Bullet Journaling

Bullet journaling, for the uninitiated, is a method of organization. It’s easy to confuse bullet journaling as illustrations with information. I mean, if you type in bullet journaling on youtube, instagram, pinterest, etc. you’ll be flooded with gorgeous journal spreads and ideas. Really you can boil down to bullet journal as a list of information you want to keep track of. 

Things I need to do tonight (01/01/2025):
Put away clean dishes and load dishwasher
Scoop litter box and tell Owl she is a good girl 
Watch a new episode of a trashy reality TV show and never tell anyone about it.

Bullet Journal Month Spread from April 2019

We live in a heavy input environment, there is a constant requirement to process sensory-heavy information. On top of that, there is just so much to do everyday. This is where bullet journal comes in. 

The idea is to keep a journal with all the information bogging and floating in our brains and just putting it down to have in one place. Bullet journaling isn’t decorative headers and fancy borders. It’s a method. It’s a place to process our thoughts and be able to reference back it. Artistic people are drawn to the method because of the potential to make it pretty but it’s all just bells and whistles.

 If you’re a to-do list person, always using a phone calendar for everything, writing down what homework is done and when ahead of time (not just in the corner of the worksheet handed out) etc. you’d probably like bullet journaling. I use giant white board and map out my entire month ahead of time. It just settles the highly-anxious person inside of me to be able to reference something and have a physical reminder instead of always relying on my memory. 

Art Project Tracker

They’re not just for instagrammers living their best fairy lights and polaroid pictures on the wall and potted plants in plain white pot life.  I use them for everything from basic calendering, meal planning to movies I want to watch but keep forgetting, what books I’ve read this year, progress in video games, etc.. I like to make cute lists for the Community Center completion in Stardew Valley or items I needed for architectural projects in My Time at Portia. Making lists and spreads gives me a moment to relinquish all that information I try to cram into all at once. In a lot of ways, it’s an exercise of giving up a little control over needing to balance the 20-sum ideas’ cycling through. 

I recently ordered an A5 dot grid notebook from Archer & Olive. I spent $35 on an empty journal and I’m thrilled for it. Here’s why: I buy $10-$15 on the regular and only quarter-use them because I get annoyed by ghosting / bleeding ink.  I’ll start bullet journals and I end up getting frustrated due to the fact the last page will be visible on the next page. It gives me an unjust amount of stress to see this happen and I end up getting annoyed and pocket that journal on the bookshelf unused. 

The paper is 160gsm which means it’s good n’ thick. Supposedly, it can handle watercolour paints and sharpie. Maybe it will be cheaper than randomly buying notebooks that ultimately go unused. 

The notebook arrives this week so I’ll be able to test what journal preaches and reviewers say. 

– Fizziberry / Julia Rosko


One thought on “Bullet Journaling

  • July 13, 2020 at 11:02 am
    Permalink

    Journaling is my therapy and I use two different journals. Do you have more than one journal?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Dell Puckhaber Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *