How To Start A Bullet Journal
Summer is the best time of year for journaling. Dappled sunlight sits just right across the page, perfect for tracing the shadows of leaves onto paper. In my yard, there are three big trees that form a canopy and protect us from the sun. I lay out on the hammock and think deep thoughts about stickers and llamas as the hammock swings gently back and forth.
My first lesson in bullet journaling was quick and hard, like most lessons. You really do need the right supplies. As I dove excitedly into my journal, coloring with wreckless abandon (and markers) on the following page, I found my first, most earnest and therefore beloved page, completely destroyed by that arch nemesis of most artists (which I am not) (obviously): marker bleed.
Like many things in life, I had to learn to love my habit tracker just the way she was...at least for a month. A month that hasn’t passed yet, but I’ve grown. We’ve grown, Betty Jo and I (Bujo for short) and I think we’re doing better now.
What if I need to set goals and I don’t like drawing boxes, not even if I did have a convenient, grid-page bujo?
All of these supplies were relatively cheap, in crafting terms. Most of them were relatively ... well, FREE, since I have a problem with buying stickers and then forgetting to use them.
Suddenly, I could create pages for menus and to remember my Japanese lessons and I could attach adorable headers to them....oh, the power! The absolute POWAH!
Still, I needed more. I couldn’t stop there. Easily putting a header on a page and making it super cute in less than 5 minutes? That’s kids’ stuff! If I wanted to replace all my social media with a little book, and reduce my screen time by more than 50% (and I did, because I get migraines and eye strain and this weird eye twitch from having to put up with your average group of Netizens too long) I needed to be able to add my OOTD’s but how?
I bought the canon Ivy Cliq instant camera. Now this is some new tech for a very vintage idea...taking a photo right the first time. Think about the freedom of not sitting through 4668575868868 identical photos of yourself to find just the right one. The social value of literally having to ask another person to take the photo if you want one of yourself.
I felt...like myself again. The truth is that, despite my general millennial...ness, I’ve never been much of a tech person. Oh, I love over-sharing as much as the rest of us, but I’ve never been very good at taking selfies, showing up to jam-packed buildings and crowded events, and generally posting my lunch for the entire world. I like the idea of keeping lists and calendars and photos that are just for me. Not having to worry about who is seeing them, and not having to care what anyone thinks.
My bullet journal is nothing more intricate than a small and sturdy notebook purchased at some long-ago Walmart. I’ve put sparkly unicorn stickers on the cover which, I feel, requires no explanation. She just feels pretty today.
I used to be a highly unorganized person🤫. In fact, my stepfather’s favorite thing to say to me was “You’d better get organized.” I forgot everything: appointments, dates, schedules, what time school started. I’ve been a hot mess since before I was born. I showed up almost a week late to my own birth!
Enter bullet journaling: a medium invented, it seems, for scatterbrained and creative people who really can’t see any reason to look at the boring black and white squares of the average calendar. Intense creatives who simply MUST draw, write, paint, and create poetry,
and cannot be bound by pretentious facts like time passing and appointments.
How very gauche it all is. Still, we must.
The first page of my bullet journal was, I thought, very beautiful. I was re-reading Alice in Wonderland at the time, so I surrounded one of my favorite quotes in vines and added a few fancy stickers I found on e bay for less than $5. They came in a little match box and had themes like perfume bottles and 18th century ladies’ hats. I thought myself so clever that I posted photos of my beautiful monthly calendar page spread absolutely everywhere:
My first lesson in bullet journaling was quick and hard, like most lessons. You really do need the right supplies. As I dove excitedly into my journal, coloring with wreckless abandon (and markers) on the following page, I found my first, most earnest and therefore beloved page, completely destroyed by that arch nemesis of most artists (which I am not) (obviously): marker bleed.
Like many things in life, I had to learn to love my habit tracker just the way she was...at least for a month. A month that hasn’t passed yet, but I’ve grown. We’ve grown, Betty Jo and I (Bujo for short) and I think we’re doing better now.
Like a child or a new dog, Betty Jo needed STUFF. Lots of stuff. So, gritting my teeth against the excessive co-vid 19 lines, I went out and got it for her.
I started with pencil crayons (take that, marker bleed!) but then I got to thinking: what if I want to quickly create a page calendar without all the work of drawing lines?
What if I need to set goals and I don’t like drawing boxes, not even if I did have a convenient, grid-page bujo?
Post it notes (the tiny ones), stickers, and a glue stick (to stick the post it’s all the way down) are your bujo bff’s:
All of these supplies were relatively cheap, in crafting terms. Most of them were relatively ... well, FREE, since I have a problem with buying stickers and then forgetting to use them.
It was fantastic to be able to easily create pages just by picking up a post it and swacking it onto a page with a few stickers. I further fed the beast of my sticker addiction by procuring craft-specific sticker books at Walmart. They had flags! They had page headers! They had little lists and menus and basically a promised land of never having to try and learn to write fancy lettering again!
Suddenly, I could create pages for menus and to remember my Japanese lessons and I could attach adorable headers to them....oh, the power! The absolute POWAH!
Still, I needed more. I couldn’t stop there. Easily putting a header on a page and making it super cute in less than 5 minutes? That’s kids’ stuff! If I wanted to replace all my social media with a little book, and reduce my screen time by more than 50% (and I did, because I get migraines and eye strain and this weird eye twitch from having to put up with your average group of Netizens too long) I needed to be able to add my OOTD’s but how?
I could print them off the computer....I guess....
But what if I went completely off-grid? What if my photos NEVER TOUCHED THE COMPUTER?!? Bu ahahahaha it was CRAZY? CRAZY!!! And it just might work....
I bought the canon Ivy Cliq instant camera. Now this is some new tech for a very vintage idea...taking a photo right the first time. Think about the freedom of not sitting through 4668575868868 identical photos of yourself to find just the right one. The social value of literally having to ask another person to take the photo if you want one of yourself.
The bullet journaling POWAH!
I felt...like myself again. The truth is that, despite my general millennial...ness, I’ve never been much of a tech person. Oh, I love over-sharing as much as the rest of us, but I’ve never been very good at taking selfies, showing up to jam-packed buildings and crowded events, and generally posting my lunch for the entire world. I like the idea of keeping lists and calendars and photos that are just for me. Not having to worry about who is seeing them, and not having to care what anyone thinks.
I created a Pinterest board of bullet journaling ideas, and never looked back. You can check it out, too, if you want. https://pin.it/4D7oUTt
The most wonderful thing about Betty Jo is that I want to look at her every day, because she’s personal. My July page has a quote that is meaningful to me, at this time and in this place. And that’s not random swimwear: it’s my drawings of my swimsuits. I open her up every day to sketch, draw, dream...
Sometimes I even accidentally check the calendar...,
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