how I've made bullet journaling work for me in the simplest way possible.

A few years ago I saw a bunch of buzz on Instagram around this thing called "bullet journaling" and knew immediately that it seemed like something my type A self would love. But because all of the photos I saw were of these elaborate spreads full of brush lettering, doodles, washi tape, and colored markers, I was inevitably more overwhelmed than excited. I have pretty OK handwriting that I often get complimented on, but beyond that, my hand-lettering could use some (read: A LOT) of work, and when it comes to doodling, I'm not one to think up cute little designs on the spot. Plus, creating weekly spreads each Sunday night that are full of life and "Instagram-worthy" just didn't seem like something I had time for. So I gave up the idea of bullet journaling even though I knew I'd love it all because I didn't think I'd have a journal "pretty enough."

But that was crap, and I'm so glad that after over a year of putting it off, I finally made the choice to purchase an olive green Leuchtturm A5 Dotted Notebook and dive into it headfirst on my own simple terms at the beginning of 2018.

One of the largest deciding factors was reading a book of an old coworker's: Dot Journaling—A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That'll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together. If you've considered bullet journaling but feel as overwhelmed as I was, Rachel's book is something you need to pick up or go check out at a bookstore. Her photo examples of bullet journaling are so simple — there's nothing elaborate, she didn't demonstrate spreads with over-the-top lettering or illustrations, and there are so many customizable ideas within its pages that gave me inspiration for what to put in my own journal.

Over nine months in, I've strayed pretty far from my original plan, which was already stripped-down a lot from the idea I had of bullet journaling in my head, but I will say, I'm more inspired than ever to keep it up in 2019.

As for supplies, I did purchase a pack of Tombow Dual Brush Pens in pastel colors, just to liven up the pages a bit. I mostly use the light pinks and purples to create headings on pages and separate to-do lists by date. My go-to pen is a black Pilot G-2 0.5, which shocks me, because before I started bullet journaling I prefered to write in only blue ink; but in Rachel's book the journal was done in black, and I loved the neat look. I started the journal out with what I had, which was a thicker felt-tip pen, and I'm so glad I got these instead — they don't smudge for the most part and they write thin and neat.

I read a lot about different pages to include in my journal aside from daily agendas — things like shopping lists, meal plan templates, and a list of movies and TV shows I want to watch, and went full-in on trying to recreate some of those for myself. The ones that I originally included because I thought I'd get the most use out of them, are as follows (the ones I've kept up with and still find useful for me are marked with an *).

FUTURE LOG: I created a future log, which is a four-page spread with three monthly calendars on each page, with room to write out important dates and events for the upcoming year. Although I felt that it kept me together in January, throughout the year I've stopped using it for the most part, because my phone's calendar is so much more efficient for keeping events and important dates in and up-to-date.

*2018 GOALS: I wrote out a few goals I had in January — to lose weight before a wedding in the Fall, to redo a few things around the apartment, and to read 30 books were a few on the list. Because it's so close to the beginning of my journal, I don't really go back to fill in new things, but I will say, I've definitely been able to keep the goals I did have on there in the forefront of my mind simply because I wrote them down. I'll definitely do this for 2019.

2018 WINS: I created this page so that I could look back on New Year's and see what I'd accomplished, and though I only filled in a few things in the first few months, I still love that it's there. I'm not 100% sure I'll include it next year, unless I'm willing to make a more conscious effort to fill it in, but we'll see.

"WHEN DID I LAST?": This page was taken out of Rachel's book and lists a bunch of common things that you always forget when you last did, like change your toothbrush, change the sheets, and go to the dentist. I used this for a bit in the beginning, but then I'd forget to fill in when I last did anything anyways, so really, kind of ironic. Definitely going to ditch this one next year, but had I remembered it was there, it could have been really helpful.

*READING LIST: I made a goal of reading 30 books this year — this didn't really go that well, considering my commute was significantly shortened and most nights, by the time I get home I'm usually ready to rot in front of the TV rather than read quietly — so I started the year by listing the books I knew I wanted to read for sure, leaving space to add in more as the year progressed. I've continued to use this even though I also have a Goodreads account, because it's been nice to have the whole list in one place. I'll definitely do this next year (though it'll be a tad shorter than it was this year).

DINNER MENU: I made a template for a dinner menu to help my boyfriend Matt and I figure out what we wanted to eat each week. I wrote out spaces for Monday-Sunday and used skinny flag post-its on the page so that I could move things around as needed and wouldn't need to create this page every week, but it got old pretty fast. Matt and I decided to use a whiteboard for this each week so that we could figure out what nights each of us were home and what each person would eat, whether we'd be sitting down together or going our separate ways. That's worked better for us as a duo, especially with his erratic work schedule, so I'll be omitting this page next year.

*MONTHLY HABITS: This is one of the pages that most intrigued me when I was looking at peoples' bullet journal Instagrams. It's a list of the month's dates in a row or column, and then the habits you want to keep and remind yourself of to do (or not do) daily throughout the month — things like drinking enough water, working out, and reading. The habits that I've liked keeping track of throughout the year are when I've read, drank, used heat on my hair, eaten dinner at home, had a no-spend day, done a face mask (and why), and, most recently, when I've written a blog post (as you can see in the photo above, working out is not exactly the habit I keep up with most). There are definitely chunks of days at a time when I forget to fill these in and have to go back, but I love having it — if I haven't read in a few days or Matt and I have eaten out a lot, it reminds me to get back into my routine so I can fill in those boxes (it's so satisfying).

*MONTHLY ONE-LINE-A-DAYS: Originally I started these pages as "gratitude" pages, which might have been something I saw in Rachel's book. I liked finding something to be grateful for each day, but slowly this page turned into more of a "One-Line-a-Day" page (I had this five-year journal in college that had space for you to write one line about each day, and my gratitude entries ended up being more like that, so I adapted the monthly page). "Went to the Islanders game and treated ourselves to Shake Shack" is probably written in there about 400 times, but that's OK — I'm thinking next year I'll go back to this journal at the end of every month or two and compare my entries to see how things have changed year to year.

TV SHOWS & MOVIES TO WATCH: This one is pretty self-explanatory, and definitely something I kept up with in the beginning of the year, but as of now, it's not really on my radar. That's what my Netflix and Hulu lists are for.

*VACATION PLANNING AND PACKING LISTS: I love creating packing lists before I go away, so having these in my journal has been awesome — before each trip I create a list for, I can go back to past lists for similar destinations to see what I'll need. It also just feels like a little time capsule of the pieces I was always wearing and the skincare and makeup I was loving at the time. Also, creating a space to plan out a couple of things to do each day on the trip helped me to organize when to do must-do things in a certain city (for example, I made sure to make time for several doughnut places I saw on Instagram when Matt and I visited Montreal in February).

*WARDROBE LISTS: After each season I created a list of the pieces I wore most and what I felt was still missing from my wardrobe (inspired by Anna). Just this week I went back to look at my Winter list, now that stores are starting to get more cool-weather stuff in stock, so I can grab some of the pieces I felt like I needed last year.

*DAY-TO-DAY LISTS: I start each day at work by writing a to-do list, usually a mix of work items and personal items, and for the weekend, I make a shortlist of the things I know I need to get done before Monday. Anything I don't get done in the day, I shift to the next day or the weekend. I've always kept to-do lists for work, but being able to mix work with personal stuff in this one place has kept me so much more organized.

That's all I've got for pages, aside from a few niche things here and there, like planning out my next tattoo, a guest list for birthday festivities, or listing out what I need to do before my best friend's bachelorette party (for this type of event I usually tape in a sheet of Get to Work Book project breakdown paper so that I can really get into the details).

All in all, bullet journaling has given me a sense of organization in areas I previously didn't have it as needed, and kept me inspired to achieve goals, whether big or small, simply by writing them down. I already can't wait to start my new journal for 2019 (I'll likely pick up this one or this one) without the graveyard of pages I no longer use in the beginning. I'll probably also read through Rachel's book again to see if there are any pages in there that I skipped over, but might be helpful for me to include next year based on how I use my journal daily and weekly.