Bullet Journalling

Back in November I decided to start Bullet Journalling. I’d read a lot about it online, and found loads of great inspiration on Pinterest. I found an old notebook I’d been saving for something special, and decided to use it for my first ever bullet journal. I chose this particular notebook as it has only blank pages, no lines or anything, and the artisitc side of me liked the idea of not having anything breaking up the designs. It’s also my favourite blue colour, so it seemed appropriate for this, as I’d be looking at it pretty much every day.

Now I’m not great at being organised, nor am I wonderful at sticking to things like this, and I have to be honest there’s a couple times in the past few months I’ve slipped up. I’ve forgotten to fill in my habit or sleep tracker etc, and sometimes it’s felt like I need another bullet journal to remind me to tick off the things in the original bullet journal. I have to say that even though I’m a nightmare for staying on track, it’s definitely helped me in certain ways. I’ve been more productive, I’ve found myself being more concious of how I spend my time, and it’s helped me really focus my blogging (even though I’ve not posted here much, but it’s still been in the forefront, as you can see by the lovely new look). So I thought I would share my Bullet Journal journey so far with you, and talk you through some of the ways it’s helped me, and also some fun ideas you can do with it.

What Is Bullet Journalling?

For those of you who are like I was and have no idea what this new phenomenom is I’ll give you a little explanation of the way I understand it. Bullet Journalling is simply a way of keeping track of things, it’s a fun new way to journal. It helps you monitor anything you want in your life, and is a great way to help you get organised. It also allows you to be as artistic as you want to be with it, the idea being if it’s something you enjoy doing and something that is pleasing to look at for you you’ll keep coming back to it. It’s completely personal to you. You can either use it for monthly tasks, like planning blog posts, habit trackers, what movies you want to watch, a diary and anything else you can think of, or you can use it more specifically like if there’s a certain goal you want to acheive you can use this form of journalling to track your progress through it. There is no right or wrong with bullet journalling, as long as it helps you.

How It Has Helped Me

Before I started a Bullet Journal I had spent hours pouring over images on Pinterest relating to them. Some people have done some absolutely beautiful things with them, that I could only hope of in my wildest dreams! Although once I started I was amazed at how much I liked my designs. When I finally made the decision to create one, I was a little nervous, I really didn’t want to mess it up. I’m glad to say I didn’t though, even if i made a few mistakes along the way, which I have no learned from.

Bullet Journalling has helped me keep a track of everyday things and tasks I hadn’t noticed or had let slip by. It’s helped me keep my head on straight while starting my new business. It also shone a light on how rarely I did some things that I should have been doing everyday, or would even go a whole month not thinking about to then beat myself up for not doing it at all.

Pages I found that helped me and I wouldn’t be without: Habit Tracker, Sleep Tracker, Blog Post Planner, Quote Pages.

Things I’d Do Differently

If you’re just starting on Bullet Journalling then please heed my advice and try to avoid these simple mistakes that I did first time around.

Buy a proper book. Yes I love my first Bullet Journal book, but not really because it’s great for Bullet Journalling. I seriously wished now I’d splashed out and gotten one of the correct books for it. My pages are completely blank for one, meaning even when I think my lines are straight they’re not really. Secondly the pages are also incredibly thin, so when I use some lovely brush pens they go straight through.

Mark things out in pencil first. I’ve made so many mistakes on previous pages by going straight in with pen. Giving a little bit of planning really does make a massive difference.

Take my time If you want your Bullet Journal to look really great seriously take your time, I rushed so many of my early pages and I regret it, as they’re one’s I’ll go back to again and again.

The great thing about all of this is you can constantly learn with a Bullet Journal, and do things differently every month. If you mess up a little bit it doesn’t matter too much, it’s personal to you and for you.

My March Spread

This post is mostly about my March pages, and what I chose to do with them. This is the first month I’ve gone with a title page for the month, and I have to say I looooove it! Definitely something I’ll do with future months. I decided to start bringing in a bit more colour, November was mostly browns and coppers, and I can’t say I’ve been overly colourful with January or February either. I went for a blue, red and purple theme colour this month, along with theming it all around feathers. Why, I hear you ask? Well I found this awesome image on Design Bundles, and I fell in love with it, so I felt this was a great theme starter. I’m starting to add in colours as we get closer to Spring and Summer, so this seemed a nice gradation.

This is the first time I’ve used printed images for my Bullet Journal, and it’s definitely something I’ll be doing again. It sped things up for me a lot, and gave me tonnes of ideas I hadn’t thought of before. It was an amazing image for setting the tone I wanted for March, and feathers just work so well, especially since they’re one of my favourite things. If you want to check out some of the other designs they have on offer, or download this one you can find them all under sublimation digital designs.  

Everything on Design Bundles is really affordable, and I was pleasantly surprised by the price. They also have so many wonderful designs, including images you could use for backdrops, as I have behind the main design, and even lots of alphabet images, which are very useful for headers. These images save so much time, and once you’ve bought them you have them forever, to use time and time again. You can also resize them to fit however you like, and use smaller versions of one design through the monthly trackers. I use a smaller version of this one in the corners of my Habit Tracker page.

Products I Can’t Be Without

When Bullet Journalling there are so many items I regularly use that I couldn’t journal without.

• Mini ruler
• Fineliners (black and coloured)
• Highlighters (I love my pastel ones, they’re subtle while still adding the quick colour I need)
• Pencil
• Washi tape (I now have so much of this I can’t move, I’m addicted to washi tape, it does however make pages look much more interesting)
• Brush pens

This is not a list of must haves, everyone finds their own way of working and what’s best for them, this is just what I need to make my Bullet Journal look how I want it to.

I can’t wait to share more of my Bullet Journal journey with you all!

Have you guys got a Bullet Journal? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe for notifications on new posts, and follow me on social media too!

Annie xx

NOTE: This is a sponsored post by Design Bundles