How To Set Up A Bujo

{UPDATE:Don't miss the gratis printables at the bottom of this post as well as the follow-upwards mail vii Bonus Bullet Journal Lessons.}

The Jan air smells similar organization. You tin't fight information technology, so let's lean into information technology with lazy genius attitude.

I desire to tell y'all almost the Bullet Journal. You might have seen the video or been on the website. Y'all might even be using the method yourself, but I want to share my take on the ins and outs, pitfalls and beauties of the best way to organize your life I've e'er establish. I wish this post had existed when I first started, so hither's to you having amend luck with the learning bend than I did.

The Bullet Journal is similar a potato.

It seems slow and banal and hands replaced by flashier starches like couscous and blackness forbidden rice, but the potato is special not for what it is but it what information technology can go. Tell couscous to turn into a French fry, and nosotros'll talk. Until and then, the murphy is king simply because it tin be whatever y'all desire information technology to exist.

That'due south what makes the Bullet Journal so special. The market place is saturated with every planner you could dream upward, only somehow not ane - no thing how fancy - perfectly serves your needs. It'southward just couscous trying to turn into a French fry. Simply the Bullet Journal is different. It starts with a blank journal and a pen which is deceptively simple and nearly slow, but it'south also the lazy genius organizer you've been waiting for.

The Bullet Journal is amend than your online system.

Almost definitely. Here'southward why.

Our brains approach analog methods differently than digital ones. Toddlers navigate iPads improve than their degree-toting older relatives, and so all the smart people have become increasingly interested in what damage (if whatever) this is doing to the encephalon.

My middle child damaging his brain. Oh well.

I'm not here to tell you to stop you or your kids from using screens; that would exist ridiculous and mean hallelujah TV. Simply there is something different nearly going analog. Have you ever edited a term paper or manuscript on your computer? Yous always finish up printing the whole thing and flipping pages with pen in hand because for some reason information technology works better. Studies show this is why:

"Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper."

The Reading Encephalon in the Digital Historic period: the Science of Paper vs. Screens from Scientific American

Our brains carry differently when nosotros go analog, and that's why the Bullet Journal is a great arrangement. It engages your brain and encourages more thorough thought processes. Plus you go to buy an awesome pen.

Even so, even though the act of writing is romantic and gratifying, it does take longer. Which seems dumb and anti-genius, then why do it? Because the Bullet Journal, by pattern, helps you make up one's mind what matters and what doesn't. If information technology'southward not of import enough to write down whatsoever number of times, it's non of import plenty to proceed in your life. Simple but extremely effective.

Your Bullet Journal volition not replace your smartphone. I might die without immediate access to podcasts, just phones can't contain everything, non in one visual place anyway. And y'all can't save the information on your telephone in the aforementioned manner you can within a book spine. In one case a Bullet Periodical is full, it lives on your shelf with what will eventually go a lifetime of others, and you'll take the best bird'southward eye view of your life that no technology tin can match.

The Bullet Journal can be ready in the next five minutes.

If you lot're hesitant to buy a new periodical before you know if you'll apply information technology (valid conclusion by the fashion), catch an old steno notebook or one of the dozens of barely-used journals on your shelf. (I'm the president of Journal Hoarders of America, so I do non guess.) Now allow's accept a few minutes to do a quick set-upward so you can run into everything in activity.

The Backbone Pages of the Bullet Periodical

The Index Page

Open to the outset spread of blank pages. This is your Index page. If the Bullet Journal is a potato, the Index is fat. You can use whatsoever kind of fat you want - olive oil, bacon, butter - but it'south hard to grasp the beauty of the unproblematic boiled murphy without a picayune liquid cholesterol. Fat makes potatoes sing, i.e. your Index makes your Bullet Journal a magical device no thing what form you use. It oftentakes a little time to realize that, simply don't skip or ignore the Alphabetize.

One of the best qualities of the Bullet Journal is that nothing has to exist written consecutively. In fact, it serves its purpose best when you but write any new information on the next blank page. In that location'south no saving pages or having empty sections (like in other planners), and then in that location'due south no waste product. You simply find things via the Index.

It doesn't have to exist fancy; information technology'south what you'd expect - a list of page descriptions and their corresponding page numbers and so you can notice what you need when you need it. You'll make full it up over time, but for now, simply title that first page "Alphabetize," write the appropriate folio numbers at the lesser (presumably one and 2), and add those pages to your actual Index.

The Future Log

The Bullet Journal takes a focused look at one month at a time which is nifty for the month only tricky when recording things that volition happen down the route. That's why the Future Log is so fly.

The versions of ready-up are infinite, but trial and error take taught me to go on my Bullet Journal as listen-numbingly simple as possible. If an appointment or luncheon appointment or food truck festival is coming my fashion, I only write a box, the date, and the upshot. Washed. We'll talk more about the execution later, then simply write "Hereafter Log" at the tiptop of the folio, number the page, and add it to your Index. You'll want information technology near the front of your Bullet Journal, and then all-time to practise it now.

The Monthly Log

I love that y'all don't accept to start your Bullet Journal in January for it to be constructive. Just brainstorm where you are. If you're reading this in May, your kickoff Monthly Log will be May.

Write the month at the elevation of the next bare folio, and write the days of the month down the side. Information technology'due south also helpful to write the first letter of the corresponding day of the week so you know when the actual engagement falls. You can do this on the left or right of the number; the creator of the Bullet Journal puts his on the correct, and I put mine on the left. You cull.

At present take your current calendar organisation (your telephone, your cute Target planner, etc.) and transfer this month's appointments and events into your Monthly Log. Proceed it uncomplicated, and limit your words. Brevity is a dandy habit to get into.

If you feel similar this Bullet Periodical thing might only be your jam, become ahead and flip through the rest of your sometime calendar and add any upcoming dates to your Time to come Log. Might also while the book is open and your pen is poised.

The Monthly Task List

The original fashion people fix up their month is to have the calendar folio you just made on the left and a giant task list on the right. Frankly, I don't live a life that needs a monthly task list, at least most of the time. In December, it was different. There were gifts to purchase and wrap, desserts to make for gatherings, kids' Christmas parties that needed blood-red plates, i.due east. it was natural for me to listing out whatsoever number of things I needed to get washed that month. But for me, about months aren't like that. The beautiful affair? Make each month what you lot need it to exist. If y'all sometimes need a monthly chore list, make one. If not, skip information technology. Isn't the freedom awesome?

The Daily Log

Hither's where I stumbled during my first months with my Bullet Periodical. I approached the daily log purely in task mode. I'd write down that day's engagement and and so listing out what I wanted to become accomplished. It was very robotic and had no soul. Plus, we all know how nosotros feel at the end of the day when tasks don't get marked off - crappy. Then in that location would be some days (like lazy weekends) when I didn't feel the demand to write downwards whatsoever tasks at all. The result was inconsistent interaction with my Bullet Journal, relegating it to being an elaborate to-exercise list I could've merely written on a napkin.

Then the lite bulb went off, and the Daily Log changed. Information technology'southward a log. The actual definition of log is "an official record of events during the voyage of a send or aircraft." No, life isn't a boat, but information technology's totally a voyage. We movement through life, modify, make memories, forget virtually of them, and wonder why nosotros feel then listless on a regular basis.

The Daily Log is the knife and fork to your Bullet Journal potato. It's the tool you use to take out the important $.25 of your solar day and give them permanence. Those bits will exist applied, similar tasks and appointments, but also personal, similar things you lot desire to remember, books you finished reading, conversations you had with an old friend.

In one case I treated my Daily Log like a log, the process came alive, and I opened my Bullet Journal every twenty-four hours. The best affair though? It's non like those personal logs need to exist long. In fact, it's improve if they're not. When you lot're writing entries for the mean solar day, write them as they come to mind. Yous might write "go to post part" and immediately follow it with "Sam rode his bike for the kickoff time." It all gets logged in unbiased order, just as our brains naturally bend. My brain doesn't automatically categorize things within itself; that's why we brand lists! That's why nosotros crave gild. Our brains are amazing, simply we have to sift through the information and find out what matters. The Daily Log lets those thoughts out in a stream of consciousness way without feeling jumbled and crazy.

How are y'all feeling then far? Intrigued I hope? If you lot are, let's keep going.

The Bullet Journal doesn't take to dress for the Oscars.

I encourage you to non wait for other examples of Bullet Journaling, not only still. Why? Considering there are people who doll their pages up beautifully with washi tape, calligraphy, stamps, intricate doodles, and everything else that makes your heart beat fast at the craft shop. They're color-coordinated with tabs and labels, and there are and so many pages to cull from, it's like a scary organizational cafe.

Those journals are beautiful without question. But remember when I said trial and fault taught me to keep my Bullet Journal unproblematic? That's because I went through iii - yeah, THREE - different journals because I kept getting frustrated and starting over. I couldn't keep upwardly with all the dazzler I wanted to encounter on every folio. My handwriting is irksome, the only thing I can putter is a wobbly screw, and while I do have an impressive collection of washi tape, it simply took too long to make every page pretty. I was dressing my periodical for the Oscars when I alive a Modernistic Family reruns life.

Elaborate Bullet Journals are appealing, only they're full of red flags. Hither are 3.

Signifiers

Signifiers are symbols for your entries. They allow y'all to quickly glance at any folio of your Bullet Journal and find what you're looking for. Since yous'll get in the addiction of essentially brain dumping onto the page, giving those entries visual categorization is super helpful.

Here's the trouble. If you lot do an image search of "bullet journal signifiers," you'll have a nervous breakdown. In that location are Then. MANY. People create the signifiers they want and need, and so in that location are no limits and no rules. It's cute just overwhelming. My advice? Limit your signifiers to every bit few every bit possible.

An example of a Daily Log with various signifiers.

I use five main signifiers and an occasional sixth.

A box is for tasks and things I demand to exercise; when the task is done, I fill in the box.
A triangle is for appointments and places to go; when it'due south washed, I fill in the triangle.
A dot is for things to remember or log. Information technology could be annihilation from the name of that ultrasound tech who made me express joy to the volume I merely finished.
A center is for memories and things that mean something I don't desire to forget.
A star goes adjacent to a box or dot for things that need an actress visual clue, i.eastward. urgent, of import things.
Finally, I put the letters LL next to things I've jotted down that would be good for the monthly Lazy Links newsletter where I list all my favorite things for the month. When information technology'southward time to write that electronic mail, I simply scan the Daily Logs for that month and wait for the LL'due south.

Some people use dissimilar signifiers for emails, phone calls, things to research, ideas to flesh out, etc., but I could never retrieve what signifier I fabricated for each purpose. Even when I made a special signifier bookmark to keep in my Bullet Journal as a reference, I never took the time to actually describe a lightbulb when I had an thought. It stressed me out and cramped my hand. Likewise much work, not plenty lazy genius.

Go along. signifiers. elementary.

Collections

Collections are topical pages in your Bullet Periodical, i.e. annihilation that'due south non a log. In the past, I've had collection pages for books to read, shows to lookout, recipes to endeavour, favorite restaurants, party plans, cleaning lists, repast plans, blog post ideas, words I love, and that's just scratching the surface. I would open a new Bullet Periodical and make a collection for everything I could think of. Nigh of it I didn't demand to remember hard about; it was already in my caput.

The delight of having a Bullet Journal is not having to keep stuff in your head that wants to get out, but there are sure things you know without having to write them down. Like, you guys, in one of my Bullet Journals, I made a list of all our friends.Our friends.What purpose does that serve? I think I reasoned that it would be a good visual reminder of who we could invite over for dinner when the mood struck, merely are you serious? A written list of friends?!

I took collections likewise far. It's easy to do.

One of my few collections. I add to it whenever I hear about a book I want to try. — One of my few collections. I add together to information technology whenever I hear about a book I want to try.

Equally you get started with your ain Bullet Journal, I encourage you to not make many, if any, collections until you're a couple of weeks in. I've been using this method for almost two years, and in my current journal, I have iii collections. Just three. And ane I just added a few days ago. I go on a list of books I want to read (the only collection I'll allow you lot at the offset because obviously you demand this), important website details to quickly reference (fonts, colors, blog postal service tags, etc.), and I recently added a list of drugstore makeup products to try and log if they worked or not. The result? My breathing stays steady as I flip through my Bullet Journal. No yoga or stress exercises required.

Collections will make themselves obvious to you. You'll know when y'all need 1. When you lot spend a few days flipping among several dissimilar pages to become the data you need, you lot'll think, "This would work a lot meliorate if everything was on one page." Smash. Yous just discovered a collection.

Don't create collections simply to fill pages. Let them happen naturally.

Embellishment

Part of me wants my Bullet Journal to expect similar it belongs on a line of Martha Stewart packaging. For awhile, I forced it to. I bordered each folio with a different colour of washi record. I'd attempt and make adorable block letters to title every folio. I'd assign different colored pens to different categories. I'd practice doodling but and so my journal could expect doodle-beautiful.

Exercise you desire to guess how long I kept that upward? Exactly.

Some of yous are super artistic and can make the discussion January resemble a snow flurry in the amount of time it takes me to find a pen. I'm not telling y'all to not make pretty messages. Just whatever you cull, here's the trick: how y'all add entries has to exist just every bit like shooting fish in a barrel to execute on a Saturday evening when you're cozy on the couch surrounded past all your supplies equally it is on a Monday at 4pm when someone poops on the floor just as your in-laws are walking in unannounced. (Not that that's ever happened to any of us.)

Yes, it'southward fun to flip through your Bullet Journal and encounter beautiful designs and calming colors, but if that simply happens every 15 pages while the others await like a bribe note, you lot'll become frustrated. At least I did.

All y'all need to embellish your Bullet Journal is whatever comes easiest. Exist okay with a blackness pen and nothing else.

You will never learn all at that place is to know about the Bullet Periodical.

And that's okay. Sometimes being enlightened of every possibility is crippling instead of inviting. Still, there are a few more strategies and tips that might be helpful as you get started.

Migration

Migration is your filtering system. Information technology's how you lot decide what to proceed, what to discard, and what strategies to revamp.

At the end of every month when you're setting up the adjacent, you'll migrate stuff. You'll flip through the previous calendar month (and even further dorsum if things are however floating), look at undone tasks and events, i.e. empty squares and triangles, as well as read through your notes. It's best to arrive the habit of closing up every month one time it's come to an end, kind of like packing upwards Christmas decorations. If you leave a random undone job floating in December but don't motility it to January, it'll keep floating for all eternity.

One glance at the signifiers tells me that everything has been resolved. I don't need to read the words unless I want to. Super quick process.

To drift a chore, make a visual cue. Draw an arrow through the empty box, triangle or dot to indicate that it'due south been relocated to a more than appropriate spot in your Bullet Periodical. But that means you really need to rewrite it somewhere else, whether that's in the next month or on a collection folio. Either way, try and reconcile every entry.

If you come upon an undone task and you don't feel like writing it again, chances are information technology'southward not of import enough to keep in your life. That's the failsafe built into the Bullet Journal; if it'southward not worth writing, it's not worth doing. If that's the case, cross information technology out. Again, give yourself visual cues and then yous're not rereading the same entries over and over again. That's when signifiers go your friend; they tell you what's yet open up at the quickest glance.

P.S. If y'all notice yourself migrating the aforementioned thing for several months, it might be time to reevaluate that thing.

Threading

Threadingis an crawly folio numbering trick. Allow's say yous have similar information spread across several nonconsecutive pages. You can certainly look at your Alphabetize to run across what pages y'all need, for example "12-14, 22, 35." Information technology'south a lot of flipping just not incommunicable. Simply one time threading comes into play, information technology'south simpler. Just write the side by side relevant page number next to the electric current one. And then if you're on folio 14, you can look at the bottom of that page, encounter the number 22, and know that'due south the side by side relevant page to flip to. Page 22 will have 35 at the bottom of it, and the bike continues. It's not necessary all the fourth dimension, but information technology'due south helpful when things are spread out.

P.S. If you find yourself with info spread beyond a million pages, it might be time for a collection. In one case yous migrate all the information, don't forget to draw arrows through the boxes and dots that now have a new home.

Variations on the Calendar

We all have different brains that see the earth in different ways. Some of you lot see words equally colors, others see the months in a circumvolve, and I run into simply about everything as linear equally it tin can be. That means nosotros all demand unlike perspectives on our calendars. I like for my Monthly Log to exist a list of dates rather a traditional calendar with squares; I tried both and totally prefer the list. Simply I still like to see the year at a glance, specially when holidays and birthdays fall. And then in the front of my Bullet Journal is a elementary calendar with just that - holidays and birthdays.

I did brand it a little extra pretty, just since this page only has to be created in one case and I had the time, I embellished more than I ordinarily do.

If you need a yearly look, create ane. If yous need your month to exist boxes, do it.
Set your calendars the best way your brain sees time.

The Bullet Journal is the Meryl Streep of system; information technology can have on any role you need it to. But it doesn't have to.

Everything tin go in your Bullet Journal, only not everything has to. The trick is to take information technology slow.

When yous begin a Bullet Journal, practice with the near bones signifiers and stick to log pages just. Most of the hacks out in that location are for folks who have found their Bullet Journal rhythm and accept a lot of pages to show for it. Just move too before long and it's like existence asked to choose your first automobile when you're 6 and simply learning to ride your bike. Give yourself fourth dimension to figure out what matters to you.Then you tin can create mini systems within the larger method to piece of work all-time for what you need.

Hither are two examples of what doesn't go in my Bullet Journal.

Grocery Lists and Repast Plans

I tried meal planning in my Bullet Journal, but information technology wasn't intuitive for me. I have a dry out erase lath in my kitchen that is the easiest spot to write down what nosotros only ran out of and what nosotros'll probably have for dinner that week. Information technology'southward more than natural for how I call up and motion in my kitchen, and that's totally fine.

Ideas

I'thousand a verbal processor, and when I don't have anyone to process something with, I write. I scribble. I draw lots of arrows that atomic number 82 nowhere and hope that a sane idea somewhen surfaces. Those kinds of pages drove me MAD when I saw them in my Bullet Journal, and at to the lowest degree 95% of the time, the words on those pages were never needed again. My brain just needed to process before information technology was able to file away a concrete thought; the process wasn't relevant anymore.

Yes, I value the processes of life, but I know myself well enough to know which ones don't need to exist remembered. So I have a separate "processing" notebook. If I'chiliad fleshing out a blog post, for example, I'll brainstorm and map it out in my processing notebook instead of my Bullet Journal. The important data will somewhen be right here on this very website, so I don't need to store the unorganized version. It's like Sabbatum scratch paper; you simply need information technology until you detect the answer.

If a new idea or a memorable discovery comes out of my processing, I'll write it in my daily log and give it the appropriate signifier. For example, let's say I'm brainstorming a new weblog mail series well-nigh the lazy genius way to throw a political party. I'll probably have a few ideas of the kinds of parties to throw and really want to throw one myself! So I'll write in my daily log "throw a milk and cookies party for my girlfriends." And so it'due south back to my "scratch paper" to observe more answers.

The point is you lot can use your Bullet Journal however you want. Yeah, it can hold everything and does for many people. But if that makes your life harder, the journal is not serving its purpose. Get in the practise of utilizing it for as much as you can, but don't experience badly if things change. Because they volition.

That'due south a lot of stuff. Demand to see it practically?
Here'southward how I use my Bullet Journal.

At the end of every month, I ready aside a few minutes to set up up the next. I write the name of the month, list the dates and days, browse my Future Log and insert relevant events and appointments, and after looking at the overview of my calendar month, decide if I also need to set up up a Monthly Chore Listing or simply become with what each day or week calls for. This is likewise when I migrate relevant entries from the previous month.

In my Alphabetize, you won't meet individual entries for each day. Yous'll simply see "January" with the relevant page numbers next to it. If I create a collection in the center of the month, so the Index entry might read "Jan: 9-12, 15." Anytime I need to access something that happened in January or just feel curious about it, I know information technology all resides on pages 9 thru 12 and once more on 15. (This would be a great spot to utilise threading.)

So now that my month is prepare and the page is added to my Alphabetize, the only matter remaining is to participate each day in my Daily Log. Sometimes I write out any tasks and reminders the night before. Sometimes I don't write anything at all until the end of the day. And, yep, sometimes total days get skipped. There are no rules; I attempt and engage with it at to the lowest degree once a 24-hour interval, but I grant myself tremendous grace if I don't. My Bullet Journal rhythm changes drastically depending on what'south happening in my life, and yours will, as well. Lean into it. Concur it to a very lazy genius standard.

The Bullet Journal might change your life; you just have to give it a try.

I experience like I should serve you a drinking glass of wine at the stop of all this information. I realize it'south a lot. Simply I wish there had been an article or post out there for me that sifted through all the Bullet Journal noise. I hope this serves that purpose for you.

P.Due south. Information technology won't exist noise once you notice your rhythm. And then it'll exist a choir of voices doing things the ways that work all-time for them, and y'all'll just join in.

Ready to endeavor? Here are my tools. If you utilize these links, I get a few pennies from your purchase which helps keep The Lazy Genius Collective live and well. Thanks for the support, friends!

From left to right: my Bullet Journal, Meryl, Natalie, JLo, Zooey

My Favorite Journal: Leuchtturn 1917 Notebook, Dotted

Pros:sturdy, small plenty to put in my purse only big enough to feel like an actual notebook, born Index folio, already numbered pages, 2 bookmarks, thick paper, and dots instead of squares or lines that human action as the perfect guide for whatsoever I need

Cons:The emerald was sold out when I bought mine, just I do love the blackness, aka NO CONS I Honey THIS THING.

My Favorite Pen: Pilot Precise V5 Retractable Rolling Ball Pen, Extra Fine Point

Pros:smooth, doesn't bleed, thin enough for writing pocket-sized numbers without feeling like the tip is going to break, deep blackness colour, not expensive

Cons:I don't use this pen for everything. I have a few other favorites, besides, because ohmygosh pens are everything. If a V5 isn't nearby when I need to brand an entry in my Bullet Journal, I'll grab my Bic Atlantis Verbal. It'south not equally thick and luxurious as the rolling ball pen, simply it writes fast, clear, and tiny. It's a great plan B when I need information technology or for folks who printing downwardly hard when they write. For my processing notebook, I use a Uniball Impact 207. My girl Emily turned me onto this pen, and it's similar butter. It'due south too thick for a Bullet Periodical, at least for me, just for frantic note taking and brainstorming? Information technology's rex. Finally, when I want to add together a subtle dose of color to my Bullet Journal entries, I apply Sharpie fine point colored pens. They don't bleed, the colors are visible just not garish, and they write precisely.

Pen Summary:The V5 is Meryl Streep, the Atlantis is Natalie Portman, the 207 is JLo, and the Sharpie pen is Zooey Deschanel. Amen.

And at present I leave you with the iii words to set your trajectory on this Bullet Journal voyage:
Slow.
Simple.
Soulful.

It is possible to have everything in one place using one simple method and simultaneously notation the soul that flows through your days. It'due south my favorite lazy genius style to organize my life, and I hope yous love it every bit much as I do.

Ready to start? Snag four FREE cheat sheets to make Bullet Journaling work for yous. Enter your email below, and you'll get the printables delivered correct to your inbox. They include a starter checklist and ideas for students, entrepreneurs, and domestic goddesses.

This postal service contains chapter links, so I earn a small commission at no toll to you if you buy through the links I've shared.