A Year of Bullet Journaling in Review

A great thing about the new year is that it almost forces us to take into account of what we’ve accomplished over the last 365 days, as well as looking forward to the next year making new plans. Well, 2018 is over, and a new year has dawned. If you remember from last year, one of my goals for 2018 was to spend the year bullet journaling. In my own words: “I love lists, but usually I have them on seventy million random scraps of paper. I want to try and keep them all together in one collected place. I already am pretty great about meal planning, so the bullet journal is also another way to keep all the things together.”

And so, today, two weeks into the new year, I’m going to give you a little peek into my bullet journal from the past year. A little different this time, I’ve wrapped up this post in a video. Gives you an opportunity to have a flip through of my bujo (without me taking hundreds of photos for each page), as well as a little window into my head as a reminisce over the past year.

If you want to skip the flip-through and just get the highlights, here ya go:

• I knew I would mess up and make mistakes, so I went into bullet journaling with my faults in mind. A repeating theme this past year was to let go of the mistakes and not to let the mess-ups and large amount of white out get me discouraged.
• I tried at a ton of different designs and layouts, and in the end was glad my journal turned out so eclectic. It helped me to discover what I liked and what I didn’t.
• Trackers came in very handy: what I read, what I ate, what I was spending, and most importantly, what my moods were. Being able to track my depression when it cropped up was a great way to see what kind of things triggered it and what I can do to see my depression coming before it hits with full force. That way I’m tracking how often it shows up and how I can soften the blow.
• I don’t consider myself super artistic, but I learned a lot from the people who have gone before me. A lot of what composed my bujo came from ideas I saw from other artists. That, and lots of colored pens, pencils, rulers, and trial and error.
• If you want to bujo, do it! It does take a little time and effort, but it’s worth the work. If you’re thinking about doing it, you should. Go into it with a nature of forgiveness for your scribbles, erased layouts, crunched pages, empty pages, bad drawings, and all the times you’ll lose your journal for a week. Believe me, it happens more than you’d expect.

If you’re interested in doing some bullet journaling this year, it’s never too late to start! I’ve got an old post (you can find it here) with a list of all my favorite bujo pieces and accessories if you don’t know what book or pens to buy. And let me know if you start bullet journaling, or if you’ve already been going hard core! I love seeing blank pages getting turned into beautiful pieces of YOU.