Making and using a BuJo

Hey! Tara here, and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and I also talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.

---

So, I started using a Bullet Journal (or BuJo) a few years ago when I was starting my A Levels but didn’t really pick it up properly until my second year of A Levels and the summer before Uni.  Since then I’ve come to not only rely on it but without it I’d struggle a lot.

Just a warning that this post got quite long but each section has a header so if you want to skip to a bit you can.

BuJo? What’s that?

If you don’t know what a BuJo is then it’s a system that helps you keep track of everything and anything in your life, originally designed by Ryder Carroll but it has been adapted and edited so much since then by other people who have found new ways to build on what he created to make it more useful.

Image from http://fireinabucket.com/bujo-tv-tracker/

I’m not going to lie here, I do cheat a bit and use this as well as my Google Calendar. Dates and times tend to go there because I always have my phone with me.

It also means that if I forget or lose the BuJo I don’t lose everything.

Right, I know what the BuJo is now but how do I set one up?

1. Lots of people start with an index page but … it isn’t necessary. I just put sticky tabs on the sides of the important pages I want to come back to.

2. Essential pages will be in the next section so if you want those skip down. But make some good, ‘essential’ pages.  I made a load when I started that I thought I’d use and then never used half of them

3. So, put all the pages you want for the year at the front. These are the trackers, overviews, fun pages and all that.

4. Next comes the monthly / weekly spreads

5. And then I keep odd information at the back like a wishlist and other BuJo ideas

That’s the basic BuJo idea. You can use any notebook, physical or digital. Ruled, dotted, lined … any that takes your preference. Personally, I use a physical blank notebook at the moment since I couldn’t find any decently priced dotted ones at the time.

I’d recommend having a look through Pinterest, Tumblr, google images and sites like that to see what other people have done, try some of the spreads yourself or adapt them to your needs.

Useful pages?

This is just going to be a list of pages that I find useful and that I’ve seen people use. As an English Lit student I keep Uni relevant pages and the ones I use are the first list and then other pages that I don’t keep myself but I’ve seen around that I like.

• Yearly overview

• Have a calendar drawn out on a sheet of paper

• Use washi tape to stick it in

• Decorate with stickers and midliners

• Yearly / semester-ly goals

I highly recommend checking out Thomas Frank’s Impossible List  I changed the way I make goal lists based on this and it's been so useful.

• Uni / academic page

• What classes I take

• When the classes are

• Lecturers

• Assignments and grades

Tracking these is something I take seriously.  I note down feedback I’ve been given – “well researched” or “lacks clarity” so I know what I need to work on and it’s there for me to see every time I turn to the page.

• Books I’ve read (with little reviews)

• Movies I’ve seen

• Monthly spreads

• Calendar for the month

• Events

• Goals – month specific

• Birthdays

• Habit tracker

• Blog plan

• Weekly spreads

What do I put in a weekly spread?

One important thing to remember is that you can change the weekly spreads. You’re not limited to having one specific design once you start. You can have a different style every week (like I’m doing now with different superhero themed spreads).

1. A section for each day of the week

2. Achievements – because sometimes it’s nice to see the things you’ve done when you look back.

3. Work – keep track of the hours I’m working, pretty self explanatory

4. Projects – because I’m trying my hand at a couple of crafts

5. Notes

6. General tasks for the week – not tied to a specific day

That’s my basic set up for the week since I put the habit tracker in my monthly spreads but you can also put it here if you like. Other useful weekly sections could be:

1. Meal planner

2. Water tracker

3. Weather tracker

4. Calendar

5. Future Log

6. Homework tracker

7. Assignment progress bars

8. Exercise tracker

Daily spreads – are they needed?

Daily spreads are great if you have a lot to do in one day and need it all laid out clearly … but … that’s what I have my Habitica for. If I have lots of daily tasks that are specific I won’t bring my Bullet Journal out with me and use it throughout the day, I’ll just open up my phone and the Habitica app. It’s so much simpler.

If I’m having an all day library session I might make a list on a page of my notebook of exactly what I want to cover but it’s not necessary. I don’t want to bring my BuJo out and the weekly spreads give me more than enough space for each day.

Tips and final notes

1. People have their own ways of marking out tasks and so on, but the common way (and the one I find the easiest and neatest) is to use a dot like this • for a task, for an event use an open circle like this o, and for notes you put a  dash like this – .

2. Sometimes you’ll forget to write and that’s okay, just fill in the blanks the next chance you get

3. Your spreads don’t always have to be minimalist or filled with colours and drawings and look like you’re a professional artist. If you have a spread you like then that’s the important thing.

4. Have fun with it! Be creative!

#organisation #bulletjournal #bujo #university #studyblr #studying