#bulletjournal101

I started having planners since college and I find it efficient especially when it comes to organizing my schedules, noting exams and organizing my study time. I switched to bullet journal two years ago on my 2nd year medical life when I decided that I wanted a personalized planner. That's when I found about the bullet journal. I researched about it and realized that it was a planner just right for me!

I planned the ways on how could I apply my bullet journal in relation to my subjects, my study time, how I cope with medical school and organize my time. So, at first, I tried the conventional bullet journal and see how would I go from there!

So this was my old layout made from scratch. My index was pretty okay for me but I realized that indexing was not really my thing so what I did I attached a bookmark by using ribbons on my bullet journal where I can easily turn to my daily page. I liked how my key page turned out and my color codes which was useful on how I check and sort my school stuff and personal stuff.

This was my monthly layout.

For important tasks, I placed it in red with signifiers "*" so that I would forget and track the dates that I leave out for studying.

This is my daily layout.

Here I used a daily timeline which I found from http://www.decadethirty.com/ and I think it is really appropriate for a busy person like me who needs to keep track of time. I correlate the timeline at the left to the tasks I have on the right so I would know when I could start doing the tasks. And this timeline comes in handy if I have classes or events that should watch out. I can also use my timeline bar to track such as my study time (green), my social time (pink) and my sleep (blue). It has lots of purpose so I kept on using this for a year. And it help me track how long I have been studying for a particular subject, how I manage my time between mga social life and med school. I also placed signifiers so I can keep my priorities in check that I give more time to the most important stuff.

So these are my layouts for my monthly and daily pages and as you can see I didn't use a weekly layout because I find it redundant with regards to my tasks and it makes me confused at times so I omitted using one. I tend to tackle my tasks, events and assignments more directly by using a daily basis to check for unfinished tasks. As you noticed I am using two different ribbons to mark my pages. The yellow one is for my daily page and the green one is used for my monthly page in case I need to check particular events and exams.

For my subjects, social media and infos, I use my own icon stickers that I made so that I will know that particular task is for a specified subject. I also made sticker icons for social medias that I use so I can keep up with what I should update.

The bullet journal is more than just a planner or a journal and its uses are beyond those words. I used to have my own pre-made planner that I bought from the local store but it has a few limitations and excessive daily spreads that I wanted to seek out new options for a new planner. And that is how I came by the bullet journal last year, and since then I has helped me a lot when it comes to my school work. Down below are my few reasons as to why you should start bullet journaling ❤

1. Flexibility.

One of the best qualities of a bullet journal are the many ways you can utilize the pages it holds. You can use it as a planner at the same time be a journal or a diary for the daily events and best memories you wanted to remember. It can be used as your grocery list for the week and even be a Lister’s corner for your goals, movies you wanted to watch and books you need to read. As a student, it helped me a lot by making a focused platform for my exams and projects to finish.

2. Personalized.

Before discovering the bullet journal I used to have lots of pre-made planners for the year and the draw for these ones are the unused pages that I fail to fill up due to my busy schedule. I cringed whenever I see those pages empty and felt that I did a lousy job on my planner. With the bullet journal, you can personalized the pages according to your own needs! You can have a daily page or you can have it on a weekly basis and it is up to you! From the spaces allotted for each day to the size of your weekly spreads, everything is based on your own planning and organizing strategy.

3. No Blanks!

For those of you who has this compulsion to keep all the pages of your daily spreads filled up, it is a nightmare to see several blank pages and you can feel the pressure of filing those pages with “Important” stuff but in reality, it is not even relevant. As I have said earlier, bullet journaling is personalized based on your needs and because of which, you can adjust and recreated the pages so that you can fully utilize the spaces. You can always fill the gaps by using it in a different way and list down not just your tasks but also events, to-dos, birthdays, side notes for the class. The list of each page’s usage is endless!

4. A planner, a journal, a diary in one go!

The bullet journal serves more than one purpose and with that little notebook you have, it is you lifetime spread for the year! You can highlight important dates, memories and events which altogether serves as your diary! If there are any thoughts or topic you wanted to write out, you can use a blank page on the bullet journal for your journal entries so that you would not forget. Over time, you will eventually realize that it has been your perfect companion!

5. Outlet for creativity!

Since it is personalized, your bullet journal is all your own work and effort! It motivates you inner creativity to take the blank pages as a canvas to your own artistic thoughts and ideas and it doesn’t criticize you for those messy squiggles. It can be your own doddle page or a sketch notebook on your free time!

This Bullet Journal 101 series has been such a labor of love for me.  I love love love that so many of you found it useful and took the time to ask me questions.  

I wanted to create a post that brings all of the different aspects of the series into one place, along with a video answering all of those amazing questions you asked!

Are you worried about “messing up” your Bullet Journal? Are you overwhelmed with all the styles and collections? 

This week’s session of Bullet Journal 101 covers Pre-Planning and how to tame those fears that come up when you’re just starting out.  

A little time spent thinking about what you actually need your Bullet Journal to do for you can really help you get the full benefit from your planning system!

I’m launching a blog/youtube series this month called Bullet Journal 101!! 

In this series I’ll be covering a different topic each Monday:

What is a Bullet Journal

Pre-Planning

The Basics

Make it Your Own

It’s my hope that I will be able to answer a lot of the questions newcomers have when just starting out.