c/bullet-journaling

Used to think minimalist spreads were the only way to bullet journal properly

I spent like 6 months doing those bare bones monthly logs with no decoration at all because I thought adding any color or doodles was 'missing the point'. Then I saw a friend's journal at a coffee shop in Denver last week - she had these wild watercolor borders and stickers everywhere. She still used the rapid logging system and migrated tasks fine. Made me realize I was gatekeeping myself for no reason. Has anyone else felt pressured to keep it super plain even though you wanted to add some flair?

Swapped my monthly theme from watercolor washes to simple black and white lines last month

I was spending 2 hours on art every Sunday and realized I could fit a whole extra collection into my journal by just using a micron pen instead, has anyone else ditched design for speed and regretted it or found it freeing?

An old bullet journaler told me to stop using washi tape as a habit tracker and switch to simple dots instead...

Six months later my spreads are way more readable and I actually stick with tracking now, has anyone else found a small change like that completely changed how their journal works for them?

Filled out a whole monthly spread on my commute last week and it was a mess

Tried to do my October layout on the L train between stops and ended up with ink smears and crooked boxes everywhere. Has anyone else had luck bullet journaling on public transit or should I just stick to my desk?

The moment I realized I was doing my future log all wrong

I've been bullet journaling for about 8 months now, and I kept getting frustrated with my future log. Every month I'd flip back and see events I missed or tasks I forgot to migrate. Then last week I was at a coffee shop in Austin and saw someone else's journal open to their future log. They had it broken into quarters instead of months, and they used sticky notes for things that were far out. I literally smacked my forehead because I had been cramming everything into tiny monthly boxes. Now I'm redoing mine with quarterly sections and it already feels way less cluttered. Has anyone else had that "aha" moment where you realized you were overcomplicating something simple?

Just hit 6 months of daily habit tracking... never realized how much I was skipping weekends

I started a simple habit tracker in my bullet journal back in March. Just basic stuff like drink water, stretch, read 10 pages. I looked back yesterday and counted. I had almost no checkmarks on Saturdays and Sundays for like the first 3 months. It was pretty eye opening. Now I set a lower bar for weekends like just stretch and one glass of water. Has anyone else found their tracker shows a big drop off on certain days?

Found out my journaling habit had a real name the whole time

I've been keeping a bullet journal for about 5 years now, since 2020. But I never knew there was an actual community around it until last Tuesday when a friend mentioned this subreddit. Turns out the original method was created by Ryder Carroll in the 2010s and has like a whole system with migration and threading. I just thought I was making weird lists in a notebook. Has anyone else been doing this for ages without realizing it was a whole thing?

Spent 8 months using my bujo wrong before a coworker pointed it out

I had been drawing my daily logs with the date at the bottom of the page instead of the top, thinking that's how it's supposed to go. Last Tuesday my coworker saw me flipping through and asked why I was reading my journal upside down. Has anyone else had a dumb moment like this?

Shoutout to the barista in Seattle who called my bullet journal 'extra'

I was sitting at this tiny coffee shop near Pike Place last Saturday, trying to plan out my week in my bujo. I use a pretty simple layout, just a weekly spread with habit trackers and a small mood log. This barista walks by, glances at my notebook, and says 'that's extra, but I respect it.' Like, okay, I know color coding my water intake maybe looks a little intense, but it helps me stay on track. I didn't even ask for her opinion, you know? She just dropped that and walked off. It got me thinking though, am I overdoing it with my spreads? Has anyone else gotten comments from strangers about their journal looking too much? I'm not changing my system, but it made me curious how others handle the judgment.

sticky notes saved my bujo last week

I was in a coffee shop last Tuesday trying to plan out my week for a big work project. My weekly spread was all set up with trackers and a to-do list, but then my toddler got sick and I had to scrap everything. I ended up just writing random notes on sticky notes and shoving them in my journal. It felt like my whole system collapsed because I couldn't adapt fast enough. Do you stick with your original plan no matter what, or do you just let go and use loose notes when life gets messy?

My bullet journal spread fell apart 3 days into February and I nearly quit

I spent hours setting up a gorgeous February monthly spread with washi tape and watercolors, and by the 3rd day the pages were all smudged and bleeding through. I was at my desk in Portland staring at this mess, wondering why I even bother with fancy layouts. Do you guys stick to simple pen-only setups or keep trying the artsy stuff even when it fails?

I finally get the appeal of a weekly spread after hating them for 2 years

Last month I stuck to my daily rapid logging for 30 days straight and it was fine but I felt like I was missing the big picture of my week. Then during a hectic Tuesday with 3 after school meetings and a last minute parent conference, I sketched out a simple weekly layout on the fly and suddenly everything clicked. Has anyone else had that moment where a layout you dismissed suddenly becomes your favorite tool?

My pretty spread took 2 hours and I wrote nothing down for 4 days

My minimalist weekly spread was a waste of 6 months

For half a year I did those super simple weekly spreads with just dates and a tiny task list. Everyone raved about how clean they looked. But I kept forgetting appointments and losing track of deadlines because nothing stood out. Last month I switched to a color coded layout with time blocks and habit trackers crammed in. Now I actually use my journal instead of just looking at it. Has anyone else found that minimal layouts just don't work for busy schedules?

Debate: Is a minimalist BuJo setup better than going all out with supplies?

I was at a cafe in Portland last weekend and spotted two people bullet journaling at nearby tables. One had just a black pen and a basic notebook, while the other had a whole pouch of markers, washi tape, and stencils. Which side do you fall on and why does your method actually work better for getting stuff done?

Spent two full evenings trying to fix a single monthly spread

I finally bought a nice Leuchtturm1917 after using cheap notebooks for years, and then I spent about 6 hours obsessing over how to set up my habit tracker for February. I kept erasing and redrawing the same 8 squares because the lines weren't perfectly even. Has anyone else gone way overboard on something simple like that?

Why does nobody talk about the week my bullet journal became a complete disaster because of a spilled smoothie

Last Tuesday I was having the best week ever with my bullet journal. I had this perfect weekly spread with color coded tasks and little doodles of my cat. Then out of nowhere my elbow hit my morning smoothie right onto the page. It soaked through like five pages of my Leuchtturm and turned everything into a sticky purple mess. I tried to dab it dry with paper towels but it just smeared worse. The worst part was my habit tracker for the whole month was ruined. Now I keep my smoothie on the other side of the desk far away from my journal. Has anyone else dealt with a liquid disaster that wrecked their whole setup?

Found a stat that 80 percent of people abandon their bullet journal in the first 3 months...

Wasted $45 on those fancy washi tape sets

I saw all those Instagram spreads with the perfect banded washi tape and thought I needed it. Bought a 20 pack off Amazon for $45 about 6 months ago. Most of the patterns are too loud or don't stick well on notebook paper. I've used maybe 3 rolls out of the whole set and the rest sits in a drawer. Honestly a basic black roll and a midliner does way more for my weekly spreads. Anyone else regret buying a big bundle of stuff you didn't actually need?

Found an old post from 2018 that said the original bullet journal method was meant to be done in a cheap notebook, not a fancy one with 200+ pages

I was digging through the bullet journal subreddit archives the other night, just bored and scrolling. And I came across this post from like 6 years ago where someone was quoting Ryder Carroll himself, saying the whole system was built for a simple pocket notebook with maybe 80 pages. The expensive notebooks with thick paper and all the extras? That came later from the community wanting more. I always thought the Leuchtturm1917 was the official thing, you know? But no, the original guy just said grab whatever cheap spiral you have and start. Made me think about all the money I spent on hardcovers with dotted grids that I barely used half the pages in. Has anyone else gone back to a smaller, cheaper notebook and found it works better?

Can we talk about the beginner bujo advice that messed me up for 6 months

My coworker Jenna told me back in January that I had to use a fancy dotted Leuchtturm notebook to start bullet journaling right. She said any other paper would bleed through and ruin the whole thing. So I dropped $30 on that notebook and spent weeks stressing about making every spread perfect. Turns out she was dead wrong. I finally grabbed a $5 cheap notebook from Target last month, and honestly it works fine. The ink bleeds a little but who cares? My journal is actually getting used now instead of sitting on a shelf looking pretty. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from someone who acted like the gear mattered more than just starting?

My habit tracker looked completely different after 90 days of the same 5 habits

I started with sleeping, water intake, exercise, reading, and journaling last January. After three months, I noticed the exercise column was the only one without a single full week - that kicked off a whole new approach. Has anyone else had one habit out of five completely change how you set up your spreads?

That old Moleskine I found in a box from 2016 completely changed how I journal now

I was cleaning out my parents garage last month and found a notebook I used back when I first tried bullet journaling. It was a mess. I had trackers for water intake and sleep that I abandoned after two weeks. Pages and pages of daily logs with nothing crossed off. But I also found this one spread I made for a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I actually used it every day to log where I was, what I ate, gas station expenses. It worked because I only put in what mattered for that trip. I don't know why that clicked for me now, but I realized I was trying to track stuff that didn't matter back then. These days I just ask myself "what do I actually want to remember from today?" before I write anything. Has anyone else gone back and looked at old journals and noticed a pattern about what worked and what didn't?

Overheard a stranger at Starbucks rant about weekly spreads being a waste of time

I was grabbing coffee last Tuesday and this woman next to me was telling her friend that weekly spreads in bullet journals are pointless because "you just write the same stuff every week." It made me think because I've been doing monthly logs for like 3 years and never bothered with weeklies. I tried adding one last month to track my work shifts and it actually helped me stop forgetting my Tuesday meetings. Has anyone else found weeklies useless or do they work for you?

My monthly layout was a mess until I tried a 2 page spread with only 6 boxes

I kept cramming everything into one page for my monthly tasks and it looked like a tangled spider web. Then I copied this idea from a YouTube video by a girl in Portland where she splits it across 2 pages with 6 big boxes for categories like work, home, and health. It took me maybe 20 minutes to set up and now I actually see what needs doing instead of squinting at tiny handwriting. Anybody else find a layout that clicked after years of trial and error?