It was almost two years ago now that I discovered the Bullet Journal, you might remember this blog post from when I first started experimenting with it. A year later and I made this video, explaining the system and how I made it work for me. So before you read this post, I’d definitely recommend watching my video as it really explains how I took the Bullet Journal system and adapted it for my specific needs.

It’s been almost two years now and I’ve learnt a lot about Bullet Journalling and how to best fit it into my life, so here’s an update post as I often get asked if I’m still using it.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ARTY

I think what most people find intimidating about the Bullet Journal is that despite it’s original purpose being simplicity, the idea has been taken under the wing of the stationery obsessed. Almost every video or blog post you find on Bullet Journalling is filled with colourful pens, cute illustrations, a graph for everything and stickers galore. If you’re arty and you enjoy spending the time drawing and planning out your journal with perfectly neat lines and handwriting then you go for it, but if you’re not, don’t let that stop you getting involved. The idea of the Bullet Journal is to help you manage and organise your tasks, so it’s important to do what’s right for you. Even if that means black pen, white tipex and nothing else. I started off with fancy titles and washi tape and over time I stripped it right back to basics and I love the simplicity.

WHY DO YOU NEED IT? 

One of my main tips would be to think about why you need a Bullet Journal. What is it you need help organising? For me it’s organising my video schedule, planning videos, day to day to-do lists, keeping track of payments and that’s about it! I’ve created my own tables for organising video uploads and my own to-do list layouts using the basic bullet/cross system that was created for the Bullet Journal. It’s a flexible system though and I don’t plan ahead so if I have a busy month and I need to create a monthly diary layout to see it all on paper, I can do that too.

 

THE INDEX IS LIFE

Without a doubt the best thing about the Bullet Journal is the index, it’s such a simple idea but I’d never used it in my previous notebooks. It allows me to be spontaneous with what’s inside because I know that just by looking at the index I can find the page I need. You just have to get into the habit of adding every new page you start to the index!

 

So to summarise, I’ve basically taken the Bullet Journal idea, stripped it right back and made it my own. I don’t really use it like you should anymore with the key and all the different ‘labels’ but this is how it works for me. I need a notebook that I can dip in and out of whenever I need to use it but one that doesn’t take over my time. I hope this was a helpful update and good luck with your own Bullet Journal!

Photos by Lydia Collins 

I want to start this post by telling you about my notebook obsession. Like many people, I have a stationery addiction and have done since school… since the days where I desperately tried to over compensate for the lack of revision by buying all the revision supplies. I’d say I currently go through around 6 notebooks a year.

Last week I came across “Bullet Journaling” – journaling isn’t really a word we use in the UK, but let’s just go with it for now. It was created by a guy called Ryder Carroll who’s a digital product designer living in Brooklyn and it’s essentially a format created for writing in your notebook and keeping it more organised. I often start notebooks but then end up changing it half way through and there’s not much order to the pages inside, a few timelines but other than that there are endless pages of lists in no particular order.

I started looking into Bullet Journaling and began by watching Ryder’s video and although I found it quite confusing and overwhelming I still liked the fundamental idea and I became obsessed with creating order in my daily notebook. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube where others show what’s inside their Bullet Journal (the whole camera face down on your notebook thing is very popular on YouTube) what I found though was that most of them were from America and it was hard for me to relate to such a different lifestyle. I also found that most people use it for every day living, for shopping lists, wellbeing goals not for work where as I only really use my notebooks for work. So after watching hundreds of videos and looking at hundreds of images on Pinterest I think I’ve found the right place to start and I’m sure as the months go on my notebook will adapt to my needs. I found Boho Berry’s blog post and videos good for inspiration, so definitely check her out before you start.

I ordered this LEUCHTTURM 1917 A5 notebook from Amazon, he says any notebook would do but I wanted it to be small enough that I can carry it in my handbag if I need to and I wanted it to have page numbers – this is pretty essential. I also like how this notebook opens flat and I chose to get a Dotted book to encourage creativity within my notebook. I felt like lines would restrict any doodles/tables and squares just make me think of a maths book.

I won’t try and explain Bullet Journaling to you, Ryder’s video can do that (also the written instructions on the website are easy to follow), instead I’ll show you what I’ve done inside mine. Please note that I’m showing it as a shell, once it’s filled it becomes quite confidential and private so although it doesn’t yet look pretty, you get the idea…

I started with the Key, something I can refer back to if I’m unsure of the symbols. I then created a Main Index, the original format suggests only one index but as I’ll be using this for endless blog post and video brainstorms I wanted to keep that separate so it’s less confusing. The page numbers are written next to the topic (after you’ve created the topic page) so it can easily be found in the notebook. I then drew out my own 2016 calendar and this is mainly so I can have an overview of the year or turn to it if I need to find a date/day quickly.

On the following page is the Future Log and I find this bit slightly confusing but as far as I’m aware it can be the next few months (or 6) where “tasks” are moved to at the end of a week if you decide to “Schedule” it and save it for a future month. The next page is a “Brain Dump” page, as it sounds, a place to write anything random that you need to get on paper.

I then created a Statistics Tracker where I can keep track of my stats – although I might not keep this up, numbers aren’t everything it just might be interesting to see how things progress and change throughout the year. Then comes the Monthly Log where the month is written out on one page and you can use this like a monthly calendar. On the opposite page you can write any key tasks that you want to get done that month.

Following the Monthly Log comes the Daily Log which is ultimately like your daily to do lists but you don’t plan them ahead, you do them day-by-day. It’s also here that you use the Key using bullet points for a task, a cross for completion, circle for event, star for priority and left and right arrows for scheduling and migrating (moving with you to the following month). You can add any symbols to the key if you need to.

At the back of the book, using the bookmarks so I can easily access them, I put in my most important pages. My Video Schedule and Blog Schedule, where I have the date, title and a tick list. For my videos I use FEISFT which stands for filmed, edited, info box, scheduled, Facebook, tweets and for my blog I use PTSFT which stands for photos, text, scheduled, Facebook, tweets. I can easily keep track here of what has been done and what is left to do. I like to keep them separate as I plan my videos much further ahead and it gives me a clearer idea of what’s coming up. I add the videos into the blog schedule as I post them on here the following day.

So, how’s your mind? Blown. Yeah, I felt that way too. It’s completely overwhelming and confusing but I think once you get it, it can be life changing. I’m excited to see how it works for me and don’t worry, if it’s a complete flop I’ll be sure to tell you! If you want to sort of do it but not really, I’d say take inspiration from the index idea and the idea of filling in your notebook month by month. That’s the fundamental part of Bullet Journaling that I think is really useful.

So, will you be trying the Bullet Journal?

After a month of daily vlogging; filming, editing and uploading every day, I thought I’d share some of my learnings and advice for any of you thinking of doing the same. It’s hard but completely worth it… stats aside, it’s incredibly rewarding on a personal level. I find it really helps you get to know your audience better and of course let them into your world to get to know you better. So here’s what I learnt from Every Day May.

Be Prepared //
When you commit to daily vlogging, I think it’s important to try your very best to meet that daily deadline. You don’t want something stupid like a dead battery to ruin your routine so stock up on all the equipment you’ll need for the month. I purchased a spare battery from Amazon, a spare memory card from My Memory and I was fully prepared to have to repurchase a camera if something were to happen to my current one. I had an “on the go” kit ready at all times that included my laptop, laptop charger, headphones, memory card adapter and external hard-drive. Daily vlogging isn’t like doing weekly videos, you need to be flexible and be prepared to edit and upload on the go wherever you are. The more flexible you allow yourself to be, the easier it is. Purchasing an external hard-drive is a good idea as you’ll have so much more footage than you’re used to and you don’t want it to clog up on your computer space.

Get Confident //
Vlogs just don’t work with huge gaps in between “scenes” so you have to just get used to vlogging in public. It’s embarrassing at first and people look at you like you’re a) really strange b) an over keen tourist or c) trying to be like one of those internet people they’ve heard of. I really struggled with this at first and sometimes still do, but I find reminding myself of a few things helps. This is my job, this is what I love to do, lots of lovely people like to watch it and if that person looking knew all those things they probably wouldn’t think it was that weird. If you’re not sure how your friends/family feel about being in videos just ask them outright – “do you mind being in my video, it means that X amount of people will see you?”. I always assumed my friends and family didn’t want to be in my videos, but Every Day May actually made me realise a lot of them love being a part of what I do and getting involved.

Think In Video //
Although my daily vlogs aren’t planned out I find it helps to think in video format. I know that my vlogs are usually 10 minutes long and if you think about it, that really isn’t that long when you have 24 hours to play with. Film snippets that you want to include, but also feel free to have breaks and gaps as it’ll make the whole process a bit less exhausting. Try and be considerate to yourself by filming clips that are easier to edit together i.e, lots of non-talking clips in a row or an intro segment before a montage.

Create Order //
During Every Day May I made a playlist on my YouTube channel for all the vlogs and I think that it was helpful to a lot of people who can’t watch daily, but like to catch up in bulk instead. I also had pre-made thumbnails so that all I had to do every day was change the photo and text, without having to re-insert the text etc.

I could probably go on and on but for now those are the tips I feel might be able to help any of you thinking about daily vlogging. Thanks for all your support and kind comments during Every Day May, I couldn’t have done it without you!