Having a planner you refer to everyday makes life a lot easier to manage everyday tasks. I have had a planner as long as I can remember. It dates back to middle school when agendas were introduced! Since then I have been using them. Last year I decided to try a bullet journal. I fell in love with it. Now that I have finished the bullet journal, I decided to try a pre-made bullet journal. Here is my cloudberry bullet journal review. All opinions are my own. Not sponsored.

Planner vs Bullet Journal

A planner is your typical calendar for the year that is printed and ready to use. You can get pocket calendars and even 8x1o size planners. A bullet journal is a blank journal that looks like a grid. In it, you customize and draw your own calendars, notes, gratitudes, etc. The difference is a premade vs customizable journal. There are pros and cons to this, of course. With a planner, it is ready to use but may not be the exact layout you enjoy. The bullet journal is free to use the way you want.

Why I No Longer Use a Planner

There are so many planners out there. For years I used a planner. In addition to using a planner I would carry around a separate notebook to jot my to do list. I wanted something more functional for my current lifestyle. Life has just gotten busier and busier and so I need A LOT of space for notes, to dos, etc. But I also wanted one journal instead of two! I then decided to try a bullet journal. I would see posts on pinterest but never really understood what it was all about. After some research, I got really excited to try it out!

Bullet Journal

As a wife and busy mom of 3 I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with a bullet journal. Every month you have to customize each page with your monthly and weekly spreads. In addition you have to add anything else you use every month. Some spreads I see online are beautiful but very time consuming. I decided on simple spreads. Once you set up your spreads for the year, the months become a bit easier. Still it was a lot of work and I wanted something a bit easier to work with. That is when I came across the Cloudberry Bullet Journal!

Cloudberry Bullet Journal REVIEW

To make it easy, I will list the pros of having a cloudberry journal! April will be my first month but I have already prepared it for the month. Set up was so easy, compared to a completely blank journal.

Here are the benefits:

• premade journal with extra pages in between for notes
• it’s numbered!
• monthly calendar and weekly spreads are premade with days of the week
• you can start it anytime of the year!
• set up is made to last a whole year
• comes with a bookmark and elastic (basically 2 bookmarks)
• hard cover
• comes in 3 colors (brown, navy and pastel pink)

If I had to list a negative, it would be that it does not come with a pocket to store stickers or notes and the week starts on Monday, which I prefer Sunday – Saturday, as the layout. Other than that it’s awesome! I just need to focus on spreads I want to create as the important ones (monthly and weekly calendars) are already set up for me! The company is from the UK. Their journals cost $32.99, which I think are a bit pricey. However, I was able to score mine for $17.65! Why? They have a batch of “imperfect” journals that came with a few scuffs. My journal came in perfect. I did not see any imperfections and got it for half of the cost!

REVIEW

If you don’t have much time to customize your bullet journal, I would definitely recommend the cloudberry bullet journal. You can still play around with this journal and customize each page. The benefit of having the monthly calendar and days of the week printed make life so much easier for me!

Journal Posts

Do you use a bullet journal or planner? Are there pros and cons with either journal you use?