A Year of Bullet Journaling

It was a year ago, last August, that I got into using a bullet journal. Once upon a time after Addison was born I had my entire life and mind in a three-ring notebook where I made my own pages exactly how I wanted them and it worked great. I never really talked about it here for whatever reason but I had my own world in a three-ring binder and it worked so great for me.

But once we started trying to get pregnant with Connor when Addison was about 18 months and I had my first miscarriage things fell apart. I just didn't have the motivation anymore. I just didn't care anymore. It took a long time for me to want to get things organized again and get it all out of my head. What I didn't realize was how important it was to get it all written down, to get it down on paper. Let's just face it I'm an analogy girl - technology just didn't my friend (don't believe me, check out here and here).

So last summer I started hearing more about this thing called a bullet journal. I had never heard of it before but it caught my interest. It sounded similar to what I was looking for - even if I didn't completely know I was looking for it. I had never really found a planner that worked for me and I needed just one notebook to have it all together. So I started looking more and more into it. And found it would be similar to my notebook I had way back when only instead of making pages on my computer I would create those pages by hand in a notebook all together.

So I started last August and I loved it almost instantly. My handwriting was lacking and I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted but I loved this system and I loved that I could change things as I went to whatever worked best for me.

Now it's been a year and I am still loving it. I am on my third bullet journal now and it's getting pretty full. It has a lot more color and I even use stickers and a lot more pictures than I once did but it still works great for me!

So these are my first spreads from last year. I basically had a monthly spread where I had the calendar layout plus a habit tracker. Then I had my very simple daily pages and an equally simple meal plan for each week.

As we headed into the next few months I started getting more creative and adding more color. I tried out adding in the weather and temperature but found I didn't really care of it too much. I started adding quotes and even some journaling in at the bottom of some days. I was started to really enjoy adding in the color and making the pages more creative.

Of course I had collections and I started adding into a few pictures and coloring sheets.

But that was the extent of my first bullet journal. At the beginning of the next year I started a new journal which I started adding more stickers and more decorations to each page.

My second bullet journal made it from January through May. It was much more colorful with more washi and stickers and pictures throughout.

My more recent bullet journal started in June and in some ways I was still working on finding my way and what really worked best for me.

My collections changed looks over the course of the year. Including adding tabs to the tops of the pages so I could easily go back and find those pages again. I have used those tabs so many times and will definitely be doing that again in future journals.

I also started using pages that we were out of town as memory keeping pages and less as to do lists. I would add pictures and journaling and other information so I could remember how the days went instead of writing out like I would for a typical day.

So now a year later this is what my August looks like.

I am definitely moving back to a more simplified look again and I might just go pen to paper in coming months. Of course I love having pictures in so that will definitely continue when I want to add one I love. I'm just trying to figure out what I really like.

When I first started adding stickers, I was looking for a creative outlet but now I have found a different source for that so I'm feeling like I'm needing my bullet journal to be that less and less. But we will see. I'm hoping to get the rest of the year in this book but I'm not sure it will happen. I definitely like the idea of starting fresh for a new year.

I highly recommend the bullet journal for anyone who has tried several ways to get organized but nothing is working. I love having complete control of what goes into it and how it looks. I love being able to change things as I go, when I need or want to. It's been a great system and I feel like I am more efficient in general now that I am using this system.

So I would say this has been a successful year in the bullet journal and I'm looking forward to another year.

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