How To Start a Bullet Journal – The General Idea

Hello, everyone! How’s it going? Today I’m going to talk about how to start a bullet journal- complete with pictures from my own new bullet journal!

What is a Bullet Journal?

What is a bullet journal? A bullet journal is a daily planner that you create and use to plan and track your life. So, what’s so great about it? The fact that it’s created by you for you. This means you can use it however you want. Need a diary? That can be your bullet journal! Need a sketchbook? That can be your bullet journal! Need a place to track your vitamins? That can be your bullet journal! A bullet journal is so many things. Here are a few ideas:

• a place to make sketches
• a place to write down appointments
• a place to write out what happened today
• a place to track your habits, feelings, and even sleep hours
• a place to let your creative side flow!

That’s another thing about bullet journals. If you are creative, then this is definitely for you! You have plenty of space to be creative and fancy in here. But don’t get me wrong! Even if you feel like you’re not creative, you can still bullet journal!

The Bullet Journal System

The bullet journal system is pretty easy to follow, but if you’re new to bullet journaling it might seem a little bit confusing at first. I’m going to use this post to show you my system of bullet journaling so you can get a general idea. Of course, it’s your journal so you can use it however you want.

The first page in your bullet journal should be your title page. You can see mine below; it says “Lil’ Flora’s Bullet Journal”. My great grandmother’s nickname for me was Lil’ Flora, so I thought it would be neat to incorporate it into my bullet journal.

The next pages you will want to dedicate to your Index. This is where you will write down where everything is. That way, if you need to go back to reference something, you can just look it up in your Index.

The next page should be your key. The bullet journal system uses a specific key created by Ryder Carroll.

• a dot signifies a task
• a small circle signifies an event or appointment
• a dash signifies a note
• a right arrow signifies a migration
• a star signifies importance
• an X signifies when a task is completed

But, as you can see in the picture below, I have created my own key. It is as follows:

• a small circle for an event
• an arrow inside the circle for a migrated event
• an X inside the circle for a canceled event
• an ! beside the circle for an important event
• a small square for a task
• a small dot inside the square for a started task
• an X inside the square for a completed task
• an arrow inside the square for a migrated task
• a filled in square for a canceled task
• an ! beside the square for an important task
• a small red balloon for birthdays and anniversaries
• a blue star for holidays
• a blue triangle for things pertaining to school
• a pink dot for special dates
• a dot for notes

The key is to reference if you forget what a certain symbol means. It may take a while to get used to using this system, but you will get it eventually.

The next spread you want to do is your Future Log. Your Future Log is where you put down birthdays and appointments for the upcoming months. I didn’t have room to do the next twelve months, so I just did the next six months. When those six months are over, I’ll just do the next six.

Now, we have done the Future Log, but it’s time to get more specific. You’ll want to start each month with a cover page. This month’s theme was Harry Potter, since it is the month of Halloween.

Next, you have your Monthly Log. Here you make a calendar and have a list of the events happening during the month. You can also add extra things like memories and books you read. Down the left side, I have a place for writing the positive and negative things that happened this month and books that I read. At the top in the middle, I have lists of the traits of the four Hogwarts houses as added decor. Underneath my calendar, I have a place for events and notes. Down the right side, I have a place for goals, a special tracker, and a place to record memories. My monthly layout has changed because my new journal is smaller than my old one.

Next I have my Mood and Step Log. The trackers I usually include after my Monthly Log are my mood tracker, step tracker, sleep tracker, dream tracker, and gratitude log. I don’t do all of those, I usually choose a couple to do. This month I did a Mood and Step Log combined as one tracker. Since the theme is Harry Potter, there are shelves, and during the month I will draw potions on them. The shape of the bottle depends on how many steps I took that day, and the color of the potion depends on my moods.

A tracker I always include during any month is my Habit Tracker. This is where you keep track of all of your habits. My Habit Tracker this month is quidditch-themed, as you can see with the quidditch hoops, broomstick, and snitch. Down the left side I have my habits listed and across the top I have numbers one through thirty-one listed. In the bottom right corner, I have a place to fill out my best and worst days and my best and worst habits.

Next is my Gratitude Log. This page is based on the Marauder’s Map with all the footprints labeling the days that I write down what I am grateful for.

Next, I dedicated two pages to brain dumps for October and November. A brain dump is a place to just dump. Whenever you think of something and say, “I really need to write that down,” then you can do it here. Grocery lists, books to read, or even happy memories can go here.

And here is my first weekly layout. I have a place for general information just under the week title and a mini-calendar off to the right. Below that are two boxes for a to-do list and notes. On the right page I have two more boxes- one for my exercise plan for the week and my Water Log. Beside those is a doodle of Luna Lovegood and a quote that says, “Being different isn’t a bad thing. It means you’re brave enough to be yourself.” And at the bottom of the two pages are my daily sections. I chose Luna Lovegood and blue and gray colors for these pages because they all have to do with Ravenclaw. Seeing as how Ravenclaw is my Hogwarts house, I thought that would be fitting for the first week. For the rest of the month, I’ll do the same layout but with different Harry Potter characters and the colors of the rest of the Hogwarts houses. I wanted to have them done to show you, but I just didn’t have time.

That is your basic bullet journal. Those are the things you need to start with in a new bullet journal, and I’ll be back soon with other things like trackers and extra pages you can add to your bullet journal to spruce it up a bit.

I hope all you Harry Potter fans enjoyed my bullet journal this month! I thought it fitting since I am currently rereading the series.

One more thing before I leave. Happy late National Writing Day! National Writing Day was on October 20th, and I meant to get a post out but I didn’t have time. I’m sorry I missed it, but I hope you other writers out there took some time to write that day!

Do you bullet journal? Was this post helpful? Do you plan to start a bullet journal? Talk to me in the comments!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing and bullet journaling!

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV