My Bullet Journal: A Four Month On Update.
My Bullet Journal: A Four Month On Update.
I wrote a bullet journal update a while back and said maybe, maybe not I'd do a monthly update on my bullet journal but then in July I went on holiday and didn't do one and that erm, answered my question really.
So it's been a while, my bullet journal is 4 months and ninety-odd pages in and I have changed a lot so I thought it was long overdue a little catch up and a little peek inside what it looks like.
Largely, it's unchanged. I'm still not into colour, I'm still using the same Tiger fineliners that I've been using the past few months and my monthly and weekly layouts are pretty standardised. However, I finally designed my front cover/first page and added some temporary tattoos that I had last Christmas and they worked exceptionally well (I did fear I'd just drench the book and loose the whole journal lol). Have a nosey at that here!
What Stayed:
I haven't bothered taking photos of anything before July because it's all in previous bullet journal posts (read here, here and here) and I haven't really updated it much since. I am still tracking movies I've watched in my film tracker but I don't get the time to watch many so not much point photographing that in my opinion. I don't really use my index or my key anymore and my calendars are just for reference really.
What has stayed the same though is my monthly and weekly layouts. At the start of every month I draw out 6 layouts which are the same design from May. I use my monthly look ahead as a quick glance calendar for things I have to do, bills, birthdays and events I have planned and then use my weekly layouts as a more detailed note of what I need to do and specific tasks for that day. I also track my tea and water intake on the daily layouts but lol the water ain't going so well (note my habit tracker). One thing I did slightly change was I noticed I was busier Monday - Wednesday and then barely had any tasks on the weekend so I now use the left hand side of the page for the first three days of the week and the right hand side for the other four.
My habit tracker is still my most very favourite thing of the whole journal and whilst my water intake might not be the most shaded box in the grid, I still like filling it in at the end of each day. I don't use it to change anything about my days particularly but I do like seeing how much fizzy drinks I drink, what exercise I do etc. Since I started my journal I have added in Snapchatting as I am making a (piss poor) effort to do it more and I have now added 'Went For A Run' but I might change that to 'Exercised' next time because I also cycle and walk.
What Won't Be Returning:
My social media goals tracker is pretty much the only thing that won't be making a return appearance to this journal. There are a few things I wouldn't take over to another journal but having already updated this tracker twice, I decided not to bring it back a third time. I like tracking my goals but tbh (so braggy), my blog stats were going at such a rate I couldn't keep up and couldn't estimate accurately what goal to set. I know I could have carried on tracking my other stats as time went on but tbh I kinda lost interest and forgot to fill it in so I think I'll just keep tracking it digitally on my blog and see how I feel in the new year.
What's New:
Lots of checklists! After dabbling with an old packing list for Wrexham and Derby earlier in my journal, July and August saw a lot more of the inclusion of a To Do List/Checklist. I went on holiday in July so I had a packing list for me and Joss (no he can't pack for himself, boys huh) and then I included a list of things I needed to do in the run up to holidays. It was a lot of random admin stuff but it just makes it so much easier than trying to remember it all and it's A LOT more than would fit on my normal weekly layout. In August I had so much to remember to do before #BloggerPitP which again, included all kinds of admin things not neccassarily relating to the event itself so I created one list for that, one list of things to remember to take which also included a 'on the day checklist' and deets of my booked trains and then if that wasn't enough I did a checklist of all the brands that helped us out to remember to tweet/blog/photograph all of them too!
Oh and FYI the blacked out scribble was Sarah's home address that I noted down to send the surprise thankyou flowers to and lol, don't want you all to know where she is.
I think these types of to do lists are working really well for me and will definitely be something I continue when my weekly spreads aren't big enough. It's the beauty of the bullet journal that I can just add these in as and when I need to which I couldn't do with a normal diary. Oh bullet journal how I love thee.
Are you still using your bullet journal? Have you done any blog posts on it? Send me links I'm obsessed with reading them!