- A new year means a new bullet journal.
So, in this video I wanna walk you through
the set up of my journal for 2019
and also share a few thoughts on
what I like about the bullet journal system
and how it helps me stay productive.
(energetic music)
First off, if you have never heard
of a bullet journal before,
if this is somehow the first video
you're watching on this topic,
then it's essentially an analog way of planning
and writing to-do lists.
At least that's what I use it for, anyway.
You an do it in any plain notebook that you like,
and what I love about it is how customizable it is.
So you make your own spreads.
You're not confined to like the exact height of a day
in a pre-made planner or anything like that.
It's meant to be uncomplicated and easy
to quickly help you note stuff down
that you need to remember or that you need to do,
so that you can just like get on with doing it.
I will leave a link to the video in the description.
You should definitely watch if you don't know
about bullet journals yet
that's by the creator of the bullet journal method.
It explains it much better than I do,
and I think you'll find it really useful to watch.
But, the cool thing about bullet journals
is that everyone has their own way of doing them
and I know that I watched a lot of videos like these
when I was first getting started
with using the bullet journal method
just to get ideas for different spreads
and how I might wanna use it.
So yeah, I hope that this video is useful
to you for that reason.
So with that said, let's get into it.
I guess we should start with the book itself.
So the first year that I started bullet journaling,
I used the official Leuchtturm bullet journal notebook.
So it's on that has bullet journal on the cover
and it's got a guide to stuff in it in the front.
But essentially, it's a dot grid notebook
with numbers in the corner and some page markers.
Last year I used a Baron Fig Confidant
for my bullet journal,
and I loved the quality of the notebook.
The paper quality was much better
than the Leuchtturm, in my opinion.
The cover was super nice with its linen feel to it,
and it was a really good size, too.
But I did find that I really missed having the page numbers
and I missed having multiple page markers.
So for that reason, I've gone back
to Leuchtturm for this year.
This time it's not the official bullet journal notebook,
but it's just one of their dot grid notebooks
with page numbers, which is all your really need.
And I've gon for it in this bright yellow color
because it's my color of the moment
and it just makes me happy.
As you can see the pages are a nice creamy color
with nice, evenly spaced dots.
The paper is on the thinner side compared to the Baron Fig,
so there is a bit of show-through,
but overall it's still a pretty good notebook
and I like that it has two page markers here.
I keep on in the month and one in the day,
which I'll explain that in a second.
I write in my bullet journal using a Muji gel pen.
I just think these are really good pens.
Someone recommended them to me
when I first started bullet journaling,
and I've not gone back.
I've not tried anything else
'cause I just love them so much.
They write really smoothly, they don't run.
Like, I don't think they'd go through a line,
and I get the 0.7 mm, in case you're interested.
Alright, so let's get into
how I've set up this notebook itself.
I'll just like flip through my pages
and show you what I've done so far.
The first thing in my notebook,
and the reason why I went back to one with page numbers
is the index.
So this is where you essentially note the page
that each spread that you've used is on.
I really like this, because as I've set it up,
as you'll see, there is this chunk
of not-time sensitive pages,
I guess is the way to explain it.
Like they could be used at any month
at the very beginning of the book,
but sometimes mid-way through the year
I want to like do a project plan or something,
so I'll take a page and do that.
And I found that last year
I couldn't find those pages again.
I did a lot of flipping through the book.
Whereas this year, I can just note down the page number
that I did that on with a title
and I'll be able to go and find it pretty easily.
Th first spread when we get into the notebook
is the future log.
So the future log is basically an overview of the whole year
and I do mine with six months to a spread
just to give myself some room.
I draw this little calendar at the side,
and then note events and things
that are happening in that month.
So it's a good way for me to check
when trips are happening,
when are my busy times,
when are my, perhaps, a little bit more available.
A couple of things to note here,
one is that I will put down trips
that I'm taking in a month with a little triangle.
That just helps me keep track of my busy months
and when I've got a lot on.
Then I'll put important events happening
that month with a star.
In the calendar itself, I circle the days
that are public holidays, bank holidays in England.
So the days that I have off work,
and I'll put a square around dates
that I'm taking as a vacation day.
As you can see here,
there's a lot of underlines on all the dates in January,
and continuing into February.
And that is because I underline all the days
that I'm away from home.
So I'm not going to be back in London until February 10th.
So that's what all that's about.
If you watched my video about 2019 goals,
you'll know that this year
I really wanna focus more on balance
and being aware of how much time and energy
a trip can take up aside from just the days that I'm away.
So having this overview,
seeing all these underlines together
is a good way for me to be aware
that this is a time when I'm perhaps
not gonna be able to get as much done
as if I was just at home in London
in my usual space.
Moving on, the next spread is also something
that you will have heard about
if you watched my goals video.
This is my quarterly goals,
which really it probably should be called
quarterly things I want to do.
There's a lot I wanna do this year
and I've decided to break it up into quarters
just to make things easier to focus on
and see where they fit in.
So this is a spread where,
as more things come up,
I'll see which quarter is a little bit emptier
and where I could fit them in.
So that means that if I get an idea now this month,
my quarter one is pretty full already,
so I'm gonna have to schedule it either for Q3 or Q4
when things are looking a little bit lighter.
I haven't done this yet
because it's still January,
it's not the end of a quarter, that's March.
But at the end of each quarter
I am planning on doing a spread
that revisits these goals
and noting down what went well,
what I got achieved, what perhaps didn't go so well
that I can work on for the next quarter.
So doing those little check-ins with myself,
that I tend to do at the end of the year,
but keeping them up throughout the year
so that I don't have to wait
until the end of the year
to do some self improvement, you know?
Next I have a spread for my travel plans.
This is something that I had in my 2018 notebook
and I really liked.
I go on a lot of trips
and I find organizing trips really stressful.
It's hard to keep straight in my mind,
like what have I booked,
what haven't I booked?
So this is a spread for all of that information.
I can keep track of the things
that I still need to do,
and as I schedule more trips for my year,
this spread will get filled up with all of that.
Another spread that I had in my 2018 bullet journal
that I haven't put in this one was a habit tracker.
I wanted to have a spread where I could track habits
that I wanted to build and I started off with skateboarding.
That was something that I wanted to work on last year.
It turns out, I didn't really use the habit tracker.
I found it difficult to remember to flip back to it.
I don't know, it's just not the way I think
and it's not the way I work.
This year I'm trying, I guess it's kind of a habit tracker?
More of a content tracker.
It's this spread here with the amount of videos
that I wanna make for the year,
the amount of vlogs and blog posts, emails, et cetera
that I wanna make sure I produce.
So as the year goes on
I think it's gonna be pretty satisfying
to tick all this stuff off.
This spread here is not really an active one.
It's not one I see myself adding to.
It's more of just a note for me to have there
to refer to and remind myself of.
I've copied this out of my 2018 journal.
Partway through the year,
I sat down and had a good think
about my career trajectory
and what I wanted my career as a whole to encompass.
And this is what I came up with.
So I've just put this in here for prosperity, really.
I like seeing it.
I like seeing it all laid out.
It reminds me why I'm doing what I'm doing
and how the little things that I do
fit into the larger whole.
Okay, so now as we hit this first page marker here,
we're getting into the month of January.
So I make a spread like this
at the start of each month,
and all of last year I was trying out
something slightly different each month.
And that's what I like about the bullet journal
is that you create it as you go.
So I haven't set up February, March, April,
all the way through the year yet looking like this.
I'll set it up on January 31st,
I'll set it up for February, you know what I mean?
So then I can make tweaks to this as I go along
and just continually refine it.
Something I always do, though,
'cause I do quite like it
is have the dates and the days of the week
on the side here with things brought in
from that future log.
So this is my trips and places that I'll be,
events that are happening,
and again I've put a square around the days
I'm taking as vacation.
This really helps to visualize
when I'm coming in to planning
what I'm gonna do each week.
So as you can see here,
this third week of January is a really busy time,
so I perhaps should make sure
that I get the stuff done that I want to this month
before that happens or be aware
that I'm gonna have to do it after.
On this page next to it is where I plan
what I'm gonna do in each week of the month
to, yeah, help me fit stuff in.
So like I said, I can refer to this
and make sure that I don't schedule too much for week three.
This isn't something that I totally fill out
at the start of a month.
I sort of definitely fill out week one,
but then will add to it as I go.
You can also see up here, focus and success.
So the monthly focus is something
that I've been doing for a while.
Every month I'll write down
what the main focus is of the month.
What's the number one thing,
what's the number one priority.
Previously my monthly focus
has always been side project related,
but something I want to try going into 2019
with my goal of having more balance in my life
is to have like a personal focus,
as well as a side project focus.
So this month the personal focus is my sister's wedding,
because she's getting married soon.
In fact, by the time you see this video,
she might already be married.
So that's exciting.
And then the success part is a new one
for this year that I'm trying.
These four things here are what it would take
to call January a success in my eyes.
So this is something that I will make sure I do
at the start of every month
is write down what I think success would look like,
and then I can revisit at the end of the month
and see what I achieved and feel good about myself
if I have done them.
And if I haven't done them,
then it'll be a good lesson for me in scoping
and figuring out what's actually realistic to achieve.
Then we get into the days,
which is what the majority of my bullet journal
ends up looking like by the end of the year.
I just write the date
and then I have two lists.
The one on the left hand side is my work tasks,
and then on the right hand side is my side project tasks,
my life admin, like stuff I need to do outside of work.
I follow what I think
is a pretty regular bullet journal for this.
I just put a dot for a task,
and then I will cross off that dot when the task is done.
I draw a little circle for an appointment or an event,
and then if I'm gonna write a note at that day,
then I'll just do a little dash here, as you can see.
As you can also see, I am not super neat
when it comes to my bullet journal.
I am not trying to make it
the most beautiful thing in the world,
I'm trying to make it functional.
So sometimes I do end up with little drawings
just to remind myself of an idea I had
or, I don't know, my handwriting is barely readable
to anyone other than me.
But that's okay, 'cause it's my bullet journal.
So essentially, I will continue doing this
like writing the date
and then my tasks for that say
up until the next month.
And then I will set up for February.
In the middle of the month,
sometimes I might wanna create an extra spread.
Like say I'm about to ship a new web project
and I just wanna make sure I have one central checklist
for my last things I need to do
or the touch-ups I need to make.
That's a case when I might takeover a page
and just do that.
That's why the page numbers are important for me,
because I can note what page that's on,
write it in the index, and easily be able to find it
to refer to a few days later.
For being such a digital person in general,
I am still really surprised that I have stuck
with using the bullet journal method for so long
and that it's actually been working really well for me.
And I think the reason why
is that when I write down a task by hand,
I'm just more likely to do it
than if I type it into a to-do list app
on a computer or on my phone.
Part of the reason for that, I think,
is that seeing a task in my own handwriting
and just the act of writing it down
feels more like a commitment that I'm making to myself,
but also I think it's the fact
that I have my bullet journal sitting open
on my desk next to me all day, every day,
as opposed to a to-do list app
where it might get hidden by another window, in another tab.
You have to actively go into the app to see it.
This is just always there
and it's always reminding me what I need to get done.
Also, you know, it's just super satisfying
to cross stuff off in a notebook.
Much more satisfying than checking something off digitally.
And the reason I think the bullet journal
works so well for me as opposed to just getting
like a regular pre-made planner or diary,
is the customization that I can do with it
with setting my focus for the month,
breaking down weeks, breaking down my quarters.
That's not stuff that necessarily comes
in a regular planner or diary.
So that's where I really like
that I can set up my own spreads
and make it work exactly how I want.
Alright, this has been a very long video.
Thank you for sticking with me.
I hope you found it interesting
seeing how I set up my bullet journal.
It's super not pretty
and all these nice spreads
that a lot of people do,
but it's really functional
and it really is a set up
that helps me work towards my goals.
So hopefully maybe that will help you out, as well.
If you enjoyed this video,
then please give it a thumbs up,
share it around with a friend
who is thinking of trying out the bullet journal method.
Maybe this will give them some ideas
and show them that you don't need to be an artist
to make your bullet journal happen
and make it work for you.
If you use the bullet journal method, as well,
I'd love to hear how yours compares to mine,
what are some different spreads
that you really love
and they're essential to you in your journal.
Tell me about 'em below in the comments,
because like I said, this is a super customizable system
and everyone does it differently.
So I'd love to hear about it.
Alright, I hope you have a good day.
I will see you in my next video,
and now I can go mark off film bullet journal video
on my to-do list.
(upbeat music)