Bullet Journaling 101
by Jenna Mains, Girl Talk Ambassador
Bullet journaling started to boom in 2018 and is now transitioning into 2019. I started bullet journaling in the beginning of 2018, when I stumbled across countless YouTube and Instagram accounts that focused on bullet journaling. I have always loved stationery and anything that has to do with being creative, so I went to my nearest art store, which happened to be Michaels and picked one up! I have gone through 2 bullet journals and the one I have now is still from Michaels. It is a hardcover Artist’s Loft brand Dot Journal. They sell both hardcover and softcover and have tons of color options, plus it is only 5 bucks!!!
So once you have your bullet journal to start off and get some ideas, you can head to Pinterest, Instagram or YouTube. They are lots of different things you can do inside of your journal: there are tons of different weekly spreads, monthly spreads and activity trackers. I personally do not do any of the food tracker, sleep tracker or any other type of tracker just because I do not ever stick to filling it out, but I encourage you to try them out! So once you find your spread that you want to use, sit down and start penciling it out. I usually pencil mine out first and then go over it with a black pen. My favorite pen to use is either the Pigma Micron pens in sizes 02 and 03 or the Paper Mate Inkjoy gel pen in .7.
Once everything has been gone over in black pen I then erase all my pencil marks and start to add color! I like to do very minimal color. I also enjoy making mine look a little rougher, so I do not use a ruler I just attempt to follow the dots on the page and I like my lines to run a little further than they have to.
After all those details are done it is time to add in your things that you have going on in the week, so I like to leave space in the middle to write my homework in and I also like to add a ‘verse of the week’ space so I can write down a Bible verse that I am going to focus on during that week!
The really great thing about bullet journals is they are totally customizable to what you need and what you like in a planner. They are great to document memories by adding polaroids or a ticket from a movie you just saw and writing little blips next to them explaining that day. The more you use it and try out new spreads the more you will find what you like and what you purpose you want your journal to serve!