the wind of the bullet journaling community.
I said it in that video and I've said it in other videos and I'm sure I will say it again,
but let me say it here: your bullet journal doesn't have to be anything that anyone else says it has to be.
Your bullet journal is yours. There is no right way to do it,
there is no wrong way to do it. Your bullet journal is gonna look
different to anyone else's because it's yours and it's based on what you want and need out of a bullet journal.
So, please don't feel like what any one person says is the gospel. Yes,
even Ryder Carroll, as much as he is the person who created this methodology, created the system,
he has said many times that he wants this system to be a modular system that is unique to each individual. That is
created by an individual for an individual. So don't feel like you have to follow some sort of
recipe for bullet journaling success - because it doesn't exist!
Your bullet journal does not have to look like the bullet journals that you see on Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
It totally can look like those and that's fine, too. But if your bullet journal doesn't look like that it is still
100% valid. Please don't forget that!
Start simple until you get a hang of the basics.
I cannot recommend enough starting very simple with a bullet journal using just the concepts that really resonate with you or feel like
they're something that you need in your life, and leaving everything else aside until you get used to those few elements.
So for me in my first bullet journals all that I used were the daily logs, rapid logging, and those specific
bullets and signifiers from the original bullet journal system. I didn't use a key, I didn't use a calendar or a future log,
I didn't use an index, I didn't do any kinds of fancy spreads.
All I did was rapid logging in my daily logs. So start simple! Maybe for you that isn't daily logs.
Maybe you only want monthly logs to start. Maybe you want to start with habit trackers and that's it.
Whatever it is for you, start simple. Start with one or two things at a time,
try them out, see if they work for you, shift things around try something new, and
slowly but surely you can add more elements in from the vast array of modules that exist in this system
until you come up with the perfect bullet journal for you and your life.
It is totally fine to not use your bullet journal, whether that's for a day, a week, a month, or a year.
If you don't use your bullet journal for a bit
you are not a failure.
Your bullet journal is supposed to improve your quality of life.
If it improves your quality of life by not being a part of your life for a week or two or three,
then it's improving your life and that's fine.
And when you're ready to come back to it, when it is going to help you again to use it,
then go back to it. That is totally fine. And that's how the bullet journal is supposed to work.
You don't have to use your bullet journal every single minute of every day, and
sometimes not using your bullet journal is the best thing for your bullet journal!
For example:
I had a lot of trouble using habit trackers for a very long time,
and eventually I realized that the fact that I wasn't using my habit trackers, that I was consistently
failing in my own eyes to complete this goal
I had set myself to set these habits and use this habit tracker, made me realize that a habit tracker
actually doesn't work for me. While I know it works so well for so many people, for me it's just too much.
It's overwhelming and ineffective.
So I know now that I have to track far fewer habits and as much as possible
I need to track them with in my weekly spreads.
Otherwise, they're not going to get done. And I would never have discovered this about myself if I hadn't allowed myself to not use
part of my bullet journal, not use my habit trackers, and
allowed myself to not see that as a failure and try to force myself to keep using one but open my eyes and
consider that maybe there was a reason I was failing and not using it. Maybe it just wasn't right for me.
It will take a while to figure out what works for you
so don't wait until you have it all figured out. Start now, start simple, start small, and build
as you go. There's no rulebook saying that you can't change your mind about how you bullet journal.
There's no one who says that you can't do an incredibly artistic aesthetic
set of spreads one month and then the next month go completely to the other direction:
only do rapid logging and daily logs, very minimalist,
very productive, and no art whatsoever. And then flip right back to the artistic side the month after that.
There are no rules which is amazing!
But it also means it will take a lot of trial and error for you to figure out what works best for you.
So don't wait to start. Start now!
Experiment, enjoy the process, and enjoy the journey of finding the bullet journal system that works best for you.
It is totally normal for your bullet journal to get messy as you use it.
Your spreads do not have to stay Instagram ready forever. Actually, they never have to be Instagram ready in the first place.
They can be messy from start to finish or
maybe they'll just get messy as you use them and write notes in the margins and cross things off and
change something and realize you made a mistake and start over. That is what a bullet journal is.
It is a paper version of what's going on in your brain, and I don't know about you, but my brain is real messy.
Embrace the messiness of life and your bullet journal.
It is honestly part of its charm.
You do not need the hottest notebook or
pen to start a bullet journal. Any writing utensil and anything to write on can turn into a bullet journal!
It doesn't even have to be a notebook. It can be loose-leaf paper that you staple together.
It can be paper and a binder. It can be your iPad and your stylus. It can be literally
anything. Please don't put yourself in a box a feeling like you have to have this specific
notebook or it's not a bullet journal, or you need to have
these specific pens or it's not a bullet journal, because that's just not true. And those things are extra.
They can be fun of course, but they are not the core of what a bullet journal is.
So try not to get too hung up on them. I know it's easy at the start.
I know it can be exciting, but try not to get too hung up on them!
They're really not that important. If you're having trouble resisting that new stationery check out my anti haul for back-to-school.
It might help you out! Setting up spreads can take a very long time. They don't have to of course.
Yet again, I feel like a broken record,
but your bullet journal is whatever you need it to be, and it can look however you want.
So it can be as simple and quick to set up as you want or need it to be.
But a lot of the spreads that you're gonna see online, a lot of the spreads you see on YouTube (including mine!)
Take a long time to set up.
You might notice that most of them are sped up by quite a bit and that's because if you watch them set up in real
time you'd be sitting there watching a video that's at least an hour long, if not a few hours long, and not everyone has that much time to set up their bullet journal, which is totally fine.
So just be aware that those really complicated spreads as much as they might look nice
might not be the most efficient use of your time. A bullet journal is a very personal thing,
which means you don't have to share it with anyone
if you don't want to. Obviously a big part of the online bullet journaling community is
sharing our spreads with each other, posting them on Instagram and reddit and Pinterest and YouTube. Being part of this community together,
sharing what we've learned and what works for us - that can be an amazing thing and this can happen in real life, too
I can't count
the number of people who have asked to see my bullet journal because they've seen pictures on Instagram and they want to be able to
flip through and see it in person.
And it can be really awesome to share that with someone, but it can also feel a bit vulnerable.
For most of us our bullet journals are like I said, basically your brain
dropped out of your head into a notebook and that can be really scary to show to somebody.
So if you don't feel comfortable or if you don't want to, you don't have to.
Your bullet journal can stay personal and private for you and you alone and there's nothing wrong with that!
You don't have to share it just because other people do. And last but not least: The limit does not exist.
We love a good Mean Girls reference!
But really though, there is no limit to what you can create with a bullet journal.
There is no limit to the creativity and productivity you can achieve when you really pour your heart and soul and mind
into a bullet journal. It can turn into anything and everything.
It can be so incredibly useful in your day to day life. It can help you plan your future it can help you
hold on to memories. It can do so much and still fit in your backpack. I'm pretty passionate about bullet journaling.
I feel like it has been such a positive force in my life and I highly recommend if you're on the fence
that you jump in and just give it a try. I don't think you'll regret it!
So that's it for this video! The 10 things
I wish I knew before I started a bullet journal. Like I mentioned earlier,
please let me know in the comments down below what you wish you knew before you started or again
if you're new to bullet journaling or you're
considering starting a bullet journal leave any questions you have down below so that I can help you as much as I possibly can!
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in my next video.
Bye friends!
Thank you to my patrons for your support! Extra special thanks to our newest patrons, Brida and Gonni.
I am so so happy to have you! You can join the squad, too,
if you're interested, just tap the link in the description box or in the cards!
If this video made you excited to start your first ever bullet journal or just continue on your bullet journaling journey,
check out this video or this video for some more bullet journal inspiration!