A MINIMALIST BULLET JOURNAL (ultimate guide)

 

Today I’m going to show you how to bullet journal like a minimalist. Minimalism has been very popular lately and of course, it is reflected in the Bullet Journal community as well.

So if you want to know:

• What is minimalism,
• what makes your bullet journal minimalist
• what minimalism in bullet journaling means (hint: it isn’t always about creating black and white artsy stuff)
• how to start a simple journal
• how to set up your bujo for a more intentional life
• Layouts usually take less time to create
• what bullet journal products to use

, and grab the best minimalist bullet journal inspiration, then keep reading.

What is minimalism though? It usually means having less, but the way people interpret it in their Bullet Journals are very different and vary from person to person.

I would say generally these are characteristics of minimalist spreads:

• Usually in black and white or with a very little color.
• simple and clean design
• It is very little decoration.
• There is a lot of white space

Who Are Minimalist Bullet Journal Pages For? 

First of all, minimalism is a great start for beginners. If you want to give the Bullet Journal method a try and ease into it, starting with minimalist spreads is a very great idea. I myself started with minimalist spreads bujo spreads in the beginning.

This style won’t overwhelm you, you’ll learn to use the system and find your own techniques and methods without investing time into decoration.
A minimalist Bullet Journal style is also great if you’re not very artistic, or are not very sure in your skills.

If you’re still learning and working on your skills, but don’t want to stress over your BuJo pages not being as perfect as you imagine them to be – definitely give minimalism a try.

You can use it as a basis and as you go and improve your creativity you can start bit by bit adding more decorative elements and customizing your journal style.

Finally, I think the minimalist Bullet Journal style will be perfect for any busy person. Setting up a minimalist Bullet Journal page usually takes 5-15 minutes, it’s a very reasonable amount of time that we can all find during the day.

 
What Makes Your Bullet Journal Minimalist?

Style -

First of all, the minimalist bullet journal comes with simple and clean structured spreads.

In most cases, it can be considered as a bullet journal style with a neutral color palette, simple geometric lines, forms, shapes, and a lot of empty space.

For instance, you can:

• use a lot of white space or black and grey colors
• grab a notebook and pen and make awesome black and white art.

Journaling for a More Intentional Life

You keep your journal minimal because your bullet journal intentions are to:

• have a place where you can put all your thought, experiences
• become a better person
• improve your focus
• make your life organized with schedules and lists
• plan and follow your tasks
• keep you accountable with your goals
• journal for self-growth, self- improvement.
• unleash your creativity

And while creating a bullet journal with a minimal style and keeping it minimal for an intentional living doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive, artsy bullet journals are more likely to scare many people away from bullet journaling. 

Supplies

Another benefit of having a minimalist Bullet Journal is the fact that you don’t really need to use that many supplies, so if your budget is tight maybe this style is for you.

All you need is a -

1. notebook (it can be a ruled or plain or dot grid use what you have),

2. a pen (blue or black doesn’t matter),

3. a ruler (if you want straight and clean lines or you can draw it freehand it doesn’t matter). 

What to Include in Your Minimalist Bullet Journal

In order to keep your pages simple and intentional, you have to ask yourself what are the most important things you want to focus on right now.

You need to create and – I think the most crucial part of this system – customize your bujo that is well-customized to your personality and lifestyle.

With this in mind, the next step you follow is to determine the most important pages you want to have in your bujo notebook.

Obviously, you can find many amazing minimalist bullet journal ideas on Pinterest. But if they don’t fit your personality and lifestyle, what’s the point of spending time to create them.

Similarly to decluttering your home, getting rid of unused bujo spreads makes your bujo life a lot easier.

Next, you create a minimalist bullet journal by drawing simple elements. You don’t focus to make a masterpiece. You keep your bujo spread clear, functional, and practical, most of the time using only a black pen. 

My Minimalist Bullet Journal Setup

Definitely, I consider myself a minimalist.

For me, minimalism is living with less, but functional things – not only less stuff in my home, life, but also less stuff in my head.

For the most part, my approach to bujo is practical.

To demonstrate it, I’ll show you how I set my simple bullet journal.

• As a rule, setting up a brand new bullet journal notebook I start from basic elements like:
• bullet journal key and index (important for organizing the notebook itself)
• future log (a great place to write down all important events, birthdays, appointments, submissions, etc)

, and I add my most important yearly spreads like:

• quote page (as an inspiration)
• blogging pages with stats, new ideas, strategies
• books & podcast tracker (for self-improvement)

Then, as a part-time blogger and a full-time student, my minimalist bullet journal each month contain such pages like:

• Cover page (it helps to divide a bujo into months)

Meanwhile, here are a few minimalist Bullet Journal cover inspirations for you -

amizaomar

_sandras_view_

Kalli Bravo

• Monthly spread (for goals and current events)

Meanwhile, here are a few minimalist Bullet Journal monthly spread inspirations for you -

theobsessive_journalist

 

journal.it

• Weekly spread (to plan next week ahead)

Meanwhile, here are a few minimalist Bullet Journal weekly inspirations for you. 

theobsessive_journalist

bujowithmatilda

• Habit tracker (to develop better habits)

Meanwhile, here are a few minimalist Bullet Journal habit tracker inspirations for you.

theobsessive_journalist

katlinbujo

• Brain dump (because of writing keeps my mind clear)

Meanwhile, here are a few minimalist Bullet Journal brain dump inspirations for you.

bountifulcolours

• Finance tracker (to improve my financial health)

keletters

• Collections 

There are tons of ideas on what collections you can create, and the fact that you have a minimalist Bullet Journal doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them, Just take a look at some of the collections below.

creativithee

b_baskerville_author

mochibujo

Without a doubt, bullet journaling is all about flexibility and freedom.

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest assets of bullet journaling is that there’s no set pattern you have to follow in contrary to other pre-printed journals.

However, sometimes it’s hard to figure out what will work best for you.

Although you can add anything you want in your bujo, it may lead you to get stressed and overwhelmed.

For that reason, keeping your journal intentions crystal clear will help you to have a laser focus on what’s important for you here and now.

Absolutely, it doesn’t matter how your notebook looks. As long as you see positive changes in your life, everything is just fine.

Will you give a try to minimalist Bullet Journal? Or maybe it’s already your style? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

And always remember! Keep Bullet Journaling

BULLET JOURNAL SETUP FOR BEGINNERS 2020

I started my first bullet journal one year ago, and I am proud to say I kept it up all year! I was super intimidated by all the beautiful and creative spreads I saw online. I found my bullet journal really helpful and totally fell in love with it. The bullet journal system can be quite intimidating, but don’t worry! This guide has everything you need to get started, along with tips I've learned from my year of bullet journaling.

TERMS TO KNOW 

There are certain words that you’ll hear as you start using the bullet journal system. Here are a few important terms you should know.

•       Migration – one of the core principles of this system is the ability to move tasks forward to new pages. If you find that a task didn’t get accomplished and you still want to keep it on your to-do list, you migrate it to your current daily page to keep It relevant. 
•       Spread – A spread is often used to describe the pages in a bullet journal. Most people tend to refer to two pages side by side as a spread. you will often see monthlies and dailies being referred to as spreads because they cover across two pages.
•       Tracker – a tracker is a spread used to track certain information for some time. Trackers can span a week, a month, a year, or anything in between. There are unlimited types of trackers. 
•       Monthlies – the word monthlies are just short for monthly spreads.  
•       Weeklies – weeklies are just short for weekly spread. 
•       Dailies – it is the same as monthlies and weeklies, it is short for the daily log.

THE BASIC PAGES

So you have your journal and pen ready. Let's understand each of the basic functions of the bullet journal and go through how to set it up. It might seem a lot but don’t worry! It’s a lot easier once you have got these basic elements set up.-

1.  INDEX – the index will be the first element in your bullet journal. Adding an index helps you find what you need when you need it. All of that information may seem like a waste if it is jumbled and you are unable to locate information in a pinch.

 
2.  KEY – The first thing you want to consider is key for what you want to use in your bullet journal. Carroll suggested some symbols that you might want to use, or you can create your own! This makes it easy and clear for you since you have different symbols for assignments, appointments, tasks, etc so that you don’t mix them up.

                                 

3.  RAPID LOGGING – as the name implies, rapid logging is a quick and easy way to record anything. Many people lose interest in journals or complicated lists because they become arduous and cumbersome, rather than helpful. Using rapid logging, you make quick work of any meeting notes, journal entries,  or to-do list. This involves notations using short sentences and abbreviations, when possible.

4.  LOGS- your bullet journal should contain logs that help you identify what you need to accomplish. Ryder Carroll recommends that you use a future log, a monthly log, and a daily log. This way you can see what you need to accomplish on a small and large level. This logging system also provides you with a way to track your progress over time.

5.  FUTURE LOG – basically, this is a page where you can write down any future appointments or dates for a month you haven’t set up yet. That way you can easily reference it to see if there’s an appointment coming up or a deadline sneaking up on you. The future log appears on the next blank spread (two- side by side pages) in your notebook. It’s in this section that you write down important deadlines, events, and goals you’d like to make happen in the upcoming months. 

6.  MONTHLY LOG –  This is where you keep your month at a glance. Some people like to keep it minimal by opting fro a list format instead of a calendar and others like myself like to keep it in a more traditional calendar format. For me, a calendar is easier and quicker to use. There is no one right way to set up a  monthly in the right way that works for you To create your monthly log, go to the next available spread. On the left page write the month at the top and list the number of days in that month down the side. Next to the dates, write the first letter of the day that each falls on. Label the right page to map out a general overview of what you’d like to accomplish that month.

7.  DAILY LOG ( or dailies) – dailies are the workhorse of the bullet journal. The daily spread is a to-do list. You write down all the things you need to get done today, all appointments you need to remember, and any notes you need to keep. You can add as much other information as you want! this spread is totally customizable for your needs. On your next spread, write the days date and start listing the tasks you’d like to accomplish keeping each entry short and sweet (know as ‘rapid logging’). Carroll recommends using specific symbols, or signifiers to label each entry -  dots for tasks, dashes for notes circles for events, and stars for important to-dos.

                                 
8.  COLLECTIONS- Collections are a catchall for everything else you’d add that doesn’t fit into one of the categories mentioned. Collections can be lists, logs, trackers, maps, info dump, etc.,. Basically, if you have a specific project you want to work on, a brainstorming session you want to explore. To set up a collection, turn to the next blank page or spread. Then add a header to the page to explain what the collection is about and add the information you want to write down.

9.  TRACKER-   

1.   Habit Tracker – I’m not being dramatic when I say that the habit tracker changed my life. As someone who has always struggled with building with positive habits and shedding bad habits, this has been exactly the ticket I needed for making a big difference.

                              In a habit tracker, you write down the habits you want to focus on – good and bad and track them daily for a month. Every night, you sit down and color in a box to indicate if that habit was done that day. For example, if you’re tracking your exercise habit, you can fill in the box if you exercised today. If you didn’t exercise, the box remains empty. After weeks and months, you can watch a pattern emerge and see exactly how often that habit is present in your life. Once you see it that, it becomes very easy to make changes because you remove any guesswork.

2.    Health Trackers -  another great addition to your journal is some kind of a health tracker. You can track all kinds of health-related information, like sleep, hydration, calories, steps, symptoms, and so on the list goes on and on! If you’re wanting to focus on improving your health or maintain some kind of condition, a health tracker is a simple way to do just that.

3.   A Mood Tracker -  whether you are battling mental health problems or you simply want to encourage a brighter attitude, a mood tracker is an amazing way to see your mental patterns. You can opt for a monthly tracker or do a full year in pixels mood tracker to see the entire year at a glance!

4.   Financial Tracker – if you’re anything like me, financial planning is a snore. I can't find a way to get excited about a budget! However I do understand how important a budget is, so I make it happen in my bullet journal. That’s why I try extra hard with financial planning spread to make them engaging. One way to help me think about saving money is by thinking about how I will spend it. I track my finances in two ways first I track my daily expenditure and second I divide.

REMEMBER – Your bullet journal can contain whatever information you want. The goal is to accomplish more by relevant tasks and continuing to work towards the ones that matter.

ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES

What do you need to start? The great news is that you can start with pretty much any empty or half-empty notebook lying around. You can use a ruled notebook, or blank notebook, or a dot or square grid notebook. As for beginners ill suggest using a ruled or plain blank notebook because not everyone has a dot grid available to them. And you can use any pen as well! Use materials that bring joy to you and that makes the bullet journaling process fun and excited. If you use the supplies that you live, you’ll be drawn to using your journal every day.

         When I started my first bullet journal one year ago, I had used a ruled A5 notebook and a black gel pen.

GETTING STARTED ON YOUR BULLET JOURNAL

Follow these steps to get started:

• Gather Your Supplies. You don’t need anything fancy to get started, but having the right supplies can help you stick with it. All you really need to get started is your favorite pen and a notebook, everything else is just extra.
• Create An Index. An index is simply a place where you can keep track of all the pages you include in your bullet journal. To create a basic index, all you need to do is create two columns. In the right column, write ‘page’ on the left write ‘ page number’. Now, as you create pages, you can fill out your index
• Create a Key. A key is one of the simplest pages in your bullet journal. It is simply a place for you to keep track of all of the different symbols you use in your bullet journal and what they mean.  
• Create a Future Log. Your future log is a place for you to plan for things that are not coming up immediately. This is the perfect place to include things like birthdays, big project deadlines, and appointments made in advance.
•  Create Your First Monthly. Next, you want to create your first monthly spread. This can be as simple or as complicated as you like. There are two common formats: calendar or list. Either works well for beginners.
• Create a Weekly/Daily Log. Weekly or daily logs are the centers of any bullet journal, but what they look like can vary significantly from person to person. You can also choose to combine them intone page or use both the pages.
• Update Your Index. Your index only works if you keep it updated, so go back and make sure to include all of the pages you’ve created.
• Add Trackers. Add whichever habit you want to track
• Customize Your Bullet Journal. There are a ton of bullet journals out there. Some are fancy and some are simple. Its up t you what from yours will take, but remember to make it yours.
• Use It Daily. If you want the bullet journal system to work for you, you need to be sure to keep it updated. Make a habit of using your bullet journal. Begin recording tasks, events, or noted. You want to keep each entry short, as with a bullet list. This is the rapid logging process.
• Begin bullet journaling.

Voila! You’re officially a bullet journaler.

WHY PEOPLE LOVE THE BULLET JOURNAL?

The bullet journal is a great way to stay organized. But most importantly, bullet journals are easy. Here’s why:

•  You can put everything in one place. No more lost or half –fulfilled to-do lists.
•  Bullet journals are easily modifiable to fit your need, habits, and schedule.
•  They don’t require a huge time investment.
•  All topics are indexed and can be found when needed.

I hope this helps you to start your own bullet journal today and make your life sorted.