Bullet Journals … nonsense or useful?

I’m an organiser and I love lists. I used to use a Filofax back in the days before I had back trouble and was told to lighten my handbag! And how do I miss the ‘all in one place’ nature it provided for gathering useful ‘stuff’. My old Filofax had everything from my diary to christmas/birthday present ideas, swatches of material and paint, all manner of interior measurements so that I could snap up a bargain any time I saw one out shopping, scrappy notes, ideas, thoughts, things to research later … I tried getting a smaller more slimline version, but it still proved to be too heavy.

I’ve never really found a suitable replacement. The advent of smartphones means that that now provides my diary and a place for notes, reminders and the like. I can’t carry round swatches, although I can take pictures of them. But we all know that photographing colours is an absolute minefield, don’t we?

So, I’ve kinda been on the look-out for something to replace my trusty old Filofax, ‘cos none of the scrappy little notebooks I sling into my handbag have proven up to the task. And then I started to hear chatter about Bullet Journals … and in these days of social media, I saw pictures too.

Torn between loving the idea of making something beautiful, of having an excuse for lots and lots of lovely stationery and wondering if it was just another fad, and would it work … I did, well, precisely nothing. But then a friend (@AlexaCollinsDes) tagged me asking why oh why I’d never mentioned such a thing to her (her being a fellow stationery fanatic). She followed it up the next day by sending me a gorgeous selection box of toile decorative tape …

and I knew then, it was going to happen. But it was going to stay at home, on my desk. I wasn’t going to carry it around with me, instead it would be the place I rushed to when I got home in order to transcribe ideas, snaps, and just about any and everything you could think of.

She also linked to a post about the BuJo where point 14 on the list highlighted why I’d done precisely nothing before … especially the item about making a mess of it and wanting to do it over again. So I decided I would not allow myself to do that. I started simple, with just an index and three months worth of days ruled up. No pretty bits, no fancy lettering, no coloured pens (all of which is a huuuuuuge shame) but, you know what, I’m using it … for all manner of stuff and I can already see that this really, truly could work for me. And once I get the hang of what I can do with it, the next journal is going to be absolutely gorgeous. In the meantime, I’m browsing Pinterest for ideas …

… about layouts and letterings, about lists and planners, and to figure out what might work well for me. I’m really quite excited about this.

To answer my question: a the bullet journal would prove useful, if having a diary, planner and to-do list all-in-one could streamline your planning. There’s absolutely no requirement at all to make it fancy – it can be totally simple, plain and unadorned. But … if you just lurve beautiful notebooks, pens, pencils, colours, decorative stickers and tape, well, welcome to your dream world!

© Debra Carey, 2017

Do you BuJo? If so, how do you do yours? All hints & tips most welcome!