How I Use a Bullet Journal, Part 2

Last December I wrote about how I liked using my Bullet Journal. Over the last year I've made a few modifications to suit my current needs and thought I'd do an update. I still keep my journal very simple. I don't participate in any of the "challenges" or "prompts" some bullet journalers host because, while a fun idea, I prefer to spend my creative time painting. 

I liked the idea of having a calendar for easy referral in my future log (6 month overview) so I rearranged my layout from horizontal rows to vertical columns and included one above each month. I don't waste as much space and it has helped me a lot to easily see what day of the week somethings is.

please pardon the blocking out of personal deatils

Partway through the year I realized the space I was devoting to my weekly and daily pages was too much. I also didn't like writing a few of the same things on multiple pages so for the way I wanted to work I decided to consolidate. After a couple of trials I settled on two page weekly spread with my days in columns, similar to my future log. There's space above for my To-Dos and notes that aren't date specific and I moved my "what we had for dinner" section up there as well.

You might notice all my "habits" are on the weekly spread as well. At the end of a long day I didn't like flipping through to 3-4 pages to fill in all my stuff so, again, I consolidated. Rather than marking them on one big monthly page, I track them weekly. Again, some are things I try to do every day while others are more observational and I don't beat myself up over doing or not doing them.

In the space for each day I write the things I need to do or keep track of but there's always space below to write a few notes which is one of my favorite things about bullet journaling. I can jot down how things went or if anything funny happened or whatever but I don't feel pressured to elaborate as much as I did on my daily pages. Again, short, sweet, and to the point, but it's still enough that it feels personal to me.

I don't really track my cleaning schedule anymore. As my kids have gotten older they are responsible for more and I just look around every few days to make sure things aren't out of control. I do still like the keep track of my semi-minimal wardrobe, which I still swap out every three months, but I don't mark what I wear any longer. I just like to see in black and white what is in my closet.

A few months into the year I decided to start a list of books I'd read throughout the year. I listen to audiobooks a lot (folding laundry, doing dishes, changing sheets, driving all over the universe, etc.) so I include those as well as the ones I read on my kindle. It's kind of dorky but I love seeing how much I've read.

I also added a couple of pages last year for gift ideas. When it comes down to it, I'm not a very good gift-giver but when an idea strikes it's usually nowhere near the person's birthday so, instead, I write it down here so when the time comes I can refer to it more easily. I also made another one this last year for Christmas. I even include a space for me so when Dan or my dad asks what I want I don't give them a deer-in-the-headlights look. I can look at my list of things that have struck my fancy over the last few months and tell them a few.

I still really love my dotted Leuchtturm 1917 and this year chose a beautiful navy colored one. I still keep my 6 inch metal ruler in the back pocket and almost exclusively write with a Uniball Signo Micro 207 black ink pen. With fewer pages to sort through, I don't feel the need to mark as many with tape the way I was before. I will still mark my future log and I'll mark my books I've read pages but that's about it. The bookmarks (the Leuchtturm comes with two-three depending on the one style) are enough for everything else. So there you have it! The current way I use my bullet journal.