Just a few months ago the thought of keeping a planner for my life made me squirm. As someone who usually keeps their organisation on the inside of their brain, I couldn’t imagine myself being able to transfer those organisations onto paper. For some reason, being overly organised makes me uneasy but I can see the importance of organising yourself, especially since I’ve been making the transition from teen to real actual adult. I had tried to keep small diaries before to note down the things I was doing throughout the year but eventually, they all ended up at the bottom of my bag or buried away in a drawer, unused and unloved. Even academic diaries that should’ve been of a higher importance to me couldn’t make the cut.
I had come across bullet journalling during my first year of uni and really enjoyed looking at the creativity and neatness of them, but decided they weren’t for me because, although I’d consider myself creative, I’m not artistically creative and I’m certainly not neat. No matter how many videos I saw or blogs I read saying that “mistakes don’t matter” and that “there’s room for mess”, I couldn’t find any evidence to show that bullet journalers were the type of people to be even remotely untidy.
In January however, I had the sudden urge to start a planner. I don’t know if it was due to the chaotic term at uni I’d just had or the idea of “new year, new me” kicking in, but I decided to go for it. My dilemma at first was that I didn’t have a notebook, or at least one of the fancy notebooks you see everyone recommending for bullet journaling. I realised I did have an unused notebook in my cupboard though, just your average lined one and decided that I’d rather make do with that than spend extra money and time trying to find the perfect notebook. So, I grabbed my notebook and my pencil case and started figuring out how to create a planner that worked for me.
This is the result.
The Main Parts
The Contents Page
This is just what it says on the tin really. I don’t think it was all that necessary to number the pages and track what’s where in this way because in my head I know where it all is anyway but I’d seen this in every bullet journal I’d looked at and it makes me look extra organised I suppose.
Birthdays
I wanted to add this in at the very start because I’m so bad at remembering people’s birthdays and always have that panic when I realise it’s someone’s birthday in five days time and I’ve not even thought about getting them a present yet. This way I can avoid that panic and feel like I’m an extra great friend at the same time.
You can see I messed up on some of the dates, but who cares? As long as I understand it, that’s all that matters.
Weekly Planner
Again, this is what it says on the tin. It took a long time to get all the days written out but it’s one of those menial tasks that once you get going with it it’s hard to stop. I decided to add in some pictures when I realised there’d be a space on every week’s page so I printed off a load of encouraging Bible verses and a few other little encouraging quotes as something nice to look at and reflect on each week.
I’d like to point out at this point the messiness of my handwriting. I’ve never been a neat writer and I’m not someone who can do all sorts of fancy fonts and make everything look pretty. This is what put me off bullet journalling at first and when I started making this planner I felt like it should look nicer than it does but in the end, I realised I want it for me to be able to sort my life out, not for people to look at and congratulate me on my artistic prowess. Of course, I’m sure that anyone who makes nice, fancy bullet journals does it because they enjoy it and it’s a form of expression but all I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be put off if you can’t make yours as pretty as the ones you’ve seen online.
Important Events (and Key)
This is where I keep track of the events that I know are unlikely to change and are more important than everything else i.e. lectures, meetings etc. I added a key for it to make it quicker to read.
The Lists
I always find there are so many things I want to read, watch, cook and so on that I just lose track of it all. I decided making a few lists in my planner would help me keep track and also help me to decide what things to do first as there are only a certain number of spaces on a page and I won’t start another list of the same category until I’ve completed the first one.
I’ve not included pictures of all the lists I’ve written because, at the end of the day, lists are just lists but the ones I have are; a reading list, a film list, a tv show list, a blog post list and a recipes to try (and were to find them) list.
(Also just to clarify, I have watched Friends because I don’t live under a rock but since it was added to Netflix I decided to watch it the whole way through)
The Additional Bits
After making the main parts and the lists of my planner I kept wanting to make more things to fill the page, so these are a few add-ons that I enjoy having.
Moon Phases
I found this one on another blog when I was searching for bullet journal inspiration. I liked the idea of keeping track of the moon because I love the beauty of a starry night sky with the moon hanging over it all. If you want to do this yourself it’s quite easy to search for the moon phases of where you live. Just a quick google will get you sorted.
I also added definitions of things like supermoons and blue moons because if I’m honest I didn’t have a clue what they were.
Monthly Favourites
Maybe deep down I just want to be a youtuber who gives her viewers a favourite things video each month, but I thought it’d be nice to write down the things I’ve been enjoying every month so I can look back at it and see if my tastes have changed or I can see where my love for something first began.
Study Garden
As a uni student, I sometimes find it hard to see the end goal through assignment after assignment but I also don’t want to constantly reward myself with things like sweets and chocolate because for one; the cost adds up and for two; I want to keep myself healthy. Although it doesn’t seem like a massive reward, this study garden helps me to see how much work I’ve done and so I can feel quite proud of that. I simply add a flower for every half an hour of work I do and it quickly adds up.
Where I’ve Been – UK
For this, I just printed out a little map of the UK so I could mark down all the places I’ve been. I would’ve done a world map but I’ve only been abroad three times so maybe once I get into going travelling a bit more I’ll do that in another planner. The dots are very tiny but they are there.
I think the reason why keeping a diary that was pre-made didn’t work for me was because I didn’t have the flexibility to arrange things however I wanted. With doing a bullet journal I have the freedom to do this and add whatever I want into it. So, if you’re thinking about creating a bullet journal yourself definitely do it and don’t be put off by the pristine-looking ones you see everywhere because as you can see mine is far from that. It also doesn’t have to look anything like mine, create it to be whatever you want it to be. As long as it works for then it is serving its purpose.
Bullet Journalling for the Messy and Disorganised Just a few months ago the thought of keeping a planner for my life made me squirm.