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One Month In Reflections on Keeping a Bullet Journal

Well the question I am asking myself today, one I think critics would ask is: am I spending so much time setting up my bullet journal that I am wasting time I should be devoting to the tasks I'm listing and drawing?  Will it be worth it as my journal fills in? This is my one month review of keeping a bullet journal.
I have been spending time on my jourdling and A to Z lists probably more than I have to do lists and chore reminders. I keep thinking of creative ideas.  It is nice to have a place to keep all these random lists I never had written before, like my bucket list and recipes to try,  but also my favorites A to Z and little quarks about me.
I don't think these extra pages are an entire waste. I had noticed during wedding planning that it was great stress relief to have an outlet for expression again.  I had painting or jewelry all set up and could easily work on it in a spare moment or when I couldn't sleep.  My bullet journal has replaced that now that the wedding is over.  It's my go to when I can't sleep. It has kept me off my phone.  And times when I would just be sitting trying to get energy to do something,  I pick up the bullet journal. It has also made me think about little things about myself.

I could easily see it being stressful to start as I've read bloggers say it is. But I am not rushing to finish reminders or fun lists. My intention is to have something to work on when I want to create, not hurrying to get my Bujo finalized. It is still useful incomplete. I have a list I keep on my phone in the Evernote app of pages to make, ideas to put on each page, and possible designs.  I jot thoughts down when I think of them so I don't forget great ideas but so I don't feel pressured to rush to set them up in haste before I have a great idea for that page. I have also set pages up lightly in pencil with a title of something i want to put in it or a single sketch for a topic I'll fill in later.  When I want to just draw or color,  not think deeper, I look through to see which page I want to work on.  I've been trying to go back to coloring in my static to do lists,  the reason I wanted to try a bullet journal in the first place.

My intention was if I made creative pages to remind me of daily tasks or cleaning schedules,  when I was sitting idle, I would pick up the bullet journal and look at things I should be doing. One thing I have noticed is daily reminders I have already drawn, colored, and captioned, I am remembering these things already, just by putting them on paper. I am a visual person so I guess it makes sense doodling the image of a chore would impound it in my mind!

Although I have started pages I didn't intend to finish then and put some in a section other than they should be, I wrote on paper my brainstorms and thoughts about sections I wanted, how to group things,  how many pages each section should be before starting the book. That took time.   I also made tabs to tape on the starting page of each section so I can easily navigate. These have been wonderful. Each section tries to have grouped sub sections.   As much as I thought about it,  I was wrong with how much space some sections needed, but no way to know until I started my first BuJo. I might be lumping stuff around as sections get full. But each section has its own index page instead of at the beginning of the book,  so I will be able to label migrated pages. 

I got my habit tracker set up to start the beginning of September, a few weeks into the start of my BuJo.  I have already noticed edits I want to make for next month,  like things lumped together too much where I need more detail to detect patterns. I also set up a detailed sleep tracker half way into the month. I have not noticed any correlation yet between activities and my mood, pain,  and energy levels, but tracking it has made me more conscious of my habits. I'm paying attention to the time I take my vitamins so I'm no longer trying to remember if I took them today or not. I have sections color coded into positive, neutral, or negative behaviors so I can glance at the page and see what there is more of. It is more work to fill in each day, but I keep the colors of markers and pencils I use in the daily tracker out and easy to find. I am making a point to fill in when I first get up as I'm waking up since it's an easy task and also on my lunch break when possible, and before bed at night. I've actually stayed caught up, no more than a morning behind.

I use graph paper. I have since seen dotted paper.  I would try that next.  But the bookstore had a graph paper journal with pockets on its cover that holds my 6 in ruler.

So, a month in I have kept up with my bullet journal and haven't lost interest. I definitely see benefits. Maybe that will be my next list in my bullet journal: reasons a bullet journal is good to keep or things it's helped me improve. It's a growing list. I love it!
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