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Here are some tips and tricks to upgrade your journal (and your life).
If you want a skills refresh, check out our guide to starting a bullet journaling!
1. Set aside a "weekly log" for tasks that you haven't assigned to a particular day yet.
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Instagram user tinyrayofsunshine uses her weekly log as a "brain dump" of sorts. She's able to view her month with a mini-cal in the right margin, along with a list of appointments. This will help her migrate tasks to specific days when she has time.
2. Try breaking up your days into time periods: morning, afternoon, evening. This will make actually completing the task much more manageable.
3. Use washi tape to separate your events, your goals, and your daily tasks.
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You can find fun patterns at Happy Tape and Cute Tape.
4. On your year-at-a-glance page, mark notable events, like vacation days or birthdays, with different colors and shapes.
5. Set up a grid with dates on the x-axis and habits on the y-axis.
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For daily habits, strive to fill squares every day. For recurring habits (like if your goal is to run twice a week, for example), outline the square when you intend to accomplish your task and fill it in later.
6. If you want to focus on tracking just one goal, you can set up a page for the whole year.
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Cross out the day when you complete your habit. Try to keep your streak going for as long as possible!
7. Here's a good way to track a recurring, non-daily goal.
8. Keep track of things you're saving for with a financial spread.
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Instagram user honeyrozes wrote down the dates of every Sunday at the top and planned her financial goals accordingly. She sets aside money at different times of the year, so she's not saving for a ton of things at once.
9. Turn your reading and movie wishlists into actionable to-dos.
10. The Moleskine softcover dotted notebook ($16) is the notebook of choice for most bullet journalists.
11. These beautiful Sakura of America pens will add some color to your daily entries ($17 for 6).
12. This mini calendar stamp ($5) makes it easy to plan for the week ahead.
13. The same store also sells a stamp that can help you track daily habits ($5).
14. This cute day of the week washi tape ($7) saves you some time while crafting your weekly log.
15. This mini ruler ($4) will help you make the straightest lines and is small enough to be stored in your folio.
16. This planner stencil ($10) is an easy way to make consistent layouts.
17. These downloadable stickers ($5) are even easier.
19. These gold wire clips ($12.50) will help keep your journal open while you're writing.
20. But if you need something more structured (and lined) opt for Moleskine's folio professional notebook ($23).
I use this notebook and LOVE IT. The pages are already numbered, and it includes an index/table of contents, plus some pages for long-term project planning. Each page is divvied up into three sections, which you can interpret however you like.
I use the top section for my agenda (meetings, events, etc.), the main section for my day's to-dos, and the skinny section in the margins for personal tasks.
21. A colored, flip out index will make it easy to thumb through your pages and find the entry you're looking for.
Line your page up with the index, and fill a square of the appropriate color on on the same line.
You can see how Kara uses the index in the bottom left photo.
22. You can also create a flip-out index for your key.
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This is especially nifty if you're working with a lot of different symbols.
23. Take your time creating a key that's suited to your lifestyle. Use color to make the important stuff stand out.
Happy journaling!
