Bullet Journaling for Self Care and Productivity

1. Introduction: Hi. My name is Wanda and I'm a freelance data analyst that is obsessed with bullet journaling. This is my first class on skill share. We gotta leave them in this my very first class on skill share. And I am so excited that you have taken the time to check it out. Thank you so much. How does bullet journaling boost productivity before we cover that? It's important to understand what exactly? Bullet journaling ISS, a designer by the name of writer Carol, created the system some years ago tohave an analog way to track tasks in a digital world. If you're interested in how he came up with the system and more about the specific basics behind bullet journaling and the system he uses, I would encourage you to go to bullet journaling dot com. It's a fantastic resource, and it's where it all started. In this class are goes to figure out what aspects of bullet journaling work for you to bring you one step closer to your best and most productive self rather than focusing on the original bullet journaling method. Because there are great videos about that out already about figuring out which spreads and layouts you enjoy creating the most to help you get to a consistent planning practice. We'll be talking about what tools you need from most to least affordable and which ones you might want to save up for. Not everyone can afford zebra mild liners or alleged term or most get notebook, so we'll talk about which tools are worth saving up for a swell. From there, we'll talk about the most common types of layouts and spreads used in the bullet journaling system. We'll even design one of these layouts as part of your class project. Whichever one is most exciting to you. We'll talk about how to prepare these layouts ahead of time as a creative practice and how you can have fun with it and even added himself care. Later on, we'll talk about how to stay consistent when overwhelmed will even talk about best practices and how to handle missing days or weeks near Bullet Journal. As life inevitably gets in the way, I'm hoping by the end of this class, you've created your ultimate bullet journaling spread. I hope this class acts as creative fuel to get your projects on paper and practice self care while you're at it most of all, I hope you have fun. I'm so grateful to you for being here, so let's get started. 2. Tools You'll Need: before we start working on our bullet journal or boo Joe layouts, as some people like to call them, let's talk really quickly about the tools you want tohave. If you've ever browse the bullet journal hashtag on instagram or tumblr, you'll know that part of the bullet journaling system is very often over glamorized, with a focus on aesthetically pleasing posts. The truth of the matter is this. All you need is a piece of paper and pen our pencil. Truly, you can choose tools you already have at your disposal, especially if you're anything like me and tend to purchase way too many notebooks when you have several already waiting to be used. It's important to consider your goal in order to know what tools you need. It's good to think about what your goal with bullet journaling ISS I, for example, usable it journaling as something like a scrapbook. Because of this, I use copious amounts of stickers, photographs and different types of paper to add interesting pops of color and texture. Over the years, my bullet journaling practice has become a form of creative expression, so I've experimented with making my own stickers working on my own drawings later in colors . Ultimately, knowing what your goal is for bullet journaling will help you decide what you need. If you're a very, very busy person, you might not have time to put tons of stickers on your bullet journaling layouts, but you might find later on as you go through it that you have time to add stickers. It's really up to you how you do it. But the point of the matter the point of bullet journaling is to stick to it consistently more than it. If you're limited on time and don't really have time to draw entirely outs by yourself, it's worth noting that the creator of the bullet journaling system has created an entire journal that you can purchase online. Other popular ready made options are the Khobar Nietzsche system, which I'm actually trying out this year for the first time. However, because the Hoban each touch Oh is something like $35 for the entire year I worked in the notebook I already liked for a year and 1/2 I believe Teoh, see if the layout worked for me before I purchased it, I found us. I've worked on bullet journals through the years that I appreciate paper that can take a variety of mediums. I love coping markers, but the notebook paper I used as well as the hobo Nici cannot take it for this purpose. Zebra mild liners are useful as they typically don't bleed through paper. I personally really loved the Madore E M D notebook, which I pressed, purchased in bulk off of Amazon. It has the creamiest paper and is available in lined graph and blank paper, which I personally love so much that I used it for over two years in a row. And to be honest and probably going to go back to that system after I finished my hope on each, you picked your paper or notebook or even digital format. If that's preferable to you, I don't know. I'm old fashioned. You'll need a pencil and a ruler. Additionally, you want glue? Were double stick tape of some kind. What I use is this Tom Bo double stick tape, which comes in a pack of three for about 10 or $15 at Michael's. The truth of the matter is, when I run out of this stuff, I use a regular old glue stick or a bit of glue until I'm ready to commit to the investment again. It took me probably a year of bullet journaling to realize that many people actually work on their designs in pencil before Anqing it. I can't even believe to tell you how silly I felt when I realized I could practice what I wanted to draw right and before committing to it. Pretty simple stuff, common sense. But there you go. First sign that it doesn't need to be perfect right at the start. 3. Class Project: before we launch into the different types of layouts you can use in your bullet journal, let's talk about the class project. You'll be working on a journaling spread of your choice. Pick whatever excites you the most, and whether that means the daily spread, weekly spread or monthly spread, I want you to share it in the class Project gallery. Here's a few steps to help you get through. Schedule yourself an hour for journaling. Commit to it. Choose the layout that you want to work on. We'll go through the different types here in just a second in the next video, do it in pencil first and upload your in progress shots to the gallery as well. I'd be really interested to see them choose a layout that you want to work on. Whether it's the daily spread, weekly spread or monthly spread, we're going to look through all of my old bullet journals. Teoh, get some examples. If you share your spread on social media, make sure to use the hashtag brave boo joe so that I can see your beautiful work. Remember, you're finished. Project should allow you enough space to be present and actually lived through your week or month or day. Feel free to post before and after photos or screenshots of your layouts. Share them with me from week to week here if you want. If that's what helps you, stay consistent. Now that we've covered with the class project is, let's talk about the layouts you can work on and see if they give you any inspiration. 4. Layout Types: There are three types of spreads or layouts that people use. Wild bullet journaling the monthly, weekly and daily spread. A monthly spread usually looks like this. You basically have a monthly calendar and can put your goals and important dates underneath . The rest of it is up to you. A daily spread is a little simpler. You have one page per day. Where you right? Just a few goals You want to get done that day, whichever one you choose to work on and whichever one you use is really all a matter of preference and trying it out to see what works for you. When I first started bullet journaling, I used Onley weekly spreads. Let me show you what they used to look like. So you get an idea of how far if come, feel free to positive video to take a closer look. The basic idea of this type of spread is an overview on the left side for every single day of the week, and then as you go through the week, you write down tasks for every single day. In the past, this was my favorite type of spread to make. I found that I could be the most creative one. Working on a weekly spread. I made attempts that monthly spreads, but they frankly seem to take up too much space and didn't really work for me. Additionally, because I was writing the information multiple times over the course of the week and month , it felt like it was a little redundant. As I worked on my bullet journal from week to week, I tried to figure out which layouts work best for me. Habit trackers, as you can see through these multitudes of examples, didn't really work for me at all. The layouts were fun to make, but I never had the time to fill the men unless it was in the weekly spread. You can see an example of where it actually worked right here, because I would also use up entire notebooks in about a month or so or in about three months or so. I often had to re copy a lot of the lists and other trackers that I used into new notebooks , which was horribly time conceived. In an effort to use the monthly spread more effectively, I began to see it as a goal setting space the hobo nici techo is particularly good for this every single month. It has a page where you can look ahead and write down your goals for the month, and that's worked really well for me so far. This reduced the pressure. I felt feeling that I had to copy everything from my monthly spread to my weekly spread. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed making weekly spreads until I couldn't anymore. This is the reason I say I'll probably go back to my Medora notebooks so I could bring back my weekly spreads. For me. That was the place where I found the most joy and the most space to be creative and use lots of color. In the end, the spreads and layout format you use is up to you when trying to decide on a spread to work on for your class project. Consider this. Which spread do you think will help you be more productive? Also, ask yourself, which sounds like the most fun to make. If the to align, start there 5. Preparing Layouts + Consistency: Now it's time to talk about preparing layouts for this. Make sure you have your notebook of choice. Pencil and ruler. Bring out all your other supplies if you feel inclined to do so for this exercise, you want to give yourself, at least in our if it hopes, right out of task list for the week before you've been starting so that you know which things you need to leave space for to write down for the sake of time. We're going to speed things up a bit on my and so you get an idea of how this looks. Does preparing the layout feel super overwhelming? After watching the previous video, try not to worry about it too much. Truth is, I've had three or possibly four years now of practice, working on bullet journaling spreads many of my bullet journaling pages that I didn't like . I actually ended up pasting paper over or skipping, leaving blank, and for a long time you used to be really hard on myself for doing this. But as time passed, I realized that I was just figuring out which layouts worked for me. With enough time of practice, I was able to figure out exactly what worked for me. What I'm saying is the class project is your opportunity to get messy, have fun with it, had as much Washington was want color all over the place. But remember to still have a place to put your tasks, because ultimately that's what Bullet journaling is. It's a really, really great combo of goal setting and self care. And that's the main reason why I'm making this video. It's one of my favorite things to do. Tip. I have to stay consistent with bullet Journaling is to pick a day every week that you sit down for an hour and work on it. Start by taking that first stuff you'll miss. Some weeks you'll rip out some pages or even paste over them. It's okay if working on your bullet journal brings you peace in your really overwhelmed life if you are so busy. But putting Washington on a bunch of notebook pages makes you really excited. It's worth doing and you'll keep doing. Don't be too hard on yourself, though, if you don't want to. If this doesn't work for you, it's totally okay. That's part of the reason why planners exist, ready made and you can still design those. And I didn't stickers in Washington. If you want to. In the next video, we'll talk about best practices and how to take care of yourself through this whole figuring it out process. It's okay to skip days or weeks, Remember, it's okay. You can always start up. 6. Best Practices and Taking Care of You!: life gets hella busy sometimes, doesn't it? There have definitely been days and weeks in my bullet journaling when the last thing I wanted to do was prep any type of way out on weeks like those, I stick my tasks on a post it note and move on. Sometimes there just isn't enough time for it. All that being said, there are a couple different things you can do to start making a consistent bullet. Journaling practice. Hear those tips. Remember that it's okay to plan ahead. The creator of the bullet journaling method is a big proponent of going day to day in your spreads and not prepping in advance. If this works for you. Great. I, for one, am a person that likes to look a little farther ahead. This is one of the reasons weekly spreads work so well for me. Sometimes the easiest thing you can do is leave a little extra room to fill things in. Remember that it's okay to miss some time. I know we've talked about this in the previous video, but truly I can't begin to tell you how Maney notebooks I've wasted in my young years simply because I would lose consistency and stop working on it. I would be so hard on myself for letting this happen that I wouldn't touch notebooks for years and like guilt that you feel for not following through. I felt that, too. Don't worry, it's all something we go through. But it's okay to miss days or weeks. As long as you find a bit of time to make yourself a cup of tea, lay out all of your supplies and open your notebook. Once again, you'll be good to go. Don't be too hard on yourself. It really is okay. Honestly, when working on figuring out a planner of productivity system that works for you, the biggest lesson is to be kind to yourself. And remember that we all start somewhere. You're not going to have the perfect hashtag aesthetic spread right from the start. So don't worry about that so much, you're going to make mistakes, and that's okay. The other thing you should remember is that figuring this out is not a static thing. A spread that might work for you one week might not work the next. You don't have to stick to the same exact system every single time, so it's important to check in with yourself every week and see what's working and what's not. A lot of people that are in the bullet journal community take advantage of a monthly review , where they look back on all of the spreads that they've made over the course of a month and write down what worked and what didn't. If you're finding it hard to set aside time to do bullet journaling, invite a friend for a coffee or sudden alarm on your phone. You'd be surprised how easy it is to stay consistent once you have a little bit of accountability. In the end, remember to go easy on yourself for this practice to work and to actually boost your productivity, we need to encourage yourself through the process and be kind 7. Conclusion: and that's it. That's the end of the class. You might have gotten to the end of this class and realized we didn't directly talk about productivity. The truth of the matter is, when you are kind to yourself, mindful of where you're at and willing to try new things, you'll be more productive. For me, Bullet journaling is a self care practice and a goal setting space. But for you it might be something totally different. So, really, this class was meant to challenge you to think about what makes you most productive in the day. Today, the bullet journaling spreads and talking about bullet journaling, this kind of secondary. But in the end, it's a fun way to be productive. So I really hope that you've enjoyed this class. Be sure to leave a review down below if you want to, and I will see you all in the next cross. There's another one coming. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate all of you so so much thanks for putting up with me and my nervousness and my jitteriness. I feel like I've been around a lot and I'm losing my voice and I've never done this before , but it's been a lot of fun, and I'm so thankful all of you for being here.