Why I'm No Good at Bullet Journal-ing
It's 2018 and it seems bullet journals are still a thing. Around 2 years ago the world of bullet journal-ing exploded as journaling went mainstream and you couldn't log on to Instagram or Pinterest without seeing yet another image of perfectly placed stickers and to-do lists with sheets of paper covered in every colour under the rainbow.
I've tried keeping several bullet journals. I've even gone the whole way and bought cute journals with every item of accoutrement to try and kickstart my passion for bullet journaling, and you know what I realised? I am simply not a bullet journal sort of person. I'm not. I'd like to be. I adore all the stationery and colours and the Instagram perfection it entails but I simply can’t do it.
After thinking about this a while longer, I came up with a list of reasons for why, I, can never be a person who bullet journals. I’m convinced there are certain types of people who “suit” bullet journals and I’m not one of them. Here goes:
I don’t have a million to-do lists. In fact, because I work full time as well as running this website, my days are pretty well organised into a set routine. If anything else comes up, I can get it slotted in easily but I don’t actually need to do lists to help me to do it which means I don’t really have to-do lists to write in a bullet journal. People who have a million things floating around, and who struggle to keep things in one place will love bullet journals.
I love paper-and-pen to do lists but making them was much more of a priority when I was doing my degree or in college when I had a whole range of different things to do every week. When everyone else was getting into their gadgets, I had a dedicated paper diary which essentially functioned as a bullet journal but because life has changed so much since, I hardly ever need to jot things on paper. If I’m honest, the only things I do keep lists of are blogpost ideas and groceries to pick up. That’s it.
I’m not into goal-setting and habit tracking – I love having general goals for myself but I’m not one of those people who lives hard and fast by a list of them. In fact, if I was blogging full-time I probably would set myself goals and track my habits to ensure I was staying productive, but with working full-time, I already know that blogging a few times a week means that I am being productive in my spare time. Blogging full-time would mean being self-employed and I can just imagine slipping into a routine of not getting much done if I didn’t set myself daily goals.
I am obsessed with stationery, journaling, scrapbooking, beautiful pens, etc. but the problem is that my life at the moment doesn’t really require them. Most of my work is done online so even the beautiful stationery that I have, doesn’t get the most use. I do make the occasional scrapbook for special occasions, especially birthdays but I’m definitely not a champion scrapbooker. I do have a personal journal that I keep but it only tends to see use when I have something specific to say. Other than that, I don’t tend to have much need for stationery or books.
A bullet journal is essentially the updated version of a day planner. But even when I was using day planners, as much as I liked having one, I wasn’t obsessed with it to the point of needing one to get things done. If you are obsessed with planners, or wanting to use a planner, a bullet journal could be a good shout!
It’s a good way of easing you into “proper” journaling if that’s your aim. I’m actually quite good at journaling when I want to and keep in mind that it’s your journal. There aren’t any rules about how you should do it or when. You do you boo. Although it’s probably a good stepping stone for some people, I’ve personally always felt more comfortable just directly writing what I wanted to. I’ve found that as long the journal is cute, I don’t tend to have any issues.