Many times I’ve met people who don’t feel like starting their bullet journal because all the images you see out there are of “cute” bullet journals full of beautiful lettering, drawings and gorgeous calligraphies. And, they told me that if they had to devote more time to their bullet journal than the time this method would save them, then it wasn’t worth it.
That’s why, from here, I would like to make a suggestion: a bullet journal doesn’t have to be “cute” or alluring or gorgeous. A bullet journal has to be as its user wants it to be. And above all it has to be useful: if it ceases to be so, it is not worth it and it is better that you look for other methods of organization. Or that you hire a secretary, whatever you have at hand.
I suggest you engrave the following phrase in your head:
My bullet journal is for me, not for publication in Instagram or Pinterest.
That should also encourage you to accept imperfection.
The fact is that your bullet journal has to be effective for you, and it has to serve you in your daily life. It has to have room to accommodate all the information that you want it to house, and it has to do so in a way that is clear and makes sense to you.
Let me give you an example. I like to record certain habits of my daily routine, such as calling my family (I live in another city). And I like to see at a glance which days I have complied with this habit and which days I have not, or in other words, how well I have adhered to this daily routine.
I could make a page with a beautiful drawing in the shape of a mobile phone and go coloring green areas with the days I called, and red areas with the days I forgot to do it. But for me it’s not practical, and I’d rather just have a table where I fill in little squares on the days I called. It’s much less cute or eye-catching but it serves me better, and it costs me less work and time. And since my bullet journal is for me and not to show off, I am satisfied that it was helpful in the way I desired it.
That’s why I strongly recommend that if you want to make a bullet journal attractive, do it. But if you don’t want to do it that way, you need not worry about it and do it the way you want. Additionally, you can change the way even as you turn pages. This is one of the wonderful qualities of the bullet journal: that it is completely flexible and you can do it as you like throughout the year.
