The most common reason I see for why people who like the idea of bullet journaling don’t bullet journal is because they don’t have the time for it or they feel like they aren’t artistic enough. Even the beginner’s guides or suggestions for “simple” spreads out there seem more elaborate than necessary, so I don’t blame them. But bullet journaling doesn’t have to be time consuming or artistic. You’ve heard this before, but I’m here for the real lazy ones, or as I like to think of us as, the real efficient ones ٩(˃̶͈̀௰˂̶͈́)و
I started customising my planners in high school, before the whole bullet journal craze, using plain gridded notebooks I bought at Taiwanese supermarkets — as cheap and as average as you could find! Before that, I used pre-made planners; I still remember that my favourite was a Lilly Pulitzer agenda in the orange grove monkey print. Now I use a Moleskin, since I needed to buy one for a design class I took, so I got a few extra for my own personal use.
When bullet journaling took off, I appreciated what it did for other people but didn’t think it was for me; it seemed more decorative than practical. I felt like bullet journaling was a front for productivity. I was skeptical that people who bullet journaled were those who planned for productivity but never got around to it because who would have any time left after all those freaking spreads?? Honestly, for type-A personalities, planning can be the deadliest form of procrastination — all talk, no action. I would know; it’s my favourite way to procrastinate.
I had my own system going and I didn’t recognise it as bullet journaling. It wasn’t until a few months ago when someone was talking about their bullet journal and their many spreads, and I was explaining how I didn’t have a bullet journal but I did have a customised planner with two basic layouts, and they said something along the lines of okay nice bullet journal, that I finally considered my planner a bullet journal. And when Michelle x Daisybutter shared a peek into her sister’s unique use for bullet journaling, I was finally able to expand my idea of what a bullet journal was and consider mine as one.
That said, I’m still not reallyyy sure whether I consider my planner a bullet journal, but I figured that some people might appreciate my alternative organisational method (whatever you decide to call it) and the true simplicity of these spreads. I haven’t seen enough simplicity out there, so I think it’s important to shine a light on the simple things and not let them get crowded out by the elaborate. Simple works too.
Monthly spread
I have the first 24 pages (I consider each side a page) blocked off for my monthly spreads.
For each month, I have two spreads — one for life, one for the blog.
For each spread, I trace out a 7×5 calendar taking up the whole page — no ruler needed, thanks to those nifty gridded lines — and write in the dates.
At the top of the page, I scrawl the name of the month — no fancy lettering, just the quick cursive I learned in second grade (my teacher predicted that in the future nobody would write in anything but cursive so it was absolutely critical that we learned it).
2 minutes. Done.
If I have any important dates, i.e. events or due dates, I write them in. If something is extra important or urgent or if I’m simply extra excited about it, I might write it out in block letters or in cursive or really large or add exclamation points or highlight it. There’s no key or rule. Life is crazy, I know.
When a day is over, I slash a line through the box demarcating the date.
I don’t create all 24 monthly spreads at once because that’s a lot of time, but I might create a spread a month ahead (because that’s usually as far as I plan, one month ahead). Even though I don’t write out all my monthly spreads at once, I know that they will take the first 24 pages, so I can fill out the rest of my bullet journal after that. (I created my blank April spread ahead of time for this blog post because I was too lazy to blur out notes in my January-March spreads.)
Weekly spread
I also fill out my weekly spreads as I go, which is nice, because if I want an extra page to doodle, take notes, write a grocery list, or whatever, I can do that and then continue my next weekly spread right after that.
I fold the page in half and draw a line along the crease to create two columns.
I divide the first column into six rows — one for each weekday and one for the weekend. You could divide your first column into seven rows, but six is what works for me because I like the size of the rows divided like this better and I don’t usually need to distinguish between Saturday and Sunday anyway.
I mark each section in the first column by the first letter of the day of the week followed by the date. In these sections, I write important dates (i.e. events, what’s due) and my priority tasks — my daily to-do list.
I leave the second column open for notes and non-priority/weekly tasks.
One minute. Done.
Here are some illegible (for privacy) sample spreads to show you that even when I fill out my spreads, they stay simple.
Perhaps my planner is a bit plain — honestly I see it more as a glorified journal of lists than as a bullet journal — but it works and takes hardly any time. That said, I do think it shares the same concept and intentionality as bullet journals. The main difference I see is that my planner is more spacially organised, whereas the traditional bullet journal makes better use of symbols.
I don’t know how familiar you are with traditional bullet journals and their components, but for those of you who are familiar and are interested in some comparisons, here are some that I’ve drawn:
Bullets
I don’t differentiate (•) tasks and (◦) events. To me, events are tasks. Just as I cross out a task when I complete it, I cross out an event when I’ve gone.
I don’t indicate (-) notes. I simply write them wherever I need to, usually nesting them under the relevant task or event, or writing them on their own in the open second column of my weekly spread.
I don’t differentiate (!) inspiration from notes. But let’s say I have an inspirational mantra I want to keep in mind for the week (my mantra this month has been, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”). I’ll probably use the next open page to write the mantra reallyyy big. Maybe even in cursive.
I put my daily (*) priority tasks in the first column of my weekly spread.
All these bullets, marked by (•), (◦), (-), (!), or (*) in the traditional bullet journal, are simply marked by (•) in mine and arranged spacially (i.e. nested, in a particular column, on its own page, etc.).
Collections
I have no need for an index. If I want to see my monthly calendar, I flip toward the front. If I want to see what’s going on this week, I flip to the last used page, bookmarked with my notebook’s ribbon. That’s usually all I ever need to see, but if I do find that there’s a page I refer back to more often, I put in a sticky tab.
My monthly spreads at the beginning of my planner take care of what the future log and monthly log do in the traditional bullet journal. I might even venture to say that my monthly spreads are less fussy and more easy to interpret than the traditional future and monthly logs because my monthly spreads are visual calendars whereas the traditional future and monthly logs are just lists.
The traditional daily log occurs in my weekly spreads, where I write my tasks, events, and notes.
Migration
I’m not too concerned over task migration. If I didn’t complete it, I simply don’t cross it out. If I still want to complete it (i.e. I want to migrate the task), I skip over marking it as (>) migrated and simply get on with it and migrate it over by including the task in my next log/weekly spread by rewriting it out. I don’t look back on my past weekly spreads, so it doesn’t matter to me whether the task is marked as migrated as long as it is migrated.
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This component-by-component comparison between my no-fuss “bullet journal” (??) and the traditional bullet journal might seem to have complicated my no-fuss bullet journal, but just look back to the photos of my monthly and weekly spreads to be reminded of their simplicity. I bet you don’t even need to read the details under the headings; just let intuition take care of it.
Would you consider this a bullet journal? Do you bullet journal? Do you use your bullet journal to log more than tasks and events (i.e. habits or other collections)?
PS: how to start your own bullet journal (guest post by kat x @bujowithkat), new apartment tour