5 Days of bullet journaling.

Hey guys!

It's Lucie.

What's up?

Time to talk about bullet journaling.

Pew!

Not those kinds of bullets.

I got so many YouTube comments asking me to

do 5 days of bullet journalling.

Honestly, I think this might have been

the most requested video, to date

in the series.

I already did 5 days of journaling and

I figured bullet journaling was the same thing.

But...It's not.

After watching a few videos on YouTube

about bullet journaling,

I totally, totally get it.

No need to push any further,

the video has arrived.

Ryder Carroll, the creator of the Bullet Journal,

describes it as,

“an analog system for the digital age.”

It helps you record the past,

organize the present,

and plan for the future.

So, today I'm just going to dive

right into it and every day this week

is going to be another step to helping

you build your very own bullet journal.

First, the things you'll need:

A journal of your choice,

a ruler,

and a pen.

Or if you're like me and that's a little too

simple for you, you might want to invest

in a hundred rainbow colored markers,

some nice fine point black pens,

a very pretty journal,

and any fun stickers or stencils

to make it a little bit brighter.

When you open up your journal the first thing

you want to do is create your index.

Since my journal is a little bit larger than normal,

I'm gonna leave just one page for the index

but you can leave two for it if your

journal is a bit smaller.

The index will let you know what page

everything's on so that it's always easy

to find things.

The next couple of pages will be our future log

or the upcoming year at a glance.

You can make this page as complex

or as simple as you want.

I'm using a straightedge to make little

calendars for the next six months with lines

next to them so I can fill in upcoming events

or goals or intentions for the month.

I'm working with a pen which is not a great

idea if you're prone to making mistakes.

So if you do make a mistake like I did,

just feel free to cover up with with a sticker.

And when you're done filling in some

upcoming items, don't forget to number

the pages

and add them to your index up front.

I have about six notebooks floating

around my desk.

I'm constantly jotting notes down everywhere,

in my phone, I'm sending myself emails

as reminders.

It's a total mess and it's getting a little bit

hard to keep up with.

And from what I've been told,

a bullet journal is a way to consolidate

all of those random things into one

very organized space.

So, let's get organized.

Now that we have our index and our future log,

we're gonna start breaking down this

month further with our monthly log.

You can do this in a number of ways.

Most people start by writing the month

on the top of both pages.

The left the page is going to be your calendar

and the right page is going to be your task

list.

A classic bullet journal in the simplest sense

of the word,

just list the numbers of the month

along the left column and then puts the

letters of the day right next to those.

But I wanted to make this a little bit more

exciting so I used a ruler and I just built

out an entire April monthly calendar.

This calendar gives you a bird's eye view

of the entire month and then you can go in

and add any important dates.

And on our task page,

you'll start writing down things

you need to accomplish in the

month ahead.

To break down the month one step further,

we're gonna make a daily log.

You'll need to make a new one of these

once a week and basically this page, to me,

seems sort of like an agenda or a planner.

It's all about rapid logging your tasks,

events, and notes for the day.

So now that we've started putting items

into our bullet journal, it's a good time

to make a key.

This is optional but I think it's really

helpful to remind you what everything means,

especially if you're using different symbols.

Bullets are for tasks you need to accomplish.

Open circles are events or date related entries.

A dash is for notes or thoughts that you want

to jot down.

Once you've complete a task,

you strike it with an x.

If you migrate a task to another day or

another month, you use the right arrow.

If an event or a task gets cancelled,

just strike it out.

And if a task has been scheduled,

use the left arrow.

And now that we have our monthly log

and our daily log and our key,

add any finishing touches

and don't forget to number the pages and

put these in your index up front.

Stay organized!

Many people just want a bullet journal to

use it as a planner, to keep their events

and their tasks in order.

And that's fine but if you're anything

like me and you have random lists floating

all around that you want to keep track of

separately and individually, you should start

something called collections.

A collection is a list of notes or thoughts

that are related to a common theme.

So today I'm starting a few different collections.

Books I've read.

Since my boyfriend can't eat gluten,

I'm making a collection that's all about

gluten-free dishes to try with him.

And restaurants that I want to try

in New York City.

And of course, I'm planning on adding

new collections as new interests pop up

and as I get new ideas.

Other ideas for collections are a bucket list,

a gratitude list, my friends' birthdays,

things my parents say,

animals I want to own in the future.

You get the drift.

And the best thing about a bullet journal

is you can keep on customizing it to fit your

changing interests and personal needs.

I started my daily log for the week and then

I added collections after that.

That might stress people out but

don't let it.

The bullet journal should unfold as your life

happens so just let it happen.

Let it unfold.

If you're the type of person who likes having

collections, you will likely love trackers.

This is a way to track your habits and to

make sure you're doing the things that you

wanna do and it can also be a way to track

negative habits to make sure that you're

stopping.

I wanted to simplify it but I also wanted

to make it a little more visual so I got a

compass and I drew circles.

I broke it out into the days of the month

and then I wrote in the three habits that

I want to track this month:

drinking eight glasses of water a day,

going to the gym,

and reading my book before bed.

One more thing about pages and the order of

the bullet journal, I put my habit tracker

just on the next available page but a lot

of people like to put the habit tracker right

next to their monthly log so that they can

look at the whole month and see the days,

their events, and habits.

So if you want to do it that way,

just make sure you leave a blank space

after your monthly log

before you dive into the daily log.

Another fun thing you can do here is make

a goal page for a specific goal that you want

to achieve.

One of my 2017 resolutions was to drink more

green smoothies so I'm making a

50 by summer green smoothie tracker.

To make this template, I used stickers and now

every time I have a green smoothie, I'll

just check off the box.

I think this is a really fun and visual way

to see how close you are to achieving a goal.

And of course, at the end,

you know what I'm going to say...

Don't forget to number the pages

and add them to your index.

Your bullet journal is really coming along now.

Great job, I'm so proud of you.

Stay tuned.

Yay!

Something that's becoming abundantly clear

to me is that there are a million and one

ways to organize almost every page

of your bullet journal.

To give you some examples and inspiration,

here are some of my favorites that

I found on YouTube.

Your bullet journal can be out of control

with writing everywhere.

You can keep it very minimalistic and simple.

Also, not everyone is crafty

and that's okay.

There are tons of companies that sell journals

that are basically like bullet journals.

For example, this 2017 planner from XO Planners

is not marketed as a bullet journal but

when you open it up,

it has some of the same elements.

Firstly, here's your future log.

There are pages for goal setting,

things you want to learn and explore,

a bucket list.

Then at the start of each month,

there's a monthly log with a section to write down

notes and tasks

and each daily log gets its own page

and it has so many different elements

to it.

There's a schedule,

to dos,

what you're grateful for,

your inspiration,

brilliant ideas, and more.

I'm hoping this video inspires you to start

your very own bullet journal with some

beautiful templates.

But don't be discouraged if you need to

simplify things from week to week.

I think that's the point of a bullet journal.

It's supposed to help you out,

not stress you out.

So if you're finding that you're really stressed

but you wanna keep the bullet journal,

pare it down.

Even if it's the most simple and minimalistic

bullet journal in the world, if it works,

it works.

You're supposed to learn from yourself

as the months and the weeks go on

and change up templates if they're not working.

I hope you liked my bullet journal and I hope