Bullet Journaling has given me back my sanity.

Now, I have had an on-again, off-again type of love-hate relationship with journaling ever since I was a kid. A mix of loving writing everything down with feeling forced to journal in school and in counseling lead to a very, very inconsistent journaling habit. When I started hearing murmurs on the internet of the "bullet journaling" concept a year or two ago, I was intrigued.

After much Pin-vestigating (you know, investigating on Pinterest), I was left pretty confused still. I found this website with this explanation and this video, but I was overwhelmed by it all. I read through some bullet journal blogs and article-style explanations which started clarifying things a bit, but I was intimidated by the beautiful and artistic hyper-detailed layouts others were using.

The best article I found to explain it all is this one, but it was filled with language I didn't feel super comfortable passing on to all of my clients. Thus, I am going to summarize it for you here!

Who needs a bullet journal?

A bullet journal is good for...

People who have a million little to-do lists floating around
People who like pen and paper to-do lists
People who are into goal-setting and habit tracking
People who like stationery, journaling, scrapbooking, beautiful pens, etc.
People who really love planners
People who want to really love planners, or who want to be more organized
People who would really like to keep a journal/diary but are having trouble sticking with the habit

But! None of these things are requirements for liking bullet journaling.

How do you set up a bullet journal?

First, you need a journal.

I started by buying this journal from Target. Unlike the "classic" bullet journal, mine has lines. Lined journals are easier to find and tend to be cheaper. I have a journal that is small enough to fit in my bag and doesn't have a hardcover (I like the flexibility). It was also important to me to find a journal that would be easy for me to rip the pages out of (I'm a perfectionist at heart who knows that sometimes I just need to scrap a piece of paper I "mess up" on). This journal has worked so well for me that I have now gone through 3 of them in the last two years. Score!

On buying a journal, the website says, "The two main things to keep in mind are size and quality. If it's too big you'll never take it with you. If it's too small it will be impractical. Be sure to get something that's rugged enough to keep up with you." For me, a $6 journal from Target does the trick.

After I bought the journal, I sat down with my computer and decided I was going to figure it out. Turns out, it was not too hard at all! It's just a bit difficult to explain.

Next, you need to understand the terms used in bullet journaling.

Bullet journal: a method of journaling and note-taking that uses bullet points as the core structure
Index: a table of contents that you update as you go
Daily Log: stuff you did and/or need to do today (+ other observations)
Monthly Log: traditional month calendar + stuff you need to do that month + stuff you forgot to do last month
Rapid Logging: symbols that help you get that stuff done
Future Log: year-at-a-glance calendar where you can put events, goals, and long-term stuff you need to do

The main idea behind the bullet journal is that you jot down quick notes instead of writing long sentences. The bullet journal website calls this "rapid logging," which makes it sound WAY more complicated than it is. It's simply taking quick notes on any number of things, and then marking those notes with simple symbols to easily categorize and track them.

Now, every page in your journal gets a number.

Some people number the entire thing at once, and some only number about 10–20 pages at a time. It doesn't matter so much, as long as every page you write on gets numbered. That's because you're going to index everything!

Your bullet journal will start with an index.

Once you've numbered your pages, you can make your index. It's basically just like a book index, where you list all the important topics and the corresponding page numbers. When you first start the bullet journal, there probably won't be much on it — you'll go back to the index and add in the topics and the page numbers it as you go. I gave myself two pages for my index, just to be on the safe side.

You don't have to put everything in your index, but it's a good place for the important stuff you will likely want to easily reference later. Your index can be as specific as you want it to be. For example, you can create a single entry for "Travel," and put all travel-related page numbers there, or you can break things into more specific entries (like "Texas trip" and "Vermont trip").

The next four pages are your "future log" — which is just your yearlong calendar for the big stuff.

Calling it a "future log" makes this whole thing feel way more dystopian than it is. It's basically a calendar.

This calendar is for things like birthdays, travel, or even goals you want to revisit later in the year. Again, you don't have to fill it out in detail right away; you just need to set up the pages for it, and then you'll add to it as needed later.

After that, you can set up pages for any big things you'd like to track over time.

And if you decide you want to add one of these pages (or, sorry, MODULES) later on, you can just create them wherever you are in the journal. Just add the page number to your index so you can easily find them later on.

Next, many bullet journalers have at least two pages devoted to the big-picture view of each month: a monthly calendar page, and a monthly tasks page.

There are tons of cool layouts for these pages (get some inspiration here), but the simplest way to do the monthly calendar is to just list all the dates down the left side of the page. Then you can write in the bigger stuff — travel, birthday, important meetings, etc. If you're using this to replace Google calendar (something that I do not do because I have too many frequently rescheduled work meetings), you may want to do a more calendar-like layout.

The monthly task list is for the bigger stuff you want to tackle each month — things like "make an eye doctor appointment" and "KonMari sock drawer." These things do not need dates associated with them. Again, when listing these things, you'll use the "rapid logging" symbols... so the bullet, the X, the open circle, etc. (This is where the "migrate" and "scheduled" symbols really come in handy!)

Once your monthly pages are set up, you can just start using the bullet journal for your daily tasks, notes, etc.!

How do you use the bullet journal?

When you're jotting down your quick notes, you'll use a few different symbols to mark them.

Use the bullet symbol next to things you need to do.

Write an "x" over the bullet to mark to-dos that are now complete. (I know this isn't as satisfying as crossing the item off, but it's nice because it leaves the item more visible, which is helpful when you're looking back.)

Write the less than symbol (<) over the bullet to show that that task has been scheduled, and write the greater than symbol over it (>) to show that the task has been "migrated" — AKA you didn't finish it today/this week/this month, so you moved it to another day/week/month's list.

Use a dash for quick thoughts, notes, or smaller events. Write an open circle to mark big events.

It's also suggested that you keep a key (either at the front or back of the journal) to track what all your symbols mean.

If you don't like these symbols, you can experiment with whatever ones suit you!

When you're taking notes, the idea is to keep them super short.

Even if it's something major and dramatic, keep it short when logging. If you want, you can always expand on your "quick notes" on the next page in full sentences like you would in a typical diary.

The idea of the bullet journal is that once you understand the basic symbols and approach, you can use it to record and organize basically any type of task, thought, or idea — daily, monthly, work, home, personal, school, etc.

So is it a to-do list or a planner or a diary?

It is all of these things! It sounded confusing, but the minimalist in me liked the idea of a single item to serve as a journal/to-do-list/planner/general list-keeper... so I decided to use all of this newfound information to create my own system.

I like bullet journaling because it's a great way to track my day-to-day activities and experiences, as well as my long-term goals. Planners/to-do lists typically only focus on what you're doing in the future, and diaries typically focus on what you did that day. But all of these things give us the complete picture of who we are. Before I started bullet journaling, the idea of keeping my diary and my personal to-do list and my work tasks in the same place seemed absurd. But now I understand both how to organize that, and also why it makes sense to do it that way.

Despite this long explanation, bullet journaling is not something that takes a lot of time (unless you want it to).

I see you racing to the comments to yell "Ain't nobody got time for that!" at me, and I'm going to stop you right here.

The initial setup takes less than an hour. Then you can take it with you, plan your days out, write your grocery lists, track your habits, take notes at church, journal for 10–20 minutes each night (it's a nice way to unplug and unwind before bed), or use it however you would like!

Like most things, I've found that once I get started on it, I end up doing more than I expected to. But how much time you spend on it is really up to you.

Some people put a lot of effort into making their bullet journal look beautiful and fancy...which you can do, but you certainly don't have to do.

Many "bullet journal junkies" — as they are known on Instagram — put a lot of time into making their pages look gorgeous. If you're looking for a creative outlet/hobby and are already artistically inclined, this makes sense. But that approach isn't a requirement.

While I have nice handwriting and some experience with hand-lettering, I knew if I got too precious about layouts and color-coding, I'd be less likely to actually do it. I've learned it's totally, totally fine to take a more minimalist approach.

Don't overthink it!

While I do think mapping out your first few pages before you get started is helpful, there's no need to plan out an entire year's worth of layouts on the first day. Not only will you likely fill multiple journals in a single year, but you'll start to discover what you need and don't need as you go along. One of the biggest lessons I've learned since I started bullet journaling is that you will make mistakes (in pen!) and you just have to roll with it. It's best not to get too precious about it and to just start writing.