A Beginners Guide To Bullet Journaling. How To Achieve Your Goals By Becoming More Productive

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Many of you know that I am a huge fan of journaling and its amazing benefits. Putting pen to paper and getting all your thoughts down gives me a sense of peace and relief, like that chaos (in my head/mind) has been removed from the system ready to carry on with a fresh free mind.

I believe journaling will change your life. It will help you more organised and productive, resulting in you achieving your goals.

If you are not sure of the many benefits of journaling, I have included my top seven for you:

It will consciously bring how you feel into awareness.
Helps you achieve your goals
Encourages you to be mindful
Helps improve mental clarity
Assists with self-confidence
Helps you get organised
It encourages creativity

What you need to get started

A journal. Many BUJO’ers LOVE the Leuchtturm1917 Medium Size Hardcover A5 Notebook.
An assortment of pens
A ruler

There are other things you can choose to include such as:

The choice is yours. To be honest, I find the washi tape a little bit pointless however everyone has their own style and it is, after all, it is your journal so you decide what goes in. But for now, if you are a newbie to it, I’d stick to the first three on the list… unless you are the creative type.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. It’s a stress-free place for you to get organised and be super creative … or be super minimal.

As you may or may not be aware journaling comes in many different shapes and sizes. My three favourite ways you can choose to journal are:

Free Writing/Dear Diary

As I like to call it, a mind dump. This is writing down whatever you want until you no longer have anything to say. Get every thought, feeling, dream or fear onto those pages and until run out of steam.

Sketchbook Journaling

This is drawing how you feel or what you experienced instead of writing words. Words are powerful but so are images, especially the ones you create. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, quite the opposite.

Bullet Journaling aka BUJO

Over the past few years, I delved into the world of Bullet Journaling. It’s fascinating. It is the “IN” thing in the journaling circles.

It provides you with a creative outlet AND you get organised at the same time.

I use a journal all the time, sometimes multiple journals for many different things. I have a business one, where I do a mind dump AND a planner/bullet journal type of one, that includes all my ideas for the #livefullretireearly business. Also, I have a personal one, which simply a mind dump one, that includes all the positive and negative emotions I go through. Once I have dumped all my thoughts into the journal I feel a sense of relief and all those thoughts I thought I had were simply the same few buzzing around my head, driving me crazy.

What is BuJo and where does it come from?

Ryder Carroll designed and invented the bullet journaling system. As a child he was diagnosed with a learning disability therefore organisation using the traditional methods proved difficult. So for the next 20 years, he began creating his own methods being fast, simple and effective .. which we now call Bullet Journaling.

Bujo isn’t the Dear Diary type of journal. Bujo is a creative organisational system, that allows you to track your goals, habits, appointments, tasks, create collections, plan your meals, be your to-do list, to plan your week/month/year. It can become anything you need it to be. Pinterest will give you some great ideas!

I guess you’d call it a personalised planner in the journal of your choice.

There is no right or wrong way to bullet journal. You can choose to use it as a Dear Diary journal however personally I think it gets too complicated and messy.

How to Bullet Journal

There are many creative ways you can bullet journal. Ryder’s way of creating his journal is very basic compared to the ones created today.

I have included 2 videos to show you what is possible for your Bullet Journal.

Basic/Minimalistic Version By Pick Up Limes:

Super Creative Version By Boho Berry:

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