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If you're interested in starting a bullet journal or if you're a pro and just need some new ideas then this post is for you. I'll tell you the 25 best pages to include in your journal and then show you some gorgeous examples to get you started. If you'd rather start with a template then I'll show you where to get those too!
You've probably heard of bullet journaling, but you're not sure of exactly how to do it or what the benefits are. Bullet Journaling is an amazing tool to help you get your life on track, get focused and motivated and make positive changes in your life. Before I started bullet journaling I knew that I had areas in my life that needed improvement but with my hectic work schedule and 3 kids I never took the first step to make a change. Then I discovered bullet journaling. I've managed to lose weight, ditch unhealthy habits, save more money and live a happier life. In this article I'm going to tell you how you can start your own bullet journal and explain how doing so can make positive changes in your life.
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First let’s talk about how you bullet journal. This is a planning system that was devised by Ryder Carrol. To learn the basics of the system, watch this video tutorial.
If you want more information about how to bullet journal you can check out Ryder Carrol's book, The Bullet Journal Method.
I recommend finding a time to write in your bullet journal every day. For me I love to get a cup of coffee and journal in the morning in a quite cozy spot. It's a great way to start my day by focusing on what's important. It would also work great to bullet journal before bed. This's a great way to unwind and decompress the events of the day before the next day starts. Either way just set aside time every day to do it.
Let's take a look at the best pages to include in your bullet journal. I'll show you examples of each and even where you can get templates and stencils to get you started.
Do you agree that life seems to go by way to fast? If you're a parent, like me, are you in awe at how quickly your kids are growing up? This can help you to capture the moments of your life, so you can appreciate each day a little more.
In your bullet journal you can create a page that is a memory log for the year. I do this each month, but you can do it more often if you like. You write down what is going on in your life at that moment and how you feel it about it.
Below check out an idea to create your own memory tracking page in your bullet journal.
MEMORY TRACKING STICKER | FIND IT HERE
You'll be amazed at how much starting a gratitude journal entry will change your life. Here’s what you do, every single day think of one thing that you're grateful for and write it down. When you get in the habit of doing this daily it'll change your entire perspective. You'll start to look for the positive things to be grateful for everyday and it makes you realize how good you have it.
Sometimes you may be having a bad day and must reach harder to find the items to write down in your journal. Like when your kids seem like they won't stop fighting and you feel rushed and stressed all day. You can still find something to be grateful for, like that your husband made you coffee without you asking.
Those small ones are often my favorite to look back at. When I go back and read through these at the end of the month and year it floods my heart with happiness and increases my gratitude tenfold.
Check out below how to create a gorgeous gratitude entry in your journal
GRATITUDE LOG PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
Here’s another one we've all heard, you need to write down your goals. Did you know that people who write down their goals are 80% more likely to achieve them then those who don’t? That's an exciting statistic! So why aren’t you doing it? You can start now. You can change your life just by implementing this one step into your daily routine.
First you'll want to write short term goals that you can accomplish in two to three months that are measurable and larger goals that you can accomplish in a year, and then even larger, scarier, more exciting goals that may take you 5 to ten years to accomplish. Next write down an actionable plan to achieve these goals. Review your goals ever day or at least every week and make sure you are on track.
It's important that you believe in the plan even for the huge goals. You must believe in yourself and that you can accomplish these to even have a shot at them.
Check out below the best page layouts to create a goal tracking system in your bullet journal.
GOAL TRACKER DOWNLOAD | WHERE TO FIND
GOAL TRACKER PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
Level 10 life goals are a way to achieve balance in your life between 10 important areas in everyone's life. These 10 areas are:
Below check out some examples to track how you're doing on your level 10 goals.
LEVEL 10 PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
LEVEL 10 PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
Start an affirmation log where you simply write positive things about yourself. This was the hardest one for me. It felt odd and even arrogant to write positive things about myself in a journal. So here's what I did. I just wrote simply one thing a day about myself that was great and guess what soon I had a huge list of positive things about myself.
What's fun about this too is once you have listed all the obvious things that come to your mind you have to work a little harder to find creative things that you love about yourself. Talk about boosting your self love!
How this will change your life is it changes your mindset to find the positive things about yourself. You'll become more mindful of how you speak to yourself in your own head. We all need to ditch the negative self-talk people. This will help you keep a more positive dialogue in your head which will change your entire outlook on life.
Below check out how to create an affirmation page in your bullet journal.
BULLET JOURNAL INSERTS | FIND THEM HERE
Start a habitat tracker to quit your bad habits and increase your positive habits. This one is eye opening. Here's how you start you a habitat tracker. What you do is have a monthly page and in one section write any habits you are trying to increase or decrease. You can have as many as you like.
You create a small box for each day and if that habit was present that day you color the box. Over time you can visually see if you're increasing the good habits and decreasing the bad habits. There's something about seeing this visually that really made a change for me. I pictured how I ideally wanted to see the monthly visualization and strove for that and guess what it worked.
Below check out the best ideas for page layouts for your habit tracking page and click the links to see where you can get the templates or stencils.
HABITAT TRACKER STENCIL | WHERE TO FIND
HABITAT TRACKER PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
HABITAT TRACKER PRINTABLE | WHERE TO FIND
CIRCLE STENCIL | WHERE TO FIND
HABITAT TRACKER STENCIL | WHERE TO FIND
Create finance tracking pages to finally get control of your finances. I know budgeting is not fun but when you have a pretty visualization to work with it makes it a lot better. You can also think about it in terms of a goal your saving for and draw an inspirational picture or if you’re not artistic print a picture and put it in the journal.
For example, I want to take the family to Hawaii, so in my journal is a picture of a beautiful beach in Hawaii. I see this while I'm budgeting, and it inspires me to save. I do my budgeting once a week. I have weekly budget goals for each category that is a variable expense such as groceries, target runs, etc. Each week I log my actuals next to my planned expenses and make sure I'm on track. If I'm over a little one week I try to scale back in that category or another category the next week.
There are a lot of different finance tracking pages that you can add to your bullet journal to keep track of your money. A few examples are a budget tracking page, debt payoff, savings tracking pages and bill trackers. I'll show you examples of all of these below.
Here are some great ideas for savings tracker pages.
SAVINGS PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
SAVINGS PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
SAVINGS PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
BUDGET TRACKER STENCIL | FIND IT HERE
BUDGET PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
BILL TRACKING PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
DEBT PAYOFF PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
Keeping a daily to do list can actually decease anxiety and help you sleep. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking of everything you need to do the next day? I used to too. I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep thinking of everything that needs to be done.
If you can write down your daily to do list for the next day every night before you go to bed it helps your brain relax. Your mind realizes that you have it covered, and you can get back to sleep.
Others like to do this first thing in the morning and it keeps them focused for the day. Do whatever works best for you.
Below check out some page ideas for your daily to do list.
DAILY PRINTABLES | FIND THEM HERE
You'll also want to add a page with a monthly calendar as well as weekly sheets to keep track of what you and your family have going on for that week.
Below is an example of how to do that.
BULLET JOURNAL CIRCLE STENCIL SET | WHERE TO FIND
This one works whether you're a runner, walker, a gym person, do at home workouts or anything else. If you create a fitness plan in your bullet journal you'll be more likely to reach your fitness goals. Plan your entire month of work outs and write them down in a calendar style fitness plan.
Put a small box at the top of each daily calendar box and color it in if you've completed your work out that day. Have a fitness goal for each month, for example lose five pounds. Create these plans at the start of each month. Why does this work? First if you know in advance what your workout is going to be for that day you're more likely to do it. Your un-conscious mind will be set on doing the workout and will work to find time in your day to get it done. This actually works!
There's something very satisfying about seeing all the boxes colored at the end of month in your fitness calendar. By having a monthly goal that is achievable, believable and with the plan to get there you are more likely to achieve it.
If you're working on your fitness this year then you can include a workout tracker, weight tracker and fitness goals pages in your bullet journal. Check out some examples of each of those below.
WORKOUT LOG PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
ACTIVITY TRACKER PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
YOGA OR PILATES LOG TEMPLATE | FIND IT HERE
WORKOUT LOG PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
MEASUREMENT PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
WEEKLY WEIGH IN PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
WEIGHT LOSS TEMPLATE | FIND IT HERE
FITNESS GOAL TEMPLATE | FIND IT HERE
FITNESS GOAL PRINTABLE TEMPLATE | FIND IT HERE
Create a meal planning page to save money while getting healthy. Create a meal planning page that looks like a calendar and update it weekly before you go grocery shopping. By planning in advance what you're going to cook every night it helps you plan nutritious meals for your family.
No more McDonalds runs because there's nothing in the fridge. Before I implemented this page in my journal we would always run out of dinners the day before it was time to grocery stop and would inevitable have to go out to a restaurant or grab fast food.
This journal page is surprisingly easy and saves my family money while keeping me on track with my fitness goals. See how they all start tying together? Extra bonus you can add another journal page that's your grocery list that you complete each week after you have done the meal planning page.
Check out below some ideas to create your own meal planning bullet journal pages.
MEAL PLANNING PRINTABLE PAGES | WHERE TO FIND
MEAL PLANNING PRINTABLE PAGES | WHERE TO FIND
Another must have entry in your bullet journal is a mood tracking page. How these work is you assign a color to all of your moods and at the end of the day you color in the day with your overall mood for the day. This'll give you a beautiful representation of your mental health over a period of time.
Check out below some ideas to create your own mood tracking page or purchase a template from Etsy.
MOOD TRACKING STENCIL | FIND IT HERE
A YEAR IN PIXELS PRINTABLE | FIND IT HERE
MOOD TRACKING PAGES | FIND THEM HERE
MOOD TRACKING PAGES | FIND THEM HERE
I have a hard time keeping track of birthdays so this is one that I'll be adding to my bullet journal this year. On one sheet you just create a space for each month and then list your friends and family names next to their birthday. This'll give you a quick reference for all of those important birthdays so hopefully you don't forget any this year.
Check out some ideas to create a pretty birthday tracking sheet in your bullet journal.
BIRTHDAY TRACKING STENCIL | FIND IT HERE
BIRTHDAY TRACKING PAGES | FIND THEM HERE
BIRTHDAY TRACKING PAGES | FIND THEM HERE
Now is a great time to start a new healthy morning routine and stick to it. Your bullet journal can help you create and maintain the perfect morning routine.
Some examples of healthy morning rituals include waking up early, journaling, reading the bible, eating a healthy breakfast, exercising, doing yoga or meditating. Establish the habits that you want to strive for every morning and then track them in your journal.
Next, check out an example of a morning routine bullet journal page.
MORING ROUTINE DOWNLOAD | FIND IT HERE
Creating an event tracking page is a great way to keep track of those important events each year like weddings, anniversaries and holidays. You can also add in vacations, graduations, prom, baby showers or any other parties that you might need to do a little planning for.
Below check out an example of how to create a beautiful event planning bullet journal page.
EVENT PLANNING PAGE | FIND IT HERE
If you love to read and plan out all the books that you want to read or have read then you'll need this one. It's a sheet or two to help you track all of the books.
Below check out an example of how to create this page in your bullet journal.
BOOK TRACKING PAGE | WHERE TO FIND
This is the same exact idea as the book tracking but it's for the movie junkie. You can track all the movies that you want to watch or have already watched by adding this sheet to your bullet journal.
MOVIE TRACKING SHEET | WHERE TO FIND
If one of your New Year's resolutions is to get more sleep then you'll want to add this page to your bullet journal. That way you can track how many hours of sleep you're getting each night to make sure you are on track for your sleep goals.
Here's an idea to create a sleep log in your bullet journal.
SLEEP TRACKING DIGITAL LOG | FIND IT HERE
If you're a business owner that wants to have a social media presence then you may want to add a social media tracker to your bullet journal. This could also be for anyone who wants to track how much time or how many social media posts you do.
Below check out how to create a social media tracking page for your bullet journal.
TRACKING STENCIL | WHERE TO FIND
I saved for last one of the most important sheets in your bullet journal. This is your self care tracking page. This one is so important because it's the thing that we often neglect. We need a little reminder for us to take care of ourselves and that's exactly what this is. Find a way to add a page where you color something when you have taken some time for yourself that day.
Below check out an example of a self care tracking journal entry.
SELF CARE TRACKING DOWNLOAD | FIND IT HERE
Now you have some inspiration of the pages you need but before you get started first you need to get some supplies. Bullet journaling is more fun if you have the right tools. You're more likely to do it everyday if you have a beautiful journal and fun colorful pens to create your masterpiece. A bullet journal ruler or stencils will help you make those perfect lines and shapes and washi tape is totally optional but it's another fun way to add a little interest to some of your pages.
Check out below my top picks for bullet journal supplies.
This is a complete kit to get you started with bullet journaling including the bullet journal, (available in more colors),15 colored pens, 1 black pen, fun stickers and washi tape.
BULLET JOURNAL KIT | FIND IT HERE
Here's my top picks for bullet journals. Click the links to see more color options too.
BULLET JOURNALS | WHERE TO FIND
ONE | SKY BLUE BULLET JOURNAL
TWO | DOTTED CORK JOURNAL
THREE | BLUE SCRIBBLES THAT MATTER JOURNAL
FOUR | PURPLE DOTTED JOURNAL
FIVE | MARBLED BULLET JOURNAL
SIX | THE BEST IS YET TO COME JOURNAL
Here are my favorite pens for bullet journaling. You'll definitely want a set that has fine points, you may also want ones that have a thicker option as well.
BULLET JOURNAL PENS | WHERE TO FIND
ONE | 18 FINE POINT PENS
TWO | 25 DUAL TIP COLIR BRUSH SET
THREE | 24 FINE POINT & BRUSH TIP SET
FOUR | SET OF 24 BRUSH & FINE TIP MARKERS
Stencils are optional and if you're super talented you may not need them. For the rest of us who can't draw a straight line these will help you make your bullet journal look like the ones you see on Pinterest.
Below check out my favorite bullet journal stencils. I know it's hard to see what you get from these pictures so you may have to click on the links to see what each one has.
BULLET JOURNAL STENCILS | WHERE TO FIND
ONE | SET OF 12 STENCILS
TWO | SET OF 4 JOURNAL STENCILS
THREE | GOLD JOURNAL STENCIL
FOUR | STENCILS FOR 5MM DOT JOURNALS
You can add a little variety to your bullet journal by using washi tape. What you can do is add in photos, pictures that you printed or drew, quotes or bullet journal templates that you found and tape them in the journal with the washi tape. You'll want to tape them so that the pretty tape shows. You could also create cool patterns or page borders with the tape.
Check out some inspiration to do that below.
Washi tape is a fun accessory that you can add to your pages for a little more color and texture. My favorite washi tapes are below.
WASHI TAPE | WHERE TO FIND
ONE | 60 ROLLS GLITTER TAPE
TWO | FLORAL GOLD WASHI TAPE
THREE | 10 ROLLS BLUE & GOLD FOIL TAPE
FOUR | 40 COLORFUL ROLLS TAPE SET
Now you have the inspiration to start your bullet journal with tons of ideas of what pages to include. Time to get started changing your life for the better. First order your supplies. Then, set aside time in each day to work on it and before you know if you'll have your very own little masterpiece.
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