Bullet Journal Beginners

2 of 5: What is a Bullet Journal for?

Welcome to part two of my five-part Bullet Journaling For Beginners series (part 1 is here)! So, let’s answer the question ‘what is a bullet journal for?’.

Well, a bullet journal is for organizing your life. But that’s not all – if you want it to be, it can be a whole lot more.

In fact, in many ways it can be whatever you want it to be.

Your bullet journal can be used in place of your usual organizer/planner, but also as a place to be creative, a place to plan your work or study, a place to keep lists and store important information, and a place where you implement tools to be more effective and productive in general.

But don’t feel overwhelmed by this! We’re going to break it all down in the next post on how to make a bullet journal.

It can seem a bit intimidating at first, but honestly, once you get your head around the basics it’s really easy – and hopefully you’ll end up enjoying the process of learning as you go along. The bullet journaling online community is incredibly welcoming and friendly (yet to come across a troll-like comment!), and a constant source of new ideas to help you tailor the method to your own unique needs.

But first of all, it’s worth taking a moment to understand why the bullet journaling system can work so well…

One of the reasons is that many people’s brains find it easier to process and remember analogue systems of organization over digital ones. Often there’s something about writing your plans down and seeing them visually displayed on paper rather than on screen that cements them in your mind and helps to ‘unjumble’ life (not technically a word, but hopefully it makes sense!).

Another reason the system works so well is that it’s completely tailored to you and your life.

Standard planners are, by their very nature, restrictive to some extent because someone else has decided what goes in them and how much space you have for each section.

Not so with a bullet journal – you decide for yourself what’s going to work for you.

Finally – and this reason isn’t going to be applicable to everyone – bullet journaling can work well because it allows you to be creative, and that can mean that you enjoy the process of getting organized so much more.

That in turn means that you become better organized and more effective through bullet journaling than you do with other planning methods.

It is important to know though, that it’s fine if you don’t fancy being particularly creative in your bullet journal!

What works for one person isn’t going to work for everyone, and a more minimal and ‘clean’ approach can work just as well. There may also be occasions when you don’t have the time or just can’t be bothered, and that’s absolutely fine too.

So, now that we’ve answered the question ‘what is a bullet journal?’, let’s move on to the basics of how to make a bullet journal…