As I said in my first bullet journal article, I needed to figure out how to combine my work and personal items together so I could keep my number of journals to two. I don’t want anything but writing and brainstorming in my writing journal. I couldn’t find a lot online about people who use their journals for both work and personal items. It seems people generally either have two separate journals, only use a journal for one or the other, or combine one with electronic help. I had three main spreads to figure out for this: future log, monthly log and my daily/weekly spreads. (I apologize for my photography and the shadows of my hand in them! But I don’t apologize for the utilitarian nature of my spreads. I don’t even use a ruler. There are tons of other places you can go to find pretty bullet journals.)

The easiest was the monthly log. A lot of people get very complicated with theirs, wanting to see a grid-like a calendar that hangs on a wall. I’ve used the more traditional, original monthly spread before and liked it, so I’m sticking with that. On the left-hand page, I run down the numbers of the days of the month, with the letter of the week next to it. Here I can transfer birthdays, events and appointments from my future log. On the right-hand page, I divide the page in half with a horizontal line halfway down the page. Since I have more “projects” at work than I do personally, I write down the projects for work in the top section and then anything I’m working on or need to note for personal things in the bottom half. If I start needing more room for work, I’ll consider only using the bottom third for personal items.

Next was my future log. This maps out the entire year. I had originally intended to just have an empty space for each month but decided to add a little grid calendar in each section for a visual representation of the month. One the future log I can put birthdays, planned time off, holidays, important meetings and events that I know about months in advance. Then when that month rolls around, I can transfer those to my monthly log. I wanted to have plenty of space, so I used two pages for six months, four pages total for the year. For this spread, I start with holidays and birthdays at the top, followed by personal items and put work-related meetings and items at the bottom and move up.

Finally, I needed to figure out my daily logs. One of the benefits of a bullet journal is its flexibility. A lot of the daily/weekly spreads I’ve seen online do a fixed spread for their dailies/weeklies. Some may have daily pages in addition where they can keep the flexibility. I didn’t want to give up my flexibility, but I also didn’t want to have two sets of pages. So I knew I needed to figure out a way to combine them somehow. I needed some kind of weekly calendar to put appointments later in the week where I could see them. Only a daily log wouldn’t work either.

I started by running a calendar for the week across the top of a two-page spread. Then having dailies below. In addition, I had a monthly habit tracker. While the weekly calendar was working fine, I didn’t like the habit tracker being so separate from what I was looking at every day. So I decided to try and fit in a weekly habit tracker instead. Below is what I have come up with. I think it’s working well, but I could always change it up again if I think of something else. The ability to change your mind is one of the major benefits of the bullet journal!

The calendar goes down the left of the left-hand page, with the habit tracker next to it. Drawing the boxes for that is a little tedious, but I feel like I need something to guide me. A blank square is too blank. I have room in the first box for a short inspirational quote. On the right page, I start my dailies. I used a little flag for the day of the week and the date. I put a little cloud and a short description of the weather and beneath a positive statement for the day. Invetiably, my note for Friday is, “It’s Friday!” On the right, you can see the beginnings of the box for my food log. I’m not currently counting calories or anything. I just write down what I eat during the day. This way the dailies can be as short or long as I need them.

A note about my dailies. I log all my items together whether personal or work-related. There’s no way to tell how much room I might need for either type, so I don’t have a designated space. For work items, I used the standard bullet. For all appointments/events, I use the original open circle bullet. For personal items, instead of doing some other shape I use a bullet with an open circled around it. So it looks more like a target. This way I can still use the > to reschedule and X them out when complete, but there is enough difference for me to tell the difference between them at a glance. And I still use a hash for notes when needed. I keep a running collection of meeting notes though, so I don’t have a ton of notes showing up in my daily logs.

So those are my main bullet journal spreads in detail and how I combine my work and personal items together. I have two more articles planned, one on my meal planning spreads and the other on my goal planning for the year.

So I started a bullet journal awhile ago but didn’t really keep up with it. The problem was I loved some of it (the indexing and threading possibilities) for my writing journals but didn’t want to “clutter” up whatever notebook I use for writing with things like to-do lists and meal planning. Second, I was hesitant to mesh personal and work-related items together.

I did pretty good with a work bullet journal when I started my new job in January, but tapered off over the summer. Also, I was realizing a need for one in my non-work life. So for this January I decided to try again and I would figure out a way to include work and personal together, otherwise I’d need to carry around three notebooks! Two is plenty, thank you very much! But more on that in a future post.

So what is a bullet journal? Well, it’s a completely analog and flexible task and planning management system. There are many sites who do a great job of explaining so I’m not going to repeat their work. I should also say that if you look online for bullet journal ideas, you will see some amazing and artistic users out there. Don’t be intimidated. A bullet journal doesn’t need to be a work of art to work. That’s not the point. If you are someone who likes to doodle or can do calligraphy, go for it. If not, no worries. Mine are simple and utilitarian and that works too.

A little history.  I’ve always loved planners. I’m generally not a type A personality, but something about those school planners always gave me joy. But once out in the real world, they didn’t seem to cut it. I’d have tons of notepads with different to-do and meeting notes, without a way to organize or find important information again. And while the built-in daily and weekly sections of pre-printed planners were ok, their built-in year and monthly pages left something to be desired.

So how does the bullet journal answer those needs? It is the indexing and the monthly and future logs that makes this system revolutionary to me.

Indexing: it is exactly what it sounds like. You number all your pages and enter in an index the subject of each page so you can find it again. This is so useful I’ve kept this habit for my writing journals, even though I don’t use any other bullet journal features in them. I also moved it to the back of my notebooks like a real index, instead of at the beginning like most people do (and I do for my non-writing bujo). For writing, it’s harder to lump entries together. Every scene and brainstorming subject needs its own entry in order to be able to reference them, so I can’t tell how many pages I’ll need for the index. I just start with the last page and when that page is full, move backward through the notebook. When the contents meets the index, my notebook is full!

Monthly and Future logs: like I said most planners have these, but they are not flexible. With a bujo, you can make your squares of your yearly as big and take up as many pages as you want, but still be able to view the year pretty much at a glance. For my monthly, I generally keep the original spread, which is two pages, with the days numbered down the far left, where you can enter important events, appointments or deadlines and on the right page I list important projects and to-do items for the month. I refer back when I make my daily/weekly spreads.

So, there you have it. A little about why I use the bullet journal system and what about it was so revolutionary to me. I’ll post more later on my specific journal and my goal planning. It may be one post or two.