Blog #113: I started my first bullet journal at the beginning of August. All the fancy pictures you see online are intimidating as you see many picture perfect journals. I knew from the beginning my journal would not look like those nor did I want all the fancy stuff. Here is my review on the bullet journal. Now that I am a month into my first bullet journal, is it worth it? Will I continue?

Pros

As the saying goes, nothing is ever easy. You can purchase a planner that is ready to use instead of creating a bullet journal. A bullet journal gives you the freedom to create whatever spreads/pages you would use on a daily, weekly or monthly bases. You customize your own pages.

In my bullet journal I keep track of:

• Birthdays and Holidays for the year
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Calendar
• Notes
• Monthly Expenses
• Workout Page for the year
• Needs and Wants page

Cons

The whole reason for getting a bullet journal was to keep one small journal and use it as a planner for notes. I admit I have fallen in love with it. Once you set your journal up, it becomes easier to draw in the months, weeks, expenses page etc. HOWEVER, the set up is VERY time consuming to say the least. Once the main pages are set up you will find it does get a bit easier.

To make life easier, I am working on 2 months in advance and keeping the layouts pretty similar month to month. Lastly, I keep it minimal. No extra pages based around pictures only. I keep it colorful and try different title looks but nothing to crazy.

Don’t get me wrong! I love the fancy spreads I see on Pinterest. However, I don’t want to overwhelm myself. I just want to keep myself organized. Nothing else! Check out my first bullet journal set up HERE.

Favorite Pages

It has only been a month but since creating a workout page for the year I have not missed my daily workouts. Before this I was keeping track on an app but seeing the progress on paper, that I have to color in each day, is so motivating! This is definitely keeping me going strong!

My monthly expense page is something new I am doing. I keep track of my expenses on the Mint app. Although, I am finding that writing down my expenses keeps me on track of purchases that maybe I don’t need to make! Makes me aware of what I am buying vs seeing the expenses on the app later on. Mint sometimes categorizes in the wrong field pretty often. I find this part annoying! Although I do love the pie graphs on Mint.

Is It Worth It?

In conclusion, I do think the bullet journal is worth it. It is relaxing NOW that I have it set up and just have to worry about creating new pages once a month. For the notes sections, I now separate notes with a highlighter instead of creating fancy note sections.

Give a bullet journal a try and let me know if it is worth it for your lifestyle. Many inspirations have come from Pinterest and blogger Bournemouth Girl. She has awesome spreads with a minimal, yet fun look!

Enjoy!