Bullet Journal To The Rescue!

Have you ever heard of a bullet journal? Some call it a creative planner, or bujo, however, it's a powerful nontechnical way to schedule, plan and organize everything in one place. The best part is that you get to create it however you would like. The design, the layout, what you want to put into it and what you don't want to put in it. If you happen to be scratching your head right now and wondering why the heck I'm posting about this or you already have the thought bubble pop into your mind, 'I don't have time for this' please keep reading as it's about to get juicy!

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Organizing

Instead of pretending like those pre-printed planners you buy from a store completely meet your needs. Let's take matters into your personal own hands. Let's give you back that power to draft out your own schedule and how your time is going to be spent for the day, week, and month. You don't have to do it all at once, there is no need to overwhelm yourself. Start with a basic calendar for the month and then branch out from there.

Why is creativity involved?

You have the freedom and space to make your own design. I know sounds really simple. It's very powerful though because that positive energy is handed back to you that you're free to do as you please on the sides of the paper. I know sounds ridiculous until you actually sit down and give it a try for half an hour.

You're finally allowed to color in the spots that are needed without the pressure of that fine line, you free up mental real-estate that is otherwise taken over by a company that put each day into a square box. You are not meant to be a square you have much bigger things ahead of you in life and do not have to feel like you are confined to the straight line anymore!

Planning

It's more than just writing stuff down and making it look cool. It's kind of like your own personal planning therapy. As you get into the zone you start to think of bigger ideas so you open a new blank page and start to create a whole new layout for that plan as it unravels in your mind.

I set up my planning area by prioritizing what needs done right now, what should have been done yesterday, and what needs done soon but not this second. After I align each of these areas with my daily and weekly goals (which I will get to in a bit), I create a weekly calendar which gets added to a master calendar if I'm feeling really motivated that day.

Calendar Ideas

Master grid yearly calendar - This is just a typical master plan where you map out the entire year month by month so that you can see the big picture in one spot.

Editorial content monthly calendar - Mapping out your blogging content for the month 

Product calendar - If you have an info-product or a physical product mark your launch day on the calendar and then configure backward what needs to be done on which week and day.

Weekly Goals

Further your goal planning by turning the layout to go at an angle. Doing something like this can completely open up a new can of awesomeness

Lists

This is a great way to keep all your lists in one spot so that you can easily cross-reference with your calendars and weekly goals.

To do list - This is more of a daily list that many create from the weekly or monthly calendar of short-term goals that align with longer-term goals. Some make these lists on a scratch pad of paper or post-it notes, adding these into your bullet journal is a great way to look back and see how much you've accomplished.

Grocery list - Pretty self-explanatory....you gotta eat right?! Adding this to your journal can help if you're dieting or tracking calories or if you like posting about food and recipes making sure that this list aligns with your social strategy.

Mood tracker - This is when you keep a detailed list or add an extra column on how you felt that day. I kind of do this but haven't added this to my current bullet journal. The image below is an example of how I used to do it.

Layouts

Some start with making a key or an outline, it's really up to you. It doesn't have to be anything crazy or sophisticated it just has to be something that you're going to use and that's the beauty of it. You put it together any way you desire because it's supposed to benefit you and get you out of a rut during your planning phase. You don't have to share it with anyone, I'm sharing some of my pages only to give you some ideas! If you want to learn more or need more ideas, I have an online course that spends an entire chapter on this topic and also my next Facebook giveaway has a pretty awesome bullet journal to get you started!