Do you stress a lot about keeping your life together? Not to fear, bullet-journaling is here! In my day to day life, I find it difficult to keep track of every little thing and what I want to accomplish. Whether that’s keeping my classes organized, keeping track of my life goals, or even just remembering birthdays, the bullet journal has helped me to be the best that I can be!
Graduate Assistant Tori Papez, who works in Student Success at Greenville University, knows a lot about the stresses of school and life in general. She says one of the biggest things she see’s students struggling with is remembering assignments. Papez says:
“…finding a way to see your schedule and class expectations is super important.”
Physically writing down what needs to get done helps tremendously with improving time management and decreasing stress. Papez also believes that using some sort of planner system makes balancing work and play so much easier. There are many options when it comes to getting organized, but bullet-journaling is great for both school and life in general.
What is Bullet-Journaling?
It is using a bullet journal, which is essentially a notebook of pages with little bullet points instead of lines. It allows the user to embrace their creative side by designing their own planner in their own style that will best suit them to fulfill their wants and needs.
What is it used for?
Weekly Planning
Many people use their bullet journals as their weekly planners and will create weekly layouts like the picture shown on the right. I will say that I have a separate planner that I use for weekly plans and responsibilities, because in all honesty, who has the time to consistently create weekly layouts in their journals. Kudos to those people! I use my bullet journal for literally everything else.
Birthdays
Who had the brain space to keep track of loved one’s birthdays? A bullet journal is the perfect cheat sheet for keeping track of all the birthdays that you may not remember every year.
Movie Lists
I am a movie fanatic, as are a lot of people. The bullet journal is great for keeping track of movies that you’ve watched, and movies you have yet to see. I currently have a Pixar and Disney movie bucket list plan in my bullet journal. Once I watched the movie (either for the first time, or the millionth), I cross it off the list. Talk about satisfying.
Traveling
Traveling involves a lot of planning, which surprise, the bullet journal is perfect for! If you know me, you know I greatly enjoy going to Disney World, and let me tell you Disney World is the mother vacation planning vacation of all vacations. Ever. My bullet journal is my best friend when it comes to planning my vacation. Whether it’s our daily plans, my food and treats must try list, or even just my packing list. My bullet journal is my saving grace.
Bucket Lists
Everybody has a bucket list, but how many people actually have an actual list that they can physically see and check off. People who use bullet journals do! I often catch myself saying, “I’ve always wanted to do that,” but never remember in the long run. Now if I catch myself saying it, I’ll write in my bullet journal so I will never forget.
Routines
Routines are the best way to keep yourself on track, and you can get really creative when recording them in your bullet journal. A few of my favorite routine layouts can be seen in the picture on the right.
Health Goals
A great use of the bullet-journal, is to use it for keeping track of health goals. For instance, one of the most important health goals, in my opinion, is drinking the recommended amount of water each day. Bullet journals are a great help in keeping track of your daily water intake!
Journaling
Finally, it is great for just regular journaling. Greenville University student Haleigh Koppelberger says:
“i just kind of jot down the highlights of a day”
Writing your day to day thoughts can also help relieve some of that daily stress from life. All you have to do is just start writing, and you may find yourself not being able to stop.
Beginning to use a bullet journal can be intimidating. Check out this video for some great beginning tips and tricks of how to get your life together by using a bullet journal!
Media by: Emily Hogue
In fact, bullet-journaling makes life simpler and more controllable 🙂