Where Do I Start?

So I have been seeing a lot of new peeps on the Facebook Group.  I have also seen that there are a lot of basic blog posts on where to start on Bullet Journal.

Supplies: 

Very simple:

A notebook (any kind will do).
A writing tool.

Where to start?

Well.  First you have to decide what you want to keep in your bullet journal.  Do you want to make it a calender?  Do you want to have collections?  Do you want to have both?  Think about your needs.

I have been bullet journaling for few years now.  I in no way claim to be an expert.  These are just my opinions and what I have learned and I hope to help others who are struggling to begin this fun adventurous journey.

Most recently and I mean in the past month I have been feeling the need to get back to the basics of bullet journaling.  The creator of this method Ryder Carroll has great resources on the basics..

He started a basic way of rapid loging of tasks and appointments and notes.  The wonderful creative people in the planner world took it from there to create masterpiece lay outs and collections.  I am floored by all of the great ideas and creativity that can be found on the social media groups.

However.  I have grown a bit frustrated and flabbergasted by my personal bullet journal.  Which is why I have decided to go back to the basics.

I wrote on sticky notes what I felt like I need to keep track of and what I wanted to include as far as calenders and collections.

Here is what I came up with:

Monthly calender
       Includes monthly goals and tasks and appointments

Monthly tracker
        It is just fun for me to see how I am doing on certain things over the month.


Finances
   I want to keep track of my income and what I spend.

    Weekly view
   

   Dailies.


There are a few collections of which I want in my journal as well.

Movies to watch
Goals


   As far as lay outs it can be as simple as a list.  Check out Ryder's video (linked above) for a quick video of a quick list.Click here.

Or you can make it as fancy as you would like.

While there are great and wonderful artistic people out there there is nothing wrong with just a simple list.  In fact I give great credit to this gal here on FB who has a very simple lay out in her bullet journal link here.


So as you can see it does not have to be this elaborate thing.  It can be so simple.  Most of us who decorate and such just find it relaxing and even try to make most of the functional.  (I guess I really shouldn't speak for everyone....this is speaking for myself.)

So if you have been afraid to start because you feel intimidated by those beautiful journals just remember this journal is for you and to help make your life easier.  Make it match you.  Make it functional for you.  Decorating can come later.  Just start out with may be a month view, some dailies and may be a few collections.

Let me know how it goes!!  I would love to see what you come up with!!!


Happy Fleeking!!

Back to Old School

Hello Fleekers!!!



So.  I have been doing A LOT of thinking about my bullet journal.  Probably a little too much but what ever.  Lol.


I recently did a video of decorating my bullet journal: Click here.  In my work bullet journal I have gone back to the basic original lay out Ryder Caroll explains here.

I have been loving this system.  It has been working really well at work.  I got thinking about all of my lay outs I have in my journal and how it is just getting too complicated.   I have been noticing some comparing symptoms and I don't like it.  While planners can be fun and relaxing it should be useful and non stressful.

I have disregarded (not thrown away yet) the notebook I was going to start using in April as my current one is completely full) and started a whole new notebook.  I really have been contemplating about what is important in my life and what I need to track and what I needed to get done.

While getting inspiration and ideas from the various social groups and communities is an excellent source you also need to trust yourself and your instincts.  Don't be ashamed of your needs and how you need your journal to be set up.

I have been trying to keep up with the latest and most wonderful lay outs.  But they just aren't working for me.  To be honest I am getting too stressed because I am trying to hard to fit someone else's life into my journal.

I am slowly coming to accept that what I need and what I need to track is ok.  Am I saying everyone else is wrong?  Absolutely NOT!  In fact I can still spend hours on Pinterest and Youtube watching people create masterpieces out of their journals.  I so enjoy that!!  But I am also learning to accept that my journal is ok being very simple as long as it fits my needs.

Here are some pictures of what I was going to use before and what I have changed:

While I LOVE these lay outs and LOVE using stamps I just love the simplicity of the original bullet journal list.  Here is how my work bullet journal is working:

I am still having a lot of fun with some doodling for notes and things but I am really thinking this is what is going to work in my personal bujo.  

Here is a picture of my brain storming on sticky notes lol

I will keep you posted if you would like on the outcomes of my new journal.  

Hope you have a great weekend and if you are Christian Happy Easter!!

Daily Pages

Hello Fleekers!


I am back in a record time!  Crazy I know right?!



How is your weekend going?  I hope you are doing something fun!!



So, today I am bringing you my daily pages.  Now.  I have pre-planned through April.  Mostly because once I get on a stamping/lay out roll I can't stop.  It's like some people and cleaning (I need to get bitten by that bug..lol).


The only problem with pre-planning is you really can't change the design once you have it down.  But I think I am pretty happy with how my dailies are turning out and evolving.  Are there always things I want to change?  For sure.  So let'sgo through some of them and see what I like and don't like.  Also what made me put what in there. My purpose of this post is to help give some lag out ideas by using stamps.  Also to point out that you have to remember your bullet journal is yours.  While I am 100% guilty of envying people with amazing drawings and inspirational lay outs, I am very slowing recognizing the fact that I have to be satisfied with what I have.  That it is my bullet journal.  I can't make it like other peoples.  Can I use inspiration from others?  Absolutely!  That is what the whole planner community is about and why we share things.


So let's get started on the photos.

Here is the first week in April.  Obviously I need to either just cross some stuff out or put stickers or some thing.  As you can see I put my appointments on the top.  Then I used a stamp from StudioL2e Life Notes set.

(This is not sponsered.  I bought all the stamps mentioned with my own money and am not paid to mention them.  Just using them as a helpful recommendation.)

I really l liked how that turned out so I will probably be using that from now on.  But you never know.

Here is a close up of some of the things that I track just in my dailies.  I use the far left stamp from mskimmcreates Plan Lines and Banners set.

I am planning on using that as a mood tracker.

The middle banner is from Sweet Stamp Shop Tags set.  I am using that for my weather tracking.  I LOVE it for that.  Here is an example:  

The next stamp is again from StudioL2e Iconic set.  Same as the little pill stamp.

This is a version of my taks and appointment box.  The flag is from mskimmcreates Plan Lines and Banners set.

I must admit I have a slight addiction to clear planner stamps.....

On my Sunday page I use the extra space for my daily chores.  I had them written every day in March but I am slowly disliking that.  So I got these stamps from mskimmcreates Habit Tracker set.

Much easier than writing them every day as I did here:

The next couple of photos are just to show you how my dailies have evolved.  

Just remember that your notebook is your baby.  Think about what you really need to track and what is important in your life.  Realized that I didn't need a huge to do list.  I am single and my work doesn't demand anything of me outside of it.  So I don't have a huge to do list.  And I am ok with that.  There may be a time that I may need a whole page to one day.  Who knows.  The important thing is you make your weekly and daily pages to fit your needs.  To make them functional for where you are at right now in this time of your life.  Also more importantly don't forget to make it enjoyable.  Yes planning is to help us be functional and get things done but it is also meant to be fun.  If you have lost the fun out of planning may be you are over thinking it.  May be you are comparing too much to others.  Just go with it.  May be gain some inspiration from other spreads on social media but then make it fit your needs.

Anyway.  I am done now.

I hope you enjoy your weekend!  I would love to see your daily and weekly pages!  How do you use your stamps?  

Happy fleeking!

Back In My Leuchtturm

Hello hello Fleekers!


How's it going?  Are we all ready for spring?  I know I am.




So I am back in my Leuchtturm1917.  I know I know I just can't seem to make up my mind.  But oh well.  It has been crazy to see how back and forth I have been even in this one notebook.



First the boring stuff then we will get into pictures I promise.



So why back in the leuchtturm?  Well.  I honestly can't pin point one particular reason.  May be it's the fact that I needed changed.  May be I just like one solid notebook instead of many different notebooks even though they are in one cover.  But non the less I am back in one book.  I also think part of it is the versatility of the lay out.  I can do where the hey I want with the pages.  I love designing them and decorating and the stamping.  OM Good ess people the stamping!!  That is a whole other blog post!!



I think I also like the feel and stability of one notebook.  I felt a little too overwhelmed with many notebooks.  #plannerproblems.

Also I found myself not having much tracking by way of to do lists.  I know right?  But really I am single so I really don't have many things that are demanding of me.  So the lay out in my Fauxdori just wasn't hitting home with me.  So I am going to try out the leuchtturm1917 for a while.


For a while I was using it primarily as a fitness journal.  But then I got looking at your amazing posts on IG and Pinterest.  I wanted to try out some ideas.  I fell in love again.  To see my first love see link here:
My First Bullet Journal


Anyway.  Shall we get into some picture and see what is working and what isn't we shall.

Here we go...

This is a weekly lay out.  On the left page I have it decided into two sections.  On the left is my appointments and places to be.  On the right is my IG and Blog post schedule/tracker.  The stamps are from mskimmcreates on Etsy.  The link is here.
I have really enjoyed her stamps.   (Not sponsered..honest opinion.)

On the right page I have several things going on here.  I have a general to do list.  Anything that I need to get done the current week will be put here.  Not a specific day per se but by the end of the week.  The stamp is again from mskimmcreates.

I had put a weekly tracker but crossed it out because I thought to myself, "why do I need a weekly tracker when I have a monthly tracker?  That is dumb."  So I stopped using the weekly tracker.

I also have a spending section.  However I will be removing that section because I am putting that in my ECLP.  If desired I can show you that.

I also have a food and exercise chart.  This has evolved a bit as you will see later.

I was trying to figure out what mattered to me and what I wanted to keep track in my bullet journal.  I think one weakness we bullet journal planner people have is we try to match others.  I know I have that weakness.  But I am slowly trying to grasp that I have my own needs.  I can still set up cute lay outs but still only have what I need and what will help me.

So here is a picture of my new lay out.  I think this will work much better.

You can see how much my weekly views have evolved.  It has been because I really thought about what I needed and what I kept track of.  I love other people's lay outs but the key to making a bullet journal actually work for you is to make it fit your needs.  And when you make mistakes or don't like the lay out leave it.  Don't white it out or tear out the pages.  I like going back and seeing what I didn't like.  I do make an x through it just to show that I didn't like it.  But that is part of the fun of bullet journaling.  Just watching it evolve.  I love it how a YouTuber and I am sorry I can't place a name on her but she says that the journal becomes a story.  It becomes a personal book and I love that!  

Sorry this post has become lengthy.   I was going to get into some daily pages but I think I am going to wait until next time.  But here are some samples to sustain you for  now!!  

I hope ya'll have a great weekend coming up!  Thanks so much for reading!!

Happy Fleeking!!