Creative Expression through Journaling and Planning

1. Introduction: Hello, everyone. My name is Sabrina, and I'm here to guide you on a creative path through bullet journaling. This is an analog system designed by writer Carol and I quote to track the past, organized the president and plan for the future. I've used the system since January 2018 and it's done me wonders by lowering my stress levels, alleviating my anxiety and increasing my mood. Most importantly, it's helped me stay organized while tapping into my creative side. In this class, you'll learn more about bullet journaling, where to find inspiration and how to make a weekly spread to help you with your productivity and boost your creativity. Now you may be thinking, I don't have one of those fancy notebooks. That's okay. All you need is a pen and paper to get started. You may also be thinking I don't have time to make my own personalized planner. Bola Journaling actually helps you save time and helps you become more productive. And one more thing you might be thinking, and unfortunately I hear this often, but I'm not creative enough. I don't think that's true for anyone, because to be creative, you have to start creating. That's why I'm so glad that you're here so we can start creating together. No. Grab that pen and paper. Thank yourself for finding the time for you to start your bullet journal journey and let's get started. 2. Supplies: to get started on bullet journaling. All you really need is a piece of paper and a pen. I recommend using a pencil. I like using a mechanical pencil and an eraser. This little guy erases more detailed spots. I recommend using micron pens. They have different sized Nimes. I use the thicker side for titles in the smaller than ever used more. For for more detailed work, I have this Prisma color brush pin that I like using. However, I'm not the best at brush lettering, but it makes my spreads look a little more interesting. If you really want to get into brush lettering, I recommend using these Tom Bo dual brush pens. They have a brush pen on one side and a thicker niv on the opposite side. If you're interested in brush lettering, there's some really awesome skills share classes to learn more about it. The last pendant going to show you is this white jelly pen I like using it to fix small mistakes as well is that highlights toe? Have some fun details. There's also this dual cited white out pin that has a pen on one side and a brush on the other This is really good for fixing larger mistakes again. All you really need is a piece of paper. Some people like using blanks, sketchbooks. Some people like water coloring and adding some magazine clippings and other mixed media for their journals. You can get a journal that's lined that has aligned grid, but I recommend using a dot grid notebook. This one here is Ah, Lloyd Term 1917 um, actually going to be using this for the entirety of the class. As you can see, there is a grid made up of dots. It helps keep things in line and very organized. There are all kinds of doctored notebooks out there, but I think that the Louis trim is a really good start. Erred Bullet Journal notebook. So those are your basic bullet journal supplies. To get more creative, I recommend using some fun, colorful markers. These Crayolas Super Tips markers are inexpensive and fun to use their also a good start to practicing brush lettering if you're interested in that color. Pens are also fun to use that these air stability pens that come in all kinds of colors. A lot of people like using the zebra mid liner highlighters. They come in some funky colors that you're not used to seeing in highlighters. Next, another fund told user stencils, If you don't think that your lettering is that great, there are stencils for letters and numbers. I'll show you in a little bit how I used my circle templates. One easy way to add some pizazz to your notebook are stickers. I got these for my friend Sarah. Plan. Full washi tape. Zehr an easy and fun way toe. Add color and pattern to your journal. Now I'd like to show you a few examples of me using these tools in another dot grid notebook from Dingbats. This is a mood tracker used with a compass to create a larger circle. I used micron pens and a Tom bow marker to fill in my mood. For this page, I listed values of what I hope for in a dream job. So used the letter stencils to create bold letters. I used the Corolla markers for a pop of color, the Migron pens for my lettering, the Tommo pen to fill in the letters in dream. On top of the black ink, I used my white jelly pento add little stars and fun details. Okay, so I don't always get this crazy, but I really wanted to do a West Anderson theme for September, so I used my circle templates to create space for my days of the week. I had a tons of color using my Crayola Super Tips markers. I used my micron pens. I also used my white jelly Pento add some details and depth to my drawing. So all of these tools are not a requirement to start bullet journaling, but they are suggestions on ways to get creative, and the next segment we're going to start setting up our bullet journals. 3. Starting Your Bullet Journal: if you have a bunch of ideas floating around in your mind, events you don't want to forget or task you need to do a bullet journal is a perfect place to keep all this organized. And in one spot I am going to use his dot grid notebook to show you how to get your bullet journal set up. First, we have our index, not old journals have this, which means you can always create your own. You keep your page numbers on the left in list of description of that page on the right. So later on, if you're wondering what page you put your march monthly spread on, you can easily access it by using this index. The first page that I'm including is a key or legend. Here. I'm listing tasks, events and appointments. I like to include other signifiers like notes, research inspiration, but you can choose the ones that best suit your needs. I use a right facing arrow for migrated tasks, which means that I didn't complete it. A need to add it on to the next month or week to complete it later on in the next few pages will have our future log. This is basically a year to glance. Spread with three months per page, you can list important events, birthdays, holidays, whatever is important to you that is happening in the future. Oh, look, I already made my first mistake. This is why the white out brush really comes in handy. So don't worry. Mistakes happen. That's why I like bullet journaling. You're not aiming for perfection. You're just aiming for self development. Each month has space for important items, big or small, but of course, the smaller items air better listed in your monthly and weekly logs. The future log is a spread that I personally use once or three times a month, but it's a nice overview when you think of bigger picture planning. You don't have to write all of the days of the year like I am, but this is just in initial set up. Some people think it's a tedious task, but I see it is therapeutic because doing this puts me in the present moment, even if it's just writing numbers and I feel as if it's setting me up for success. Next comes our monthly log. Now we're narrowing down our focus from a year down to each month. A simple way to lay out this spread is to list out each day of the month and next to it. Put the first letter of each day next to that number. I like to highlight my Sundays and Saturdays to better break up the page on the right page . You have space to list out in bullet form all your tasks and goals you want to get done in the month. You can go back to your key to remember the symbols you want to use for tasks, events, appointments, etcetera. This shows that the key really comes in handy now. Personally, I like laying out my monthly pages in a standard calendar format. This isn't required, but that's what I love about bullet journaling. The more you do it, the sooner you'll find out what works best for you. And it's so customizable. There's really no wrong way to do this. I like having a space for doodles, a space for notes and a little look into what's going on in the next month. This may seem like a lot at first, but trust me. Once you dive in, you'll be happy you did before I do a quick overview. I want to go back into my index and write down what pages I put my key, my future logs and my monthly log, so it's easy to access later on. So let's look at all the pages that we created. We have our index are key few pages for Future Log and our monthly log. I made this page to show you in a storyboard form. How to set everything up. You ever index are key future log monthly log and weekly log. If you have any questions about setting up your bullet journal, please leave a comment and I'll answer as soon as I can. Next, we will go deeper into planning by setting up weekly spreads. 4. Basic Weekly Spreads: Now we'll be going over weekly spreads, which are my favorite to set up, and I'll show you three different layouts. The first is quite simple. On the left page, I listed out each day of the week. I start my weeks on Sundays and some people start There's on Mondays, so modify these as you need. Some people also like to combine their Saturdays and Sundays together, but I like to treat each day individually by giving each an equal space on the right page. I have room till his tasks, goals and other items that are important, like a to do list grocery list, meal planning, really whatever you like. Here is another easy way to set up a weak start by breaking up both pages into quadrants, giving you eight equal spaces seven for each day of the week and one for a doodle quote or habit tracker. Or you can out of Look into the next week like I dio. The third example is the layout I use most frequently. I like to create an equal section for each day in the center, then on the sides I can place a quick look at the entire month a goals list. Ah, look into the next week and I even have enough room to add sketches, a gratitude log or other funds stuff. Having these sections in your weekly spreads are not a requirement. Use whatever you need to keep you productive and creative. Thes three weekly spreads are available is pdf's for you to download, print out or trace in your journal to help you get started. These will be the foundation for your class project, which I will explain later on in the class. Next, I'll show you examples of my past weekly spreads and other fund pages that you can add to your bullet journal. 5. Examples & Bonus Pages: I thought it would be helpful to show you some more examples of pages that I've created in my bullet journal. The doctor notebook I'm currently using is from Dingbats, which I showed you earlier in the class. They have really cute designs and great quality paper, by the way, the pages I'll be sharing. Or from August 2018 where used a minimalist mountain theme. I have a monthly log, five weekly spreads and a few bonus pages towards the end. The first page has a quick calendar view of the month in some doodles. The next page shows my monthly log in a list format, and there's a spot to write out my goals at the top. This was the first time I used this set up, which helped me realize that I prefer using the calendar layout. Now everyone says that their pages differently, but I like to start my first weekly spread with the first day of the month, which is why there are only four days shown. You can also see that I used the entire right page to write in a quote which kept me motivated throughout the month. The second week is kind of a mess, but that's OK. I just what I needed, including a goal section, a look into the next week of to do list and enough space for drying out. So mountains. This weekly spread was created by breaking up the pages into quadrants, just like the example I showed you in the previous section. However, I used my doodles to break up the boxes in a fun and interesting way, and I made room to add in a look at the whole month of August. The fourth week is honestly, a bit wild. Bart are wanted to try out something different, so here I have equal spaces to list out tasks. But I wanted to see how my mood waas and what I ate for each day. I also made a spot to write down a happy thought or word, which actually helped increase my mood and daily positivity. Here is the last weekly spread, which is my favorite to set up again. I start my weeks on Sundays, and I'm only showing sixties here because the month ended on Friday the 31st. So instead of using a look into the next week, I made a box to look into the next month. This spread has everything I need, including a box for weekly goals to achieve another inspirational quote and even more mountain doodles. Next, our ideas for bonus pages. I started an INSTAGRAM account earlier this year and I wanted to learn how to grow my following. So I made this instagram engagement tracker, which is inspired by my friend Sarah at plant full. You know the same friend where I got my stickers from? Well, she has a great block that you should check out, which explains this tracker in greater detail. On the right, I placed my circle mood tracker. Some people like using a longer list of specific feelings and moods, but I wanted to be more general and simple by using great okay and bad, which just works better for me. Also, it's need to go back and see how I felt throughout the month. I guess you can say that this is proof that bullet journaling really helps improve your mood. Next is my morning routine. Since I was having trouble getting my days started, I created this morning routine to help me be more energized, more mindful, and more productive throughout the day. One of my favorite activities to do is to go camping. Since I went camping in August, it made sense to make a checklist of things I needed to pack, just in case I didn't forget something important. I also made a list of things I needed to get for the next trip. At the bottom left, I added a camping log to look back at my experiences and on the right, I had some fun with lettering and appropriate quote in doodling some more mountains. Along with camping, The month of August was quite busy and full of big projects to Dio. For this reason, I created a project tracker, the pages Air broken up into to do lists, important dates and notes, which kept me organized and made sure that my projects ran smoothly. So those were all the pages I created for August. Let me show you a few more pages that might give you some more ideas. These last four pages were made in September as entries for a bullet journal challenge called Pump Up your Journal, hosted by my friends Vera and Masha. The challenge was to write out why I love my job tasks you can do in 15 minutes. A work routine somewhat similar to my morning routine and my dream job, which I showed you in the beginning of the class. I hope all this gave you a better idea on how you can use your bullet journal and what pages you can use to be more productive as well as creative. Next, I'll show you a couple more examples and how you can find inspiration. 6. Inspiration: you can find inspiration almost anywhere, and I think a great place to start is the Internet, especially with Pinterest. So I'm here and Pinterest and I'm going to search for bullet Journal. There are tons of ideas on what spreads you could make differently out options and themes you can incorporate to pique your creativity. Look, there's even a bullet journalist idea. So if you ever need some help on what pages you might want to use, this would be a good go to. So I'm going to go back and let's say you want to make a page that helps organize your expenses. So what type of bullet Journal expenses. So look, there are many wonderful ideas on how to organize your bills, income and savings so it won't take up space in your mind. Next, let's say you want to track your workouts. I'm gonna type in workouts. Look at that. All kinds of ways to track your gym visits and work out sessions. One more item. I'd like to surges. Minimalist Bullet journal. This is what I did to search for inspiring spreads for my minimalist mountain theme in August that I showed you in the last segment along with Pinterest Instagram is another awesome resource for inspiration. So in here I'm going to search for similar things that I search for in Pinterest. But we'll definitely get different posts. One page that I like to show you. They're called the Art of Bhuj. Oh, and if you're wondering, Boo Joe is short for Bullet journal. The Art of Boo Joe Instagram account is hosted by my inner creative and her name is Nikola . She shares all kinds of bullet journal spreads from all over the world of Instagram. You don't necessarily have to search for bullet journal related content because you can be inspired by pretty much anything. Lately I've been inspired by lettering layouts, and here are a couple of pages that have given me inspiration. So here, Lauren Hamad, home Sweet Home has really interesting lettering layouts and is a creative entrepreneur. Next, I'd like to show you the greater good. Elizabeth Grey also creates some really interesting lettering layouts about her introverted personality and her love for coffee. So Pinterest and instagram is a good place to start To find some inspiration, I'd like to show you some more examples on previous themes I created in my bullet journal. My background is an interior design, and one of my favorite design styles is Art Deco. Back in March, I bought a gold metallic pen so I could create funky patterns for an Art Deco theme. I use this style in my lettering and patterns throughout my monthly log and weekly spreads . For May, I was inspired by an artist named Marlow Moss, who is an abstract constructivist painter. My monthly log and weekly spreads came out to be quite minimalist, but I used a subtle pop of yellow color and a variety of geometric shapes. In July, I went a little crazy, Bart. It was well worth it because I love Harry Potter. I made a title page from Harry's Glasses, a monthly page inspired by wizards chest and my weekly spreads were inspired by like potions class. The different houses, wands, all kinds of aspects from Harry Potter. I hope this inspiration section inspires you to find different spreads to include in your bullet journal and different ways to lay them out in a creative way. Next will be getting creative 7. Get Creative: for this section, we will be getting creative with our bullet journals. I'm coming back to the three layouts I created earlier, and I'm gonna jazz them up by using different supplies I mentioned in the beginning of the class for the first weekly spread. I chose to use a Creole, a marker in some washi tapes toe add some bright colors and a pattern to start off. I added boxes with slight shadows around the days and separated them with the yellow line and added some sparkles to the top. I blocked off the tasks and goals by adding washi tape so I can add a habit trekker and quote at the bottom of the page. I used pencil to sketch it out first, just to make sure it fits the way I wanted to buy, then added pen and marker to finalize it. The habits I usually track our drinking water. No spending money and going to the gym. You can put one habit, 10 habits. It's up to you. The quote I picked was shortened to the point. I like how it sets a positive mood or intention for the week. Now. I don't expect for your pages to look just like this. You might want to use different colors out of their items that suit your life or switch up the layout. This is another reason why I love bullet journaling, No two pages, air exactly the same and the ones you create or personal to you. Next is the layout that is broken up into eight equal spaces, and I'll be keeping this one quite minimal. I chose to use my stickers for my friend Sarah at plant full midline er, highlighters and stability colored pens. I highlighted each day and separated the boxes in order to list events, appointments or even a positive thought every day. I like how calming the color scheme is and how simple it came out. It's need how a little color can go a long way for the last weekly log. I use my Creole a markers, but this time I went with an earthy look. I added in the dates for the month and highlighted which week I'm on. I doodled some little cactuses in the corners to at the bottom box. I ended up placing another habit tracker. I filled it in just so you could see how it may eventually look by the end of the week. There's also this spot to list out what I'm grateful for. All this one came out kind of cute. Anyway, these were just a few quick and easy ways to make your bullet journal more colorful, personal and creative, which will lead you to becoming more productive and organized for the class project. I want to see how you can create a fun and interesting weekly spread that is also functional and relative to you. Tap into your creativity by choosing a theme, making some patterns, using bold colors or keeping it minimal. It's all up to you. I'm excited to see what you can create. 8. Final Thoughts: I see you made it through the class. I hope you enjoy bullet journaling and find it is useful as it has been for me. Remember, this is just for fun and for your own self development, please reach out with any questions that pop up and post your weekly spreads to the project page. You can use the PDS I provided to get you started or create your very own. Don't be afraid to keep it simple. And don't be afraid to get wild. I can't wait to see your creation. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll see you next time.