A Book Blogger’s Guide to Bullet Journaling

I’ve kept a diary since primary school and a bullet journal (even though I didn’t call it that), it was just a notebook I doodled in and wrote down my daily to-do lists which was mostly homework, chores and when my library books were due. I’ve come a long way since then and have been keeping an actual bullet journal for close to three years now. My bullet journals are handmade by me, I couldn’t afford one of those blank page ones so I watched a bunch of tutorials and have been making notebooks for my sisters and me ever since.

So to get to it, one of my yearly pages is “Wordpress Blog Ideas” I write all my fleeting ideas, I hardly use this because I forget it exists and use my Google Keep with the promise of writing it down later but that never happens and it’s fine.

Keeping a bullet journal isn’t supposed to be stressful and trying to keep it look perfect and Instagram-y can make it less about the organisation and more about the aesthetics.

This year I started a 5-star reads page which is where I write down all my five star rated books. So far I have The Poet X, Daughters of Nri, Lady Killers and some more.

September is the start of Spring this side so for my monthly page I chose flowers. On my quote page is “I want to know how to plant seeds; I want gardens, not graves” by Upile Chisala from her poetry book Nectar which I think is fitting for Spring. You can get inspiration for your quote from Pinterest depending on what your theme is for the month.

My Monthly Calendar used to overlap both pages but then I realised I didn’t need that much space because I don’t have a busy month enough to add appointments and shit. I use a pencil to outline using a ruler then go over it freehand with a black pen.

My TBR  was currently blank when I took this photo because I’m a big mood reader and don’t have any ARCs currently that I need to read. Reviews Due is the list of reviews that I need to write and publish for that month.

Blog Ideas and Goals – if I see a post or a blog meme that I’d like to do or recreate I write it down so I don’t forget who to credit but like my WordPress Blog Ideas I usually write it in my Keep app.

Tools

You don’t anything expensive to start a bullet journal.

• Brush pens – I bought a set of 14 for 5-7USD on Aliexpress, they took forever to arrive but they work fine.
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Old magazines – I cut out strips of pages and use them as washi tape
• Pens

That’s it really.

Bullet journal youtubers I recommend: Amanda Rach Lee her channel is very useful and her tutorials are amazing.

One thing that I’d like for people who are thinking of starting a bullet journal to know is to not stress about perfection. It can be a little intimidating when you see other journalists'(???) cool pages but just do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t have to be perfect and neat, it just has to be useful and fun to do. I bullet journal as a form of self-care which I find very relaxing.

Do you have a bullet journal? Or are you thinking of starting one?