Hello Hive!
A warm and happy new year to you!
I could hardly believe we're on our first day of 2021. You might have read this from my recent post, Message from the Future: A Letter to Me in 2019 saying:
You will crave to own one of those coffee shop 2020 journals and you'll fail to do so. Don't bother getting yourself one. There won't be any appointments to write down nor anything interesting to plan. You'd be left with empty pages, as empty as I am feeling right at this moment.
For 2021, I wanted one. The universe heard my thoughts and I ended up receiving a 2021 journal from my brother as a Christmas present. I was excited to open it and realized that this year's journal has blank pages.
Then it struck me that this is the perfect opportunity to make use of it as a bullet journal!
After spending the last few days hosting and entertaining 
Bullet Journal or BUJO is more than just a planner.
The Bullet Journal is an analog system created by Ryder Carroll, a Designer based in New York. In his words, the Bullet Journal is meant “to help you track the past, organize the present, and plan for the future. The Bullet Journal is an organizational system in a notebook that keeps track of anything you would like to write down in a coherent way. - Tiny Ray of Sunshine
Being part of the GenX, I am more comfortable writing down my thoughts. Yes, with pen and paper. For inexplicable reasons, I find typing them on my mobile phone slightly stressful, especially when it's on low battery and I couldn't access my task list.
The drawback with writing them on sheets of paper is the chance of losing them. With an available notebook, you could create your own.
It's a great mindfulness tool in the form of a planner or a journal. A place where you could deposit your thoughts and ideas anytime and anywhere.
It's a flexible organizational system that you could adapt to your own habits, style, functionality, and preference.
Spending a lot of time scrolling on the phone and typing on our keyboards, it's a good way to practice and exercise our writing skills.
I watched a lot of Youtube videos and read a few articles many years ago about Bullet Journals. I find the method of Sadia of Pick-Up Limes the most applicable to me because it's practical and minimal. I wanted something easy to manage and maintain.
Watch her Bullet Journal video demonstration here.
I would suggest finding a style that works best for you. You could draw on it and even add your own Mind Maps and special pages.
The core concepts of Bullet Journaling are indexing, collecting information, rapid-logging, and easy migration.
Key works as a legend as well as a guide in plotting the format of your pages. I didn't create an Index because I know exactly what would be in it but a table of contents would give it order and an easy system to track.
Divide the pages into columns, with the number depending on the size of your notebook.
Write down the calendar on top and mark each day in rows below it for birthdates, travel plans, and important events for your future log.
I often divide these into spiritual, material, mental, physical, social, adventure, financial, career, etc. It could be in the form of a mind map or bullet points. This would be an overall guide in breaking them down into Monthly Goals and creating a habit tracker.
This allows you to immediately see the frequency of accomplishing the habits you've set for yourself easily and effectively.
Writing down how you feel under the emotional column and your physical state and condition on the opposite side offers a space to log-in at the beginning of the month and see where you're at. It also serves as a helpful guide for future reference.
I intend to be more grateful so writing down a monthly gratitude list summary is a wonderful record to read during those low times.
From your overall 2021 goals, break the goals down into months to make them more achievable.
My notebook is small so my space is limited. I made 7 boxes horizontally with a size of 2.75cm x 2.75 cm spaced at 0.25 cm apart and organized them into 5 rows to accommodate them.
Transfer important dates and events from your Year Calendar to the Monthly Log.
I divided the two pages into 6 rows as shown below and marked each day of the week.
In others' bullet journal formats, they put the hours in rows. I prefer leaving the space empty. This gives me flexibility in jotting down and dividing the tasks whenever needed according to a) what is important and urgent, b) important but not urgent, c) urgent but not important, and d) not urgent and not important.
This is the ideas and thoughts page where you can unload and deposit them all to clear the mind.
I have a limited number of pages so I will create a separate notebook dedicated to this. If you have a thicker notebook, feel free to create your own additional pages for drawings, colorful designs, inspirational quotes, and more. The possibilities are endless and that's what's great about Bullet Journaling.
Thank you for reading. I am feeling more positive for 2021 with lots of changes in our lifestyle ahead. Have a wonderful New Year!
