I have been bullet-journalling for a while now and post about my spreads on my instagram stories which has meant I have had a few questions come in over the past year … so I thought I would write a post to chat about it today! I will be addressing the most common questions I get, but if you have anymore please feel free to comment or message me and I will answer them!
What is bullet journalling?
It’s a way to customise journalling to suit you. The pages of the journal are not your typical journal, they’re not blank or lined but instead have heaps of little dots. The dots make it easy for you to draw lines and shapes to create a custom journal to suit your ever-changing needs — and THIS is what I LOVE about bullet journalling.
I always change what how I use my journal and adapt it to what I need from month to month. Some months I track exercise, mood or meditation and sometimes I just want extra spaces to create lists or have a monthly reflection.
What do I use my bullet journal for? What are the benefits?
I journal about my day every night before bed. I just write down a few key points (or sometimes I write more depending on how I feel).
I like to reflect on the things I’m grateful for everyday. I’ve found this gratitude practice not only helps me through bad days but makes me more grateful and joyful when it comes to the good days too.
I’m a big positive psychology fan and I started this practice after reading Martin Selligman’s (the father of positive psychology) book Flourish. In his book he talks about a study where cataloging and reflecting on gratitude promotes emotional wellbeing. Plus, recent research by O’Connell, O’Shea and Gallagher in 2017 continues to support these findings as it discovered a reflective gratitude journaling on both reflective: finding things to be grateful for and reflective-behavioral: finding things to be grateful for and expressing your gratitude over a three-month period had a significant, positive impact on well-being, affect, and depression.
The importance of gratitude is also talked about in Hugh van Cuylenburg’s book The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness Through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (highly recommend both of these books by the way!). You can find out more about gratitude journalling and how to do it here on the positive psychology website.
You don’t need a fancy journal to start, nor do you need a bullet journal. I just personally like the customisability of it and I wanted a little task that would get me off my phone for a while.
I started it because I wanted an activity that was a low pressure creative outlet – something that was just for me and no one else to see (and yet here I am sharing it online now 
). I find that I love to just doodle and draw in my journal, using colours and texta pens makes me feel like a kid again ahah.
Also, I love that each month I pick a new colour scheme and quote – plus it helps me stay organised and feel on top of all my appointments, health tracking, uni and business deadlines.
What are my favourite bullet journal spreads?
I always love to do a monthly calendar and alongside that I used to always do a monthly tracker of my energy and mood/symptoms (but I do this less now I have a Fitbit to help me track things).
Some of my fave spreads I recommend you make are:
- A year in pictures/Polaroids – this one is a yearly spread that I have at the start of my journal, where I put one picture in my journal for each month
- Books I’ve read this year – another yearly spread that I have at the start of my journal which I pop down all the books I have read throughout the year – it’s a great way to keep track of things!
- Music I am loving – as a music lover, I associate songs with memories and moments in time so I write down my favourite songs each month as a little reminder
- Mid-Year or Monthly Check-ins/Reflections and Goal Setting – this is always a good way to refocus, reset and reevaluate what my aims/goals are and what I need to change in my life
- Monthly Gratitude – I log my gratitude journalling every day but another way you can do this is have one page in your journal where you write one line a day about something that you are grateful for or made you smile/laugh
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask or message me. My journal for 2021 I got from The Pencil Case Place.
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