How to Start a bulletjournal

The Ultimate Guidelist to bulletjournaling! 

Hey guys! This post is all about how to start a bullet journal, and all the main pointers. Don't give up on the idea of starting one, even if it may seem like a lot of work at first. Remember, the journal is YOURS and so make it work the way YOU want to! One 

very important thing to keep in mind is that there are no rules.

 💜Start with a practice Journal💜 : 

If you're not sure whether or not this idea will work out for you, don't jump ahead with an expensive notebook and tons of coloured pens and markers. 📖Use any suitable diary or notebook you find lying around in your house, and try out different spreads and trackers in there to see which suit you best. Whether you'd like a fun colourful bujo filled with cool spreads, or a plain one filled with minimalistic and simple trackers to keep you organized... the list goes on.                     

1) Index and Key

These two spreads are completely optional just like the rest.  The Index keeps track of whatever pages you have filled in and helps you find them easily.

My customised key

The key comprises of symbols that you might want to use while noting down certain things, such as a circle can be used to note down an event etc. You can either follow the orignal bujo key or customise your own.

                   

 2) Future logs

 In this spread you have a small calendar of the future months that you want to note down things in. Beside the dates there is usually space to write notes in. This is how most people like their future log to be. But you can make yours to suit yourself.

If you want to have a more detailed calendar of the month, create a monthly spread!

a) Monthly Spreads

 Your monthly spread can give you more space to note down events, plans, appointments etc in more detail. 

And then ofcourse you can also plan your weeks in more detail by using: 

b) Weekly Spreads

You don't have to make these for all four weeks of the month, but if there is a busy week coming up with lots of events and plans, this is the spread for you. Often people include their trackers in the weekly spread, such as water intake trackers or reading trackers.

Below are pictures of some examples on all three types of spreads that help you log the future. You can find thousands of more ideas via Pinterest, Youtube and Instagram to only name a few. 

Weekly Spread

Monthly spread Via Pinterest

Via Pinterest 

                                       3) Habit Trackers

There are countless things you can track in your bullet journal. Instead of setting up separate pages for each habit you want to track, you can fit everything in one spread and save your pages as well as time. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of having trackers in my bullet journal because I almost always forget to fill them in😂. So, as your practice journal is best to try out new spreads in, give it a go to see if this works out for you. Also, if there are some habits that you might want to have on a separate page, don't hesitate to do so.

Below are a few spread layouts and ideas that you might want to try: 

Via Pinterest

Via Pinterest

Via Pinterest

     4) Fun Spreads

Apart from keeping your life organized, a bullet journal is a great way to be productive and creative. There are thousands (no im probably not exaggerating) of ideas out there of cool, fun and different layouts that you could try.  Check out some pictures below of spreads that I've tried myself and others that I've found really interesting.

This is a picture of a "Books to read" spread in which I have written down the books I want to read inside drawings of little books. There is also a "Movies to Watch" layout and I have written down ratings and the date that I watched the movie.

Gratitude log | via YouTube 

Via Pinterest

Via Pinterest

  You can also write down quotes to fill up the pages a little

That's it for this post guys! I hope I gave you the main idea of what kind of spreads are essential for your bullet journal! Follow me on Pinterest @mariasitwat!