Last week's spread reminded me of my first bujo from 2019

I flipped back to my very first journal from 3 years ago, the one I started in Portland with just a black pen and a $6 notebook. Last week I was setting up a simple weekly spread and it hit me how much simpler things were back then, no stencils, no washi tape, just boxes and lists. Now I've got a whole drawer of supplies but I honestly miss the messy, rushed layouts from before. Anyone else feel like their bujo got fancier but less useful over time?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer7821mo ago

My drawer currently has 47 washi tapes and I still default to drawing the same three lines with a Pilot G2 whenever I actually need to plan something. The fancy stuff just sits there looking pretty while my weekly spreads have somehow gotten uglier than my 2019 ones, which I didn't think was possible. I actually bought a stencil set last month and used it exactly once before realizing it took longer than just freehanding a crooked box. Maybe the real upgrade was learning to embrace the mess instead of fighting it, but my bank account disagrees.

paige3311mo ago

The Pilot G2 thing hit me hard because I did the exact same reset last year. I put every sticker, stencil, and marker in a shoebox and went back to just black ink and a ruler for a whole month. What I found was that my layouts got way more useful when I stopped trying to make them pretty, honestly my brain just works better with ugly boxes and scribbled notes. Now I keep the fancy stuff for cover pages or weekends only, and my weekly spreads are basically 2019 again. It feels like going backwards but it actually fixed my whole system, so maybe embrace the mess is the right call.