Beginners guide to bullet journal

SOOOOOOO …… WHAT IS A BULLET JOURNAL?

A bullet journal is simply a notebook that you can create and customize your very own spreads.

On each page, you will find a dot grid instead of lines. This grid is what will allow you to completely customize and organize a bullet journal in order to fit your needs.

The Bullet Journal was created by a man named Ryder Carroll as a way to take notes, complete tasks and remember appointments all in one planner. The methodology includes a key so that note taking is quicker and more efficient than writing everything out.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

Well, …. everything!

Ok that is not a very satisfactory answer, right? So let me put a list together for you on what a bullet journal can be used for:

Track things ( like sleep, meals, your calories, mood, excessive sessions, etc )
Organize your day ( tasks, to-do lists, meetings, calendars, shopping lists, travel destinations, creative thoughts, book lists, movie lists, you name it )
Express yourself ( journaling, idea note taking, drawing, sketching, painting etch )
Custom gifts for you or your beloved ones
Journaling, keeping a calendar
Scrapbooking

Photo albums with notes and messages

The list is literally endless.

But you get the point.

DO I HAVE TO BE ARTISTIC TO BULLET JOURNAL?

This is the million-dollar question. The Answer? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The bullet journal was not designed as an art sketch pad. The bullet journal was designed to help you be more organized and productive. Period. Now, yes there are a lot of people that use their bullet journals as a creative platform, but you really don’t need or have to do so yourself. So, take a deep breath and keep reading.

HOW TO START A BULLET JOURNAL?

That is simple. All you need is a bullet journal and a pen. Here at Craftius we have a wide array of spiral premium bullet journals with amazing, custom made illustrated covers. Click here to see the full collection.

As for pens, you should get a pen that feels smooth on paper and handles well.

WHAT SPREADS DO I NEED TO CREATE?

That’s the cool part! It is totally up to you! Most people usually start with the following spreads on their planner: index, future log, cover page, calendar, and weekly spread or daily spread. I also like to use a Brain dump area, an Ideas area and a Free Flow area. Now you don’t need t use al these of course. You can start as simple as you want.

HOW TO START: THE EASY WAY.

This is how I started my first bullet productivity journal ( and still use it up until today )

Weekly Brain Dump spread
Daily spread
Notes spread

And that’s it!

Let dive into these sections

The Weekly Brain Dump section

The Weekly Brain Dump spread is super important to have when you are learning how to use a bullet journal! Why? Because every day you have a million tasks you need to remember, and this can be overwhelming. Plus it’s a stress source. So, by simply dumping all your tasks in this spread you free your mind from all that stress and pressure. Anything that is swirling around in your mind must go to the brain dump spread with no particular order. I usually start my week with a brain dump and start planning my week from there.

Daily spread

This is a very simple spread that contains the following:

Date
Three most important tasks / goals
General Tasks / Appointments
Notes section

The date needs no explanation, I hope. The three most important goals are the focus of the day. I usually need to tackle these first before I do anything else. his helps me focus and work fast and efficient. The general tsks and appointments are tasks that get pulled from the Weekly Brain Dump pages or from things that I need to do during this specific day. The appointments are simple appointment reminders for meetings etc. The notes section is handy for small notes that can help me with my tasks or info bits that I need to write down quickly.

Notes Spread

This section is all about notes that are not tasks. Phone numbers, reminders, and generally information that will be absolute by the end of the day.

FINAL WORDS

Please remember that this setup works for ME, but it might not for you. So feel free to tweak the design sections and spreads as you like. Just create a setup and try it out for a full month and see what you like and what needs to be changed!