Do you journal in your bullet journal? Why not? Does it make you think of a young girl sitting on her bed pouring out all her thoughts on why her pre-teen life is so hard into a journal? No doubt that journal has a lock on it which can only be opened by…. well anyone really. Does that make you cringe? Haha, it should!
Journaling doesn’t have to be like this as an adult. And the older you get the more the benefits add up as to why you should journal.
Why you should journal in your bullet journal:
1. Memory-keeping
We all know as you get older your memory deteriorates, especially when you have kids and you suffer from lack of sleep. By writing daily in your your journal you can keep a record of what you’ve done, where you’ve been, how you felt and so much more. Imagine yourself in 5 years time, picking up your bullet journal from 2018 and reading your thoughts and reminding yourself of the time your 3 year old son sat next to you while innocently eating a cookie and then nonchanlantly saying “fucksake”. Wouldn’t that memory make you smile and glad you wrote that down? And yes, that literally just happened to me.
2. It’s therapeutic and can help you de-stress
Had a shit day at work or a massive fight with your husband? Use your bullet journal to vent and let out all your anger and frustration. Your bullet journal can’t talk, so it can’t judge which is even better. By journaling it all onto paper you can release the stress and anger that has built up and help clear your thoughts. Once you write it all down you may find that things are not as bad as they seem.
3. Help you achieve goals
If you have goals you want to achieve, small or large, you should write them down in your journal. The act of writing down a goal can give you clarity on exactly what you want to achieve and how you can achieve it by breaking down your goal into smaller ones. It can narrow your focus and increase your motivation to help you reach your dreams.
4. Increase your gratitude
These days gratitude logs have almost become the norm in bullet journals. These gratitude logs are just another form of journaling. By writing down at least one thing every day that you are grateful for you begin to focus on what really matters and is important to you. You can then start removing the things from your life that aren’t important.
5. Practise your handwriting
The best way to get neat handwriting is by practising, the more you practise the neater it gets. So why not kill two birds with one stone by journaling in your bullet journal.
So now that we’ve covered the reasons why you should journal, how do you go about it?
Since the bullet journal system is a customisable system, you can do this any way you like. If you are the kind of person that sets up your bullet journal for the month at the start of the month, you can set aside a few blank pages for journaling within your collections or after your weekly pages. If you set up your pages as you go, then you can either set aside space in each day to journal or, just turn to the next page to start. Here are some examples:
1. I like to set aside a couple of pages at the start of the month to journal. Since life doesn’t really allow me the time, I tend to journal every few days so find that a couple of pages is enough for a month.
This month, before the pen:
And last month, after the pen. In this specific spread, I saved time by using Floral Banner stickers from my Etsy shop.
2. Start a fresh page, create a heading to highlight that this page is for journaling, date it and start writing. This is what Kim (@tinyrayofsunshine) has done in her bullet journal.
3. Add some fancy lettering, and doodles to the page and journal around it:
4. Set out your dailies with extra space so you can journal a little bit every day, like @penpapersoul or @planwithady below.
This layout by @penpapersoul has been incredibly popular and is used by numerous people in their bullet journals.
I love this layout by @planwithady where she gives each day half a page, any space underneath the tasklist is used for journaling. And the added touch of labeling it “Dear Diary” is super cute.
5. Write down your thoughts to fill up empty space in your bullet journal. Here I’ve filled up the empty spaces in my daily boxes:
Other times I’ve done a review of the week in any leftover space in my weekly spread:
I hope this post inspires your to start journaling in your bullet journal. However you decide to go about it, I’m sure it will find it beneficial in one form or other!
If you do journal in your bullet journal, how fo you incorporate it? I’d love you to share with me in the comments below.
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