How to: start a bullet journal

All you need is a pen a notebook, except its a lot more than that. After seeing bullet journals plastered all over the internet whether it was instagram,tumblr or pinterest, I knew that I wanted to do it the right way. So I spent a day of researching and scouring the internet of different equipment and layouts. But I mean sharing is caring; so I have decided to share all my intel in this post. So without further ado, bullet journalling 101!

Step 1: The equipment

*A notebook- Any notebook that has good, thick pages that are dotted will work. Moleskines are perfect and the pages do not bleed either.

*Pens- You would need some thin gel pens or even fineliners. I love the muji gel liners. (All products are linked, just click the image 🙂 )

Or the staedtler triplus fineliner, they are less gel like so I suppose it is all down to preference. 

*Felt tips- If you want to do some shading in or perhaps even deciding on doing some calligraphy, these tombow felt pens are a must. My personal favourite are the pastel range but you can pick your colour selection. 

*Black pens- Although you are going to be using lots of colour in your notebook, most of your  bullet journal will be mapped out using a black pen; meaning that those will be the first pens to run out. So paper mate flair black pens are most definately a staple!

Step 2: Decorations

This is the fun part, you can personalise your bullet journal with whatever you desire, something to make your bullet journal more unique. 

• Stickers: Some stickers saying ‘this week’ or some motivational quotes or even some wacky jokes can break down all the writing. These stickers from amazon are a great deal and look great, but feel free to find any that match your colour theme.

• Washi tape: Washi tape is the perfect decoration for a bullet journal, just find your style but a good set of plain coloured tapes are a perfect starting point.

 

Step 3: The setup

*Now you need to decide your style of journalling. I would love to do a post completely dedicated to setup ideas so leave a comment if you would like to see that. But just find a colour scheme like pastel, vibrant or natural. Find your style whether it is minimalistic, girly or even boho. 

 

* The index – You don’t have to put everything in your index, but it’s a good place for the important stuff you will likely want to easily reference later.Your index can be as specific as you want it to be. For example, you can create a single entry for “Travel,” and put all travel-related page numbers there. This keeps your journal super organised. You can even add in a key here to keep journalling concise.

 

*Weekly plans- Your going to need a set weekly setup because although you will have those miscellaneous little pages about your dreams or travel, the whole point of a bullet journal is to keep you organised but how would you possibly achieve that without having an organised journal first.

 

*Extra pages- This is where you really get to express yourself although your weekly spread will be structured. Feel free to express yourself; perhaps a ‘my goals’ page or a ‘bucket list’ or even a ‘place I have travelled or would like to travel to’. Just have fun!

But at the end just make sure to remember that everything does not need to be perfect, your first journal will have a few setups. Its definately a trial and error kind of thing. But there will be more journals and improvement each time, just enjoy bullet journalling because thats honestly the most important part of it. If you enjoyed this post makes sure to hit that like button and some suggestions down in the comments.