My early bullet journal pages look like a toddler drew them

I dug out my very first bullet journal from a few years back and had to smile. Back then, I just used a plain notebook and a single black pen. My weekly spreads were uneven lines drawn freehand, with tasks squeezed into tiny boxes. Now, I see how my style has grown with simple tools like rulers and a few colored markers. It's not fancy, but my pages are cleaner and actually help me plan my week. I used to get frustrated when things didn't look right, but I kept at it. That old journal shows me how far I've come, from messy lists to a system that works. Your mileage may vary, but for me, sticking with it was the key.

3 comments

3 Comments

paige5623d ago

You know, I used to think it HAD to look perfect right away or it wasn't worth doing. Seeing posts like this totally changed my mind. Now I get that the messy start is the whole point, it's where you figure out what actually works for you. I still use a basic pen and a ruler, and that's enough.

west.holly3d ago

Exactly what @paige562 said about the messy start being the point. My own notebooks used to have these perfect, empty pages because I was too scared to mess them up. Letting go of that need for perfection was the only way I actually started making progress, and a basic pen is still my favorite tool too.

ryanjohnson3d ago

My first bullet journal was a three dollar notebook from the drugstore. The pages were a total mess for like six months straight, but I had to get all those bad ideas out of my system. That trial and error phase is how you find your own basic setup that actually gets used. Now my weekly layout takes five minutes with a pen and a highlighter, and it works because I finally stopped trying to make it pretty.