Bullet Journal 2.0

I got all the way to December in my bullet journal, setting it up, making it look … I was going to say pretty but let’s be honest, my bullet journal is not pretty, it’s juvenile and basic, when I just stopped. I couldn’t go on. I sat staring at my spread and just …………… lost interest. I felt like I was going through the motions. *yawn* I was bored.

So, I took a few weeks and started watching bullet journal videos again. Where did I go wrong? Why did I lose interest? Then, it sort of hit me, my bullet journal wasn’t ME. It was fun to experiment with different spread ideas but ultimately, I wasn’t using it very much. I spent more time creating spreads I wasn’t really interested in using as opposed to actually using it.

What started my bullet journal 2.0 was calligraphy. I want to learn calligraphy. Learning calligraphy is on my goals list for this year. I researched what pens and paper to use. I already had a ton of pens that would work but I needed some paper to practice on. I didn’t want to use just normal paper because writing on normal paper with all of the scratching and grittiness made my skin crawl. I didn’t enjoy writing on the paper I had … so I bought a Rhodia notebook.

And instantly fell in love.

I used to be one of those people that scoffed and rolled my eyes at people who swore quality paper was the way to go.

“Dude. It’s PAPER. How much of a difference can it honestly make?” I would silently judge.

A lot, actually.

I’m now a hardcore Rhodia convert.

And when I discovered that Rhodia makes bullet journals??

Let’s just say that revived my interest in bullet journaling.

I bought the Turquoise one. I don’t even know why, I don’t particularly like Turquoise, but for some reason, it spoke to me. (This is what happens when you don’t really have a social life outside of work and family – books talk to you).

Rhodia journals may not be for everyone. They only have 80 pages and they are soft covers, not hard covers. But, they have a back pocket and the SOFT PAGES – need I say more??

Writing on these pages is smooooooooth. It doesn’t scratch when you write on it or make me cringe and shudder and grit my teeth in irritation.

And I can totally see myself collecting each color and filling them with my nonsense for anyone to read (after I die – AFTER I DIE).

Okay. I have a new journal. Now, what to do with it?

Here’s what I learned from my bullet journaling so far – I really only want to record a few things and I want pages to write on. No structure, just write what I want, when I want. Write as little, or as much, as I like.

And I’m only interested in recording 1. my daily steps, 2. my daily moods, 3. my monthly reads, 4. weather and 5. writing. I don’t care about monthly logs. I don’t care about future logs. I don’t care about traditional monthly trackers.

Why aren’t I making my bullet journal about the things I care about?

And I figure it won’t take long for me to get through 80 pages, then I’ll have an excuse to buy another journal in another color which will make me excited to fill it and renew my enthusiasm.

What could go wrong? (Don’t answer that).

It’s also thin enough, and flexible enough, to easily take with me. Whereas a hardback book is, well, hard, thick and bulky. I feel like a softback journal will look cool the more you use it, as well. A well used journal is a well loved journal.

Can I get an Amen?

So, here’s what I’ve done so far:

OKAY, DON’T JUDGE ME. Yes. I did a really poor job of gluing it into the book. Yes. I agree, the calendar is DUMB. But ignore that. I really like the picture and the pretty font so I will do a better job of sticking in September’s picture and will leave off the calendar. It’s a work in progress! Sheesh.

By the way, I get my pictures from either Unsplash or Pexels.

Next up – my monthly reading log. I made a fun bookshelf in my last bullet journal but I didn’t leave enough room to write in the titles so I wanted something a bit more fun and a lot more room. I bought this fun book template from Erin Floto Designs and I used an ink blending tool, dipped it in orange ink and tapped away. Again, no idea why I chose orange, (though I suspect it’s because of the sunset on my August page and the orange book mark), but I’m sort of diggin’ it. As you can see, I’ve read three book so far this month. I can’t wait to use this template in different colors in the months ahead.

And that’s something else I’m trying to do – stick with a few sets of colors at one time. This month, black and orange. And I have BOOKS of stickers that I plan on using to coordinate with my color palette as well. I mostly have inspirational quotes and again, I would rather put a quote sticker on my journal page than try and write out a quote that will take me 30 minutes to do poorly and then another 30 minutes to be depressed about because it looks like shit.

Then I have my steps and mood tracker page. Nothing fancy, just numbers. I spent WAY too much time stenciling in cute crap to color in when really, I’m more interested in the number as opposed to whether I made it to 6,000 or 10,000 steps. And I’m digging my mood tracker better because I’m not limited to a smiley face, a sad face, an angry face, etc. I can spread my wings and record all my feels.

(By the way – see my attempt to faux calligraphy on the left page? Yeah – let’s hope I get better. And if you think I wrote the August on the right page, you have WAY too much faith in me. I did not write that August – it’s a sticker).

Next up: my sleep and weather tracker.

I’ll be honest, I’m not crazy about my sleep tracker, though it’s cute. I think I’m going to do something different next month – or not. I still can’t decide if I like it but it was fun to put together. I am, however, loving my weather tracker. It’s now all on one page and I have plenty of room to write the temperature and make cute little weather doodles. I will definitely keep this one. (Can you tell I forgot that August has 31 days? *sigh*)

Here is my writing tracker (that looks like a 2nd grader wrote – I’m experimenting with different fonts, get off me! And, I misspelled writing – AHEM) and I decided that I wanted to go ahead and put a calendar in my spreads just so I can keep track of days off, days the boys come to visit, etc. I didn’t even bother to make enough spots for each day of the month on my writing tracker because let’s be real, I’m not going to write every day of the month, but I have to admit, having something like this motivated me to publish a blog post today so I think it will help me stay accountable.

And the fancy-smancy Aug 10 on the right page – (it’s okay, we can all be honest and admit you didn’t know what it said) will be where I write my thoughts for today. (I actually ended up using half the page and divided the page in half with the same orange washi tape that you see on the left side).

And that’s it. I don’t really plan on putting anything else in my journal. I really wanted to use my bullet journal as more of a journal than a planner because let’s face it – my life is so boring I don’t have a need for a planner. I’m sure (hope) it will evolve and get better with time and again, I’m looking forward to buying more journals and building a library of journals that perhaps my children (dare I hope grandchildren??) will read one day.

At some point, I’d like to try some dutch doors in my journal but I end of up hyperventilating whenever I seriously think about doing it so I’m thinking I’m not quite ready to go down that road …… yet.