I posted this spread on Instagram this morning and have had some requests for some closer shots to be able to read the lists, so here goes:
I found several lists of self care ideas and pulled out the ones that appealed the most to me. I also liked dividing them up into the four different areas and I tried to leave a little room in each for new ideas I come across.
I’d love to hear the different ways you’ve found to nurture yourself when needed! Please share in the comments. 🙂
On Tuesday, in a bullet journaling Facebook group, someone posted a link to this article on the NYMag.com website. I immediately recognized the thumbnail photo as my morning routine spread, so I excitedly clicked on the link.
Reading through the article, she links to many sources, including http://www.bulletjournal.com and includes photos from other bullet journal Instagrammers, but I never find a link or credit for my IG photo. So I left a note in the comments and a few hours later, she added a small link under the picture, so, yay, credit.
And then, this morning, to get the link, I went back and read the comments. I know, I know, NEVER READ THE COMMENTS. But I always do and I ALWAYS regret it (granted, there were only 9 comments so it didn’t take very long).
I feel like I have to keep defending the system AND my own bullet journal.
People. (All seven of you that read this blog.) Please listen.
What attracted me to bullet journaling was the simplicity. All you need is a notebook and a pen. That’s it. Everything else is extra.
Along with the simplicity was the flexibility. If you don’t use it one day, you start up the next time you need it. No wasted space.
If you’ve seen the (very shaky) video of the walk through of my first bullet journal, you’ll see the evolution of how I use it. And it’s not pretty, believe me. It’s messy and it’s not always cute. I made a lot of mistakes and turned a lot of pages and started over.
I started with the basics and, over time, figured out what worked for me. And what works for me includes lots of color.
Like I mention in my post about my work bullet journal, I keep it very simple and plain at work. I don’t have the time there for much else.
I LOVE the minimalism of just the pen and paper. Honestly, I start there every single time with my personal bullet journal too. But then I want to add a spot of color here and there and before too long, it’s like a My Little Pony vomited all over my pages. I can’t help it. It’s me. And I’m done apologizing for it.
I LOVE drawing in my personal bullet journal. It makes me so happy and it’s time well spent for me.
But all of the drawings and the coloring isn’t what makes it a bullet journal. It isn’t what a bullet journal HAS to be or SHOULD be. You don’t have to be a proficient artist or a crafty scrapbooker and you don’t have to take a lot of time with it.
I think it’s the collision of the minimalist and the ultra crafter using the same system that causes this potential for conflict. But really, there’s no need. Neither person needs to feel intimidated by the other. And neither person needs to criticize the other. It just shows how flexible of a system it really is.
Start with the basics and do with it what you will. It’s that simple. The End.
I’m still alive! This blogging thing is a lot of work, especially when I have a full-time job too! I’m going to re-evaluate what I can commit to consistently posting so I don’t get overwhelmed and end up posting nothing at all.
I AM excited though, because it’s August 1st and I get to start using my new Leuchtturm 1917 notebook. I’ve been pretty happy with it so far!
The pages are a lot smoother so I do have to be a little more patient with waiting to erase my pencil marks. The ink takes a little longer to dry so I have had a few issues with smudging.
Also, because the pages are smoother, my colored pencils go on a lot smoother. It’s like drawing on silk! (Pretend that’s a thing).
I thought I’d go through how I’ve set up my bullet journal in this new notebook, using some of the lessons I learned with my last one.
I love the turquoise color, it coordinates nicely with a lot of my washi tape. That I rarely use…until now. 😉
Here’s my contact information in the opening spread. I didn’t feel the need to do anything particularly fancy here.
My index. I don’t have everything from this post listed in there since I took the pictures over the space of two weekends. Also, because I like the randomness of a bullet journal, the index is really important to me. After the initial set up, I’ll throw in my newest collection on the very next page, so they end up spread throughout the whole book. The index is vital in finding a particular collection again.
My personal mission statement. I wanted to come up with something that meant more to me than a quote and something that encompassed my core values. So I came up with this. (I love it!)
Future log for the next 12 months. In my last bullet journal, I had a separate page for my year at a glance calendar, separate spreads for my future log and then another collection/spread for birthdays. I didn’t have a ton of events in my future log anyway, so it just seemed to make more sense to put them all on the same page. I’m really happy with how this turned out! Note the washi down the side. 😉
My monthly calendar for August. I don’t work more than a month out at a time, anything beyond that will just go into my future log, like the traditional bullet journal system. The time specific column is for appointments or other…time specific…events, and the all day column is for birthdays or holidays, that kind of thing.
Next is my blank August memories spread.
The next few pages are my monthly challenge spreads.
The artwork on my zentangle page is completely and shamelessly inspired/copied from this amazing artist here.
After the challenge spreads, I put in my first week of August. I’m trying something different this week. Because of the nature of a couple of the challenges (#rockyourhandwriting mostly), instead of doing a full weekly spread, perfectly spaced out ahead of time, I’m going to try dailies, putting them in with my challenges in as I go. We’ll see how it works out…
As I mentioned above, I keep my collections random, so here is my first collection, a record of our hens & chicks (or pullets, now). Yes, we have two hens without names. Any Star Wars-themed women’s names suggestions? We did have a Maz Kanata, but “she” ended up being a “he” and we had to re-home him.
Next, I have my meal master list, inspired by both Kim of Tiny Ray of Sunshine and Christina. I’ll post more about this spread after I fill it in more, but I’m super excited to try this out. I’m ALWAYS trying to come up with meal ideas, so having a simple list should work out well for me to work off of.
That’s it so far. I am still migrating a few things over and finishing up a couple of other collections that I will share in future posts but I’m really excited to start using this new notebook!
Do you have your August all set up? 🙂
