How Will I Plan for 2020? Try BOJO! (Bullet Journal)
I just looked up from my to-do list to realize it’s 2020, already racing toward the end of January! I’m finally getting in the groove with a new planner and jumping into my planning for the year. A little late, but hey, it’s December somewhere, right?
Um, right, maybe not, but every year, usually in January or February, I find myself rethinking my entire planning system. More times than I’d like to admit, I’ve changed it up, made a mess of things, and gone back to the familiar. One method I keep dreaming about is BOJO—that’s Bullet Journal, for the uninitiated. I look through IG feeds with longing, envy. It’s so personal, so flexible, so beautiful. Unless your handwriting is like mine. Then it’s so artifact of madness. Anyway, not long ago a fellow planning aficionado shared this article at Quill.com where I found the most incredible infographics about bullet journaling. I mean, these make it seem so simple and really truly make me want to pick up my pen(s) again!
I was given permission to share the infographics with you, and I hope you will share them far and wide. Let’s start a BOJO revolution!
From my friend at Quill: If you’re like many people, you’ve probably journaled at some point during your life. Some people begin a journal as a teenager, writing down thoughts and dreams about the ups and downs of the teenage years. Other people continue that (or start it) in adulthood, but instead focus on what they’re doing, big events, or notable achievements by their family and friends. But the point is, journaling remains a popular hobby and creative pursuit by many people, which is why bullet journaling is so popular too.
Bullet journaling is a name for something developed to track the past, present, and future. Once you get started, you can tap into a whole community online for even more ideas. You can start with ideas and sections that include months in advance and also a daily log. Ready to get started on your bullet journaling journey? These graphics offer some creative ideas to use.
How to Rock Your Bullet Journal
Really, these are more than infographics. They’re a full how-to-bojo-guide in visual form. Amazing!
Is BOJO in your future?
It may be in mine—someday, when I’m running a little less crazed from one obligation to the next. I love the forever-ness of it, except in my experience it was a forever of weeks of neglect, scribbled notes, inability to draw a straight line…. Right now I need a tool that does the customizing for me. But my heart still belongs to BOJO. So what else have I tried and what am I using now? This history of my life in planners would look something like …
Multiple years with eXcompta/Quo Vadis’s Visual before switching to Space 21 when I decided I wanted paper thick enough to write in gasp PEN!
A year or so of floundering with various office-box-store type planners that largely went unused.
An enthusiastic attempt at BOJO (Bullet Journaling) that quickly became a thorough mess. You mean I have to add page numbers MYSELF?!? Create an index? I had a newborn at the time. I didn’t have time to shower let alone create an awesome calendar/spread each month.
Which led to at least a year (or more? I don’t recall) not planning at all—Have phone, Will take notes and use calendar app. This actually worked pretty well for me until I needed to get serious about getting life done.
Discovery of the Happy Planner. First I tried the Mini. Nope nope nope. So I got the regular size and used the smaller discs from the Mini (because I sort of hate the disks).
Switched for about 4 months to the Passion Planner (because discs, I just really dislike them). I liked it. Until my cover started to disintegrate and I missed my custom planning pages and I didn’t have enough space to write things and … I switched back to the Happy Planner. Happily enough, until this year when I sought again to find the perfect planner.
Late December, despite having a new Happy Planner (bought on sale with a coupon!) I ordered Clever Fox Undated and realized I am just NOT going to write in dates—which was what kept me from Bullet Journaling in the first place—ah, how quickly I forget! Am now I’m two weeks into using a new, pretty sweet planner, Un|bound. So far so good. More on that later!
Links to Some of my Fave Planners and Supplies
(affiliate because it’s easy and I’m lazy ;-) )
I created free printable goal planning pages that can easily be sized and printed to fit any planner including Happy Planner. Everything from monthly planning to year-end-review, and even project planning for those multi-faceted projects.