BUJO: Rise of the Bullet Journal (Short Documentary) I started my bullet journal in April 2018. My life was so disorganized. I can't plan well for my job & deadlines so I often forgot to eat or sleep. I could stay awake for over 30hours straight at once (record at 38hours) and had GERD at least once a week. It was torture. I tried using planners a couple of times but it didn't work for me. I hate the restrictions that come with a constructed & printed planner book. Then I stumbled across AmandaRachLee's bullet journal video on Youtube (you know, one of those recommendations that appear for no reason) & then followed by Ryder Caroll's video & they changed my life. I started simple & it was ugly but functional. Especially the habit trackers. They look like challenges to me & I rarely backing down from challenges so slowly but surely, I began to eat & sleep regularly. Not at normal hours, not even now because of time zone differences with clients etc. But I get the needed sleep quota & that's enough for me. I stopped having GERD in a month and never had it again ever since. And nowadays I don't even need to look at my bujo to remind me to eat. The future & monthly logs help me to look at my deadline schedules with a bigger picture like point of view and together with the weekly log, they help me to pace myself with my tasks for my deadlines so I can have a break and actually have time to sleep. I also can be pretty forgetful so they also help to remind me of other things I need to do or check out, like paying the bills etc. Which also incidentally help me to manage my finance better. No more impulsive shopping & snacking (especially snacking) when I see that it's almost due for utility bills etc. In 2019, I became more artsy with my bujo. I had never been into stationery before unless it's for art supplies but now I'm kinda addicted to it & found myself a new hobby with handlettering. Bujo becomes an outlet for me to break away from my gadget filled life. I work as a digital artist/illustrator & it can get pretty exhausting sometimes. Doing an analog planning for my life actually gives me a different kind of break & let me express myself with a different art style. 2019 felt like I went back to my origins with using pencils and pens for art. 2020 is more of scrapbooking style with doodles here and there & I've never been so wrong my entire life when I thought it was going to be a great year. For the last couple of years, the bujo communities have evolved crazily. Things became more and more elaborate and people started to forget the main function of the bujo system. It gets exhausting and expensive for no reason. Dramas and fights broke out between bujo planners about what the bujo system is supposed to be like and etc. Things just go bananas all of a sudden. It was because of this that I realized I've also been swept along by the artsy trend and setting up the monthly setup feels exhausting sometimes. So, I'm going back to the minimalistic layout. I'd probably still include some art inside because I can't help it, I'm an artist. But it would be more minimalist and not as art demanding as it had been for me like last year and this year. For 2021, I'm planning for a minimalist vintage scrapbook style. And so does many other people, it seems. LOL~ All in all, I'm so glad & grateful I found out about the bullet journal system.
