5 Bullet-Journal Tips That Will Improve Your Life

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘wellness’? Probably a holistic mother-of-four who seamlessly balances mocktails with the girls, parenting a rabble, a self-made career, and early morning Pilates, all the while maintaining a physique Gisele Bundchen would sob into a pint of vegan ice-cream over and skin that would send Kora Organics into liquidation. You hate to think it but you look at her and you wonder. You wonder what she possibly has to improve, what she possibly has to make well, and what on earth she of all people would know about UN-wellness.

It’s a bold assumption to make, albeit a pretty normal one. It is easy to look at others and ponder upon what they would ever have to worry about, to bemoan, what else they could possibly need to work on or achieve. That’s when I realised that this whole ‘wellness’ malarkey is more than improving yourself or fixing something up; it’s about gratitude and appreciation for what you do have. And that isn’t to invalidate any issues we do encounter – no matter how trivial or colossal they may be – but simply to ground ourselves. It isn’t an antidote or a cure-all but, especially if you were created with a generous dollop of pessimism and cynicism much like myself, it can be rewarding to actually go out of your way to be optimistic and even – God forbid! – idealistic.

But how does one achieve ‘wellness’? I have no idea. Everything looks unattainable, particularly on a student budget: twenty sun salutations at the crack of dawn? Kale smoothies and protein shakes? That’s when I discovered journaling. Bullet journaling has amassed something of a cult following in recent years for the creative freedom it gives you; its cathartic and destressing qualities have been compared to adult colouring books and some of the layouts people create are insane (great future inspiration for me includes @minimaljournal and @lazy.bujo). But I read that it can also require a lot of patience, something which I sorely lack. So instead, I decided to ease into it by buying a pre-made Paperchase planner and using it like a bullet-journal, tailoring it to my needs and recording my goals and tasks. Here’s what I discovered:

1. You can never go wrong with a key.

Seriously. You could be the crappiest artist around, so painfully terrible that your art teachers would deem your work abstract just to ease the blow, and yet a key is something that absolutely everyone can cobble together. Not only does it keep your journal aesthetically uniform but it also allows it to function in an organised manner when you’re scrambling for your door-keys and have no idea which appointment you’re about to rock up half-an-hour late to.

2. It will help you identify patterns.

If there are certain tasks you consistently put off – ahem! hoovering and dusting – then it’ll be plain to see just by reviewing your journal once the week is over. This is when you need to stop and re-evaluate why that is. Let’s take hoovering and dusting. I mean, it’s boring and it’s tedious. I am no Kim Woodburn. So, how do we resolve this? You reinsert the task at the beginning of a day next week so that you won’t be too tired to complete it and so that it’ll be the first thing ticked off your to-do list. And spin it another way: what will happen when I complete this task? How does this task benefit me? Why did I put this on the list? Well, a clean environment is a productive and practical environment, it means you won’t have to do it for another week once it’s been completed, and you could always line something rewarding up afterwards as motivation.

3. It’s far better than an app.

If we’re anything alike, you’ll have scores of mood apps and productivity apps stored on your phone in some obsolete Pandora’s Box of a folder that you haven’t touched since you had a random energy spurt at 3AM one night. And when you do fill your upcoming tasks and goals in, you will – again, if we’re anything alike – cheat the system by simply deleting everything you didn’t get around to completing and pretending that they never even happened. This is why a physical journal is so much better than an app, especially if you’re prone to some Frank-Abagnale-Jr-level deviousness. So long as you’re writing in pen, your commitments cannot be rearranged or removed once they’re down. Sure, changes do happen and plans get cancelled and, honestly, sometimes you would really rather not remove the hairball from the shower plughole on a sunny Saturday afternoon. But that’s okay. At least you’ll still be accountable.

4. It’s a positive space!

When somebody tells you that they’re overthinking, do you assume they’re overthinking on the positives or on the negatives? It’s probably the latter. More room to ruminate and snowball a teeny worry into a massive catastrophe, I guess. But your journal is your positive space. It might not uplift you a whole ton when you’re in a funk and everything is shit (pizza and a warm hug are preferable, right?) but it can certainly motivate you by showing you how much you’ve already achieved (even if it’s taking a shower or getting dressed) and proving that you have the capability to keep ploughing on and do it again. When you’re writing your journal, imagine someone – à la nosy mother thumbing through your high school diary – comes stumbling across it and gives it a skim. You surely want to impress them with your achievements and productivity, or at least your intentions, rather than subdue them with your angst. That’s not to say that negative feelings should be bottled up – quite the contrary! – but it is beneficial to have a designated space that is reserved for positive thoughts only.

5. You need to be consistent.

To notice anything I mentioned above – patterns, positives, plethora of achievements – you need to keep at it. This is probably the hardest part. Life can get in the way. You may have an exam, or a deadline to meet at work, or are just too busy painting the town red. In any case, the best thing you can do is set aside one day (a Sunday is probably best) to fill in the outline for the week ahead. Should anything else crop up, you can fill it in as you go but, otherwise, those other six days are reserved for ticking things off and noting upcoming tasks for that day. It’s easy to fall off the wagon if you try and force yourself to do something every single day but I’ve found, as an impatient and unmotivated beginner, that a once-a-week rundown works a lot better on those days where I just cannot be bothered.

Happy Journaling!