One of the worst habits I have and I think probably a lot of people have, is buying way too many journals, notebooks and planners to help keep themselves organized . . . and never using a single page out of any of the 58 journals they've purchased. I can honestly say that all the notebooks I have are not getting any use other than the occasional to-do list and maybe to take a few quick notes about something for work or just writing random lists of things like movies I want to watch or shopping lists.

Other than that, I just buy journals because they're cute, you can never have enough and the aesthetic. Obviously good enough reasons, am I right? But I had always known about bullet journaling and I never really did much research on it or even tried to figure out what it was used for. I've been wanting to get into bullet journaling for a long time now and so when the new year came around, I thought I would just try it out for the year of 2020 and see how it went for me.

I have had so many planners in the past and journals galore that I just never was able to stick to. I tried all kinds of planners from Erin Condren to Dollar Store planners, cute little journals and desk top calendars as well as art journaling and just the plain old journaling your feelings out on a blank sheet of paper for me to get my thoughts together. I was able to stick to journaling for a pretty long time until it just became a little bit too much for me. But now, since I have a lot of things that I want to do this year and things I want to accomplish, I thought that bullet journaling might be the best route for me to go down since after doing more research and watching one too many bullet journal set-up videos, I learned that it was a little bit of everything. Writing lists, keeping track of habits and important dates, fun trackers for every day life and a lot more creative freedom which I really liked about the whole bullet journal aspect.


I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to stick to it, however, considering that I hadn't been able to stick to any kind of planner system in the past. I think my biggest issue with planners that made it hard for me to stick to was that I couldn't really use every single page in planners the way I wanted to or even find pages that worked for me. I liked the basic calendar month as well as the weekly spreads but I always felt like the months-at-a-glance or even the daily pages for every month were such a waste of space and I never used them. I think I just got bored of the planners because even though there are many different ways to personalize a planner, nothing worked for me. It didn't matter how many stickers or cute washi tape I put on the pages, it was just too much of a hassle.




So, fast forward and here we are bullet journaling our lives away. I've only had my bullet journal for about two months and I have to say, this is the longest I've ever been able to keep up with a planner/journal system. One of my favorite things about it is that every page can be literally anything you want it to be. You can add as many pages for every month as you want or just simply do something creative to break up all the spreads and you can literally create your own planning system. I really can't express how nice it feels to know that I've finally found a planner that works for me simply because I'm the one who created it. It's 100% entirely personalized to me and it feels very satisfying.



As someone who can't always keep my thoughts organized, it's really nice to be able to put everything in one place and flip back and forth between the things I'm keeping track of as well as having one spot to look for any important dates or events coming up, keeping track of the books I'm reading, my favorite songs, to-do lists for the month and so on. I also struggle a lot with anxiety and always have but in recent months, it was very hard for me to function on a day to day basis. Having this journal for me to sit down and take five minutes and do something creative and give my brain something to focus in on and keep my life organized has actually been a big help. It's therapeutic for me and not nearly as stressful as most planners are for me.

I'm very much a person of habit. I always order the exact same things from restaurants, I have a nighttime routine that if it isn't followed to a T, it throws me off, I have a specific way I like to do things like cleaning, doing my makeup and just certain habits that I hate having get disturbed by something. With bullet journaling, it's very organized. It's very specific with even the placement of any kind of writing or stickers you put in or the monthly spreads you create. I like being able to have complete control over how my planner looks and what kind of information goes into it and being able to change the pages or add new ones or sprinkle in personalized pages for specific months is pretty awesome.

My experience with the whole bullet journal system has been pretty good so far. I think one of the major things I love about it that's keeping me focused on it is how every page is made for me, by me. I love finally having a planner that's also doubling as a journal, art journal, a notebook, and combining all of my favorite elements of all these different types of journals and planners into one book. I'm able to stay organized, keep track of the important things like finances, dates, upcoming events, how many books I've read in a year and more all while having fun with it and being creative in the spreads I make and how I decorate them. I think if you're struggling to also find a planner system that works for you, try bullet journaling. There is absolutely no pressure on having the cutest or prettiest planner ever since everyone has a different approach to it and how they go about decorating their pages and spreads.

I love being able to just simply leave out any journal pages that I don't like and swapping them for my own ideas, it's so easy to find spreads that work for me personally without having to go out and buy a completely new planner just for it, which I love. I'm glad I finally got into it and hopefully, I'll be keeping up with this planner system for many years to come. Wish me luck!