First off, thank you for
giving me this opportunity to post on your blog. I don’t typically have much to
say, but I have plenty to say on this particular topic.
For the rest of you, hi,
I’m Jessica, one of Shannon’s really close friends and ideally a future
neuroscientist. I usually have a lot on my plate when it comes to school, and
like most other people I need to write things down in order to remember
everything I have to do. Throughout my school career I’ve tried keeping track
of using several different planners and random notebooks, but I’ve found that
none of them really worked for me. I’d still find myself forgetting
assignments, missing important meetings, and having to go searching through the
four notebooks I always have on hand just to find one idea I wrote down earlier
that day. Basically, I was a mess.
Then last summer, I
discovered the Bullet Journal.
The Bullet Journal is,
simply put, a journal full of lists. The original idea was developed by Ryder
Carroll as an alternative to normal planners and journals, because it’s a
system that the user creates themselves. Think of it as a DIY planner. All you
need is a notebook!
Okay, you’re thinking,
why is this any different than any other planner?
Well hypothetical
questioner, it’s different because you can do literally whatever you want with
it. You can go strictly by Ryder’s method (link
here), or you can mix it
around like many Bullet Journalists on the Internet do. It gives you the
ability to use what you want and only what you want, unlike with store-bought
planners.
For one thing, Bullet
Journals typically have an index and a key at the beginning so you can keep
track of what all the bullets and other markings mean as well as where all of
your important pages are. It’s also an ever-changing thing; if you decide to
tweak something, like add color or a tracker for developing habits, then you
can do that at any time you like. There’s no pressure for you to use the same
system for a year straight. You can even add extra stuff around your daily
planning pages, like random grocery lists or sketches.
Really, the Bullet
Journal is more than just a DIY planner. It’s a companion for the whole year. You’ll
carry it around all the time so that you can copy down assignments, cool
sayings, book ideas, a new book for your to-read list – the possibilities are
endless. And you’ll never have to worry about running out of space.
If you want to know more
about the Bullet Journal system, check out Ryder Carrol’s website at http://bulletjournal.com/get-started/, and follow me on Tumblr at http://butterflywingsit.tumblr.com/. I highly recommend it if you’re tired of
store-bought planners too. And Shannon, I’ll see you the next time you post.
