Bullet journals, or “bujos” are shorthand versions of your traditional diary. They’re designed for on-the-go lifestyles and for being able to open it up and see everything you need at a glance. An added bonus is, unlike your traditional diary, you can take it with you anywhere. Its shorthand style ensures that prying eyes won’t often understand what they’re reading, since it often lacks context behind the notation.
Last week, I introduced you to my Reflections x 3 Formula in a two part article:
Part 1: how bullet journaling with my Reflections x 3 Formula will help you bust through barriers and grow in ways you never imagined.
Part 2: I backed it up with excerpts from my first 90 day bujo.
This week, I’ll show you how to set it up. I’ll start with an overview before getting into it step by step. You will first want to number your pages, OR number your pages as you go along. It’s up to you, but you’ll see why you’ll want this when we talk about the Index. Here is the basic setup for all bullet journals:
- Page 1: Keys
- Pages 2 -3: Index
- Pages 4-5: (90 day) goals
- Pages 6-7: Monthly Schedule & Goals
- Pages 8-9: Weekly Goals w/Daily Tasks and Check-ins
- Pages 10-11: Your first Weekly Reflections
Page 1: Keys: The four basic standards
All journals open up with its first lined page next to the unlined filler page. This is why having your first page serve as your keys (or symbols and what each symbol means) is so convenient. Because you won’t need more than one page for your symbols, anyway.
- This is your most basic Task symbol and why it’s called a bullet journal. Your tasks are simply whatever is on today’s agenda and/or weekly/monthly/90 day plans. Then, whether or not the task was accomplished that day, you can build from the bullet mark, itself.
X This means Task Completed. You build an X out of the original bullet symbol.
> This means Task Migrated, or you did not complete this task. (Instead of shaming yourself unnecessarily) Build a > out of the original bullet. You call it Task Migrated, to the next day or next week, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s looked upon as migrated, as opposed to the negative self-talk we tend to give ourselves for not completing a task.
! This means a task has priority. It’s urgent, it must be done. (Please use this sparingly. Do NOT turn yourself into the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland)
All other symbols are up to you. To help you out in your reflections, I recommend creating symbols for your 1) events, or triggers (remember, events are what trigger our emotions, both good and bad) and also one for 2) Insights you record. Here’s an example of some of the keys I created for my first bullet journal (some of them downright silly and complicated, as you will see):
Pages 2-3: Index (or) Table of Contents
Talk about a great start to personalizing your bujo! Each time you fill up a page, go back to your table of contents, 1) title your page and then 2) mark the page number/s on where to find it. Believe me, the more times you fill up a page, then go back and add it to your index, the more meaningful it becomes. This is your “special book”, an extension of yourself. The gradual building of these two pages, alone, will make your at-a-glance growth reports that much more personal for you. Here is my first bujo’s Index/Table of Contents:
Pages 4-5: Your (90 Day) Goals
Do: Go nuts with it! Think of a list of things you would like to do, things you would like to work on, or even something you’ve always wanted to try. It’s your first step towards daring to get in tune with yourself and what you want. Then see if there’s at least one thing on your list that you can take on for 90 days. This is where you begin developing realistic goals and practice being true to yourself.
Your 90 day goals and your Moving Forward goals for the following weeks and months are sort of acting as counter balances to each other. Your 90 day goals are saying “I want”. Your Moving Forward goals are determining “how” to go about getting there, based off the confidence and insights you’ve developed. It could be instantly attained or it could take well past 90 days to get there. The important part is the ongoing growth that will eventually get you there. Here are my first 90 day goals as an example:
Do NOT: Look at every one of your 90 day goals as priorities. Even if shaming yourself over “not accomplishing enough” is something you’re into…
Yes, I’m talking to you, specifically. I’m an extreme Flight Type, (visual aid here in case you’re unfamiliar with the “4F” Trauma Types) myself, so I get it: addicted to having a long to-do list, always doing and accomplishing. And for what? That microsecond’s worth of a dopamine hit (Trauma Glossary 3: Section 3), only to immediately panic over the rest of your to-do list. I’m saying this with love, Flight Type to Flight Type: Don’t you dare treat your 90 day goals like a 90 day to-do list. That’s self-abuse and the opposite of self-compassion you’re supposed to be practicing in your bujo.
In fact, I have one 90 day priority goal just for you: !Practice accepting yourself as good enough now and therefore your best is already good enough.
Soapbox over, everyone else can proceed to the next step. Except for Flight Type, who has to read the above paragraph again before proceeding.
Pages 6-7: Monthly Schedule and Goals
This is another short hand stroke of brilliance. This is for seeing your month’s agenda at-a-glance. On the far left side of page 6, create a column of the numbered days of the month. So you could have as few as 28 or as many as 31. Then, next to each number, add the corresponding day of the week, using only the first letter of the week. This way, you have room for adding appointments or what’s scheduled on certain days of the month, wherever applicable. This is the page you can keep coming back to whenever something scheduled for a certain day comes up.
Page 7 is your overall goals for that month: an agenda that doesn’t necessarily have an assigned due date. Here is how I set up the month of February in my first bujo:
Pages 8-9: Weekly Goals w/Daily Tasks and Check-ins
Start by listing the week’s agenda. Then, using a ruler and pen, draw a straight line underneath it. Now you’re ready to start recording your first day.
What’s on that day’s agenda? This is also where we can practice saying No to long to-do lists (ahem, Flight Types). Each time you complete a day, use a ruler and a pen to draw a line underneath, as breaks in between each day. Here is my first week with my daily goals and check-ins:
Notice how my weekly goals had more migrated (>) tasks than completed (X) tasks. My first week with my bujo was a bad week but in the process, I learned the value of having a shorter to-do list.
I have guided you through the most basic setup for your bujo, all the way up to when you’re ready for your first reflections, which I covered last week. Just a couple of notes to leave you with before proceeding to Part 4: Suggested tools worth adding:
Tip: What if a lot happened in a week and your daily check-ins run longer than two pages? And what if, say, your weekly check-ins fill up three pages and you’re now faced with a single blank page? Not enough space to record your weekly reflections but you’re staring at an empty page in your bujo, nonetheless.
In that scenario, I strongly encourage you to find something creative to fill in there: Try out a zentangle or a mandala; cut out a picture you like and glue or tape it to your blank page; even writing out the lyrics to a song that’s particularly meaningful to you. Mind Mapping is an excellent tool, particularly for those who are more cerebral minded than artistic. It’s also great practice for developing your growth modules. (I’ll explain modules in the final part.)
If you’re able to zoom in on the picture of my first index page, you may notice the various things I had added when I encountered the single page dilemma. I had: zentangles; corona virus checklist (hey, this was 2020, right when the shutdown happened); even the kickboxing moves I started learning.
Next, we will cover what you might need and why you may be interested in adding them in order to get the most out of your 90 day bullet journal. Just three things that you may want to include and why they’re worth considering for your growth.
Thus concludes article three in this series. Check back here Wednesday, December 1, for Part 4.