In the first Harry Potter film, Neville Longbottom receives a Remembrall from his grandmother. It turns red when the user has forgotten something. When it turned red for Neville, he had no idea what he had forgotten. This is exactly how I felt before I started bullet journaling (bujo). I always had that nagging feeling that I’d forgotten something, though I couldn’t ever recall what. My desk had post-it notes scattered all over, I had too many to-do lists, and my diary and calendar weren’t working well together.
I had tried many digital productivity hacks too: planning apps, alarms, and virtual diaries. None of them stuck though. This is when I came across my step sister’s Instagram story. It was just a picture taken from Pinterest, but it showed a really pretty title page for February. It had curvy calligraphy font for the text, cute little outlines of hearts, and a pink and red border around the page. I don’t know what provoked me to look into this more on that day, but I did. After scrolling through Pinterest for about an hour, I was determined to create my own aesthetic bujo.
At a first glance, bujo might appear to others as just a pretty planner. People see some stickers and nice drawings and think “aw that’s cute”. However, I think the wonder of bujo lies in its personality and flexibility. Unlike pre-printed planners that have rigid sections and grids already drawn for you, a bullet journal can be whatever you want it to be. It doesn’t need to have dates and to-do lists (though they might help!). It could just be a series of doodles or random words, which to others would be nonsense, but to you, it reflects how you’re feeling on any given day.
One day could just be a minimalist spread of tasks you need to do, but on the next page, you could have an artistic and colour-coded layout of what your upcoming week looks like. Your bujo can be a system that acts as both a blank canvas and a practical planner. For me, this duality lets me explore my practical side and my creative side, and once I got artistic with my bujo, I found it very hard to stop again.
Once I started bujo, I found it very hard to stop again. It had become a part of my daily routine that I thoroughly enjoyed. I also realised that working on my bujo was extremely grounding. I was now setting aside time for me, to pause and prioritise my work and personal life. Tracking my moods and habits was revealing parts of me that I was subconsciously ignoring. Even if I did miss any days or leave blank spaces in my trackers, I felt like I was still learning about things that were less important, but I originally thought were a priority.
This for me is when bujo became more than just a part of my productivity: it was now a true reflection of my real self. By tracking not just what I was doing, but rather how I was feeling, I was spotting gaps between my intentions and what was actually real. Getting exercise into my day is daunting to me and sounds more like a chore, but writing in my bujo, “I walked in the park while the sun was out”, turned it into something much more fun and enjoyable to reflect on (and more motivating to do again!).
I’m not going to say that bujo is the be-all end-all. I don’t want to evangelise it, because bujo might not be for everybody. However, if you do feel that any of the following resonate with you, I would suggest that you give it a go:
The first time I ever attempted bujo, it was a complete mess. I wanted it to be perfect. However, I kept messing up and smudging my pens’ ink on the pages, as well as poorly drawing out what I had planned. I also wanted to keep at it every day, but that fell off when I started skipping a few days. But this is exactly what bujo has taught me: it’s okay to fail and reassess your commitments and what matters most to you. I was setting unrealistic and unachievable goals, and didn’t really want to record when I had failed to hit them.
This is exactly why I design templates now through the Bujo & Bloom brand. I want to be able to give everyone who wants to try bujo a nice and gentle starting point. For those who don’t have the full artistic skill like me, or the hours to spare mapping out each page. All you’ll need to have is a plain notebook or journal, a little bit of quiet time, and the willingness to meet yourself where you truly are and accept that.
Bujo isn’t about doing more. It’s not even about hitting the goals really. It’s about the journey to those goals, you being your authentic self, and acknowledging you in your current state. So, my advice for those looking to get into bujo: be present in the moment, be intentional when you plan, and be curiously kind to yourself along the way. Bujo isn’t ever designed to be perfect, but it can be an excellent tool to show how far you’ve come.
