I wrote a post about the best planners available in India where I said how for years I made my own planners before I could afford to buy my own. In this post, I will explain the how and why of it.
So for those of you who are new here, I LOVE stationery. The idea of putting pen to paper and creating that perfect plan for the week and month is therapeutic for me. There is a pretty big planner community online who will say the same. I read somewhere that your brain is for having ideas, not storing them. So here is a system that will help you store and organize all your thoughts, events, and projects so that you actually refer to them and complete all your tasks and stop rolling over your resolutions from year to year.
Have you heard about Bullet Journaling? If you haven't don't worry this post will tell you all that you need to know. If you have and looking at all those perfect beautiful decorative spreads on Youtube and Pinterest have intimidated you? Don't worry, I got you! If you are actually using your Bullet Journal (henceforth addressed as BuJo) and you should because it truly is a great system, setting it up in that beautiful way every week takes a lot of time, and if it doesn't come naturally, do not feel like you have to make your BuJo Instagram or Pinterest worthy to have your life together.
In fact, BuJo was started by Ryder Caroll as a way to overcome certain learning disabilities and figure out through years of experiments a system that allowed him to become focused and productive. It is basically a simplified rapid logging system that has some signifiers that will tell you at a glance what are the things you need to take an action on and have a separate space for future projects and lists. Okay, so all you need is a plain notebook, dotted works best and any pen of your choice. Having a few colored pens, highlighters and a ruler will help too but they are totally optional. So let’s get started with a few basic spreads.
A classic BuJo has the following elements which you should include in your layout :
Key
This is where you note down all the signifiers you will be using throughout your BuJo, keeping it in the front also makes it very easy to access every time you sit down to play out your day, week, or even your year.
Index
Ideally, the first few pages of any bullet journal should be left empty for the index. One necessary but tedious task you need to do for your BuJo is numbering the page and updating the index as you go along. That is what lets you know where all the spreads are and you can easily get to it when you need it.
Future Log
I know what you’re thinking, in a digital world all your events and appointments are synced to Google Calendar or iCal or Fantastical or some calendar app so what is the point of this spread? This is for any important events, birthdays, or appointments that you might not necessarily put down in your phone, I think it’s a great spread to mark sick days, period dates, and vacation days.
Monthly Log
This spread has a list of all the days of the month and you can list out the important events and appointments of the day against a date. You can also create a monthly task list for all the to-dos in a month and carry over those tasks into the week as necessary. In this space, you can also track your habits, mood, and expenses. I’ll elaborate on that in another post.
Daily Log
The rule is to title every page with the date and day. You are supposed to use the rapid logging technique which is just a fancy way of saying note down all your tasks and events for the day quickly under the daily log with the signifiers that you have specified under keys.
Collections
This is my favorite part of a bullet journal. The possibilities here are endless. You can create any kind of list you want which doesn't have a particular daily/monthly to-do assigned to it. It can also be a place where you plan out big projects.
There are a few BuJo concepts that you should be familiar with. These are some basic terms that are often talked about in the BuJo community and understanding them will totally step up your planning game.
Nesting This process helps in adding details to a particular daily entry. For example, you can note down details under an event of who you are meeting and what time, and the things you might need to prepare for that event. It allows you to arrange the subtasks without having to store it all in your head. Do you know how you eat an elephant? Piece by piece.
Migration Okay, this is the part where the BuJo stops being just a notebook and transforms into a system. Remember the monthly task list you created? At the end of every month go through that list and move over the unfinished tasks into the next month's task list. Not all of them though, pick the ones which are important. This is not only for task lists though. You can migrate entire collections when you change bullet journals.
Custom Log The best part about a bullet journal is that it can be made into whatever you need it to be. You can make it into a daily journal, to-do list, fitness tracker, just about anything. So that is basically what a custom log means, to create a log in no set pattern and create a log customized for you.
Hopefully, these images gave you some idea on how to get started. Remember we are just trying to get into the habit of starting a more organized life. There is no need to aim for perfect artsy spreads and brilliant designs right away. A bullet journal is a tool to help you feel more in control, treat it like that. Don't make setting up your bujo become another to-do list item. To see how I have set up my bullet journal for 2021, watch the video below!
In the upcoming posts, I will show you various ways to make minimal and functional spreads to track various aspects of your life. So subscribe to my blog and stay tuned to make 2021 the year you attain peak stress-free productivity!
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