DIY journal

[Nemia]

I set up this year for the first time a very simple and personal version of a personal journal. For years, I lived happily without a paper journal and used Google Calender and Evernote for all my needs. But a year ago, I bought a fountain pen and re-discovered the joys of hand writing and writing by hand. I kept a paper journal, a nice one that I bought in a nice shop, and thought that even the nicest store-bought journal doesn't fulfill all my needs. The tarot journals that I wrote about here some time ago, one by Biddy, the other by Benebell Wen, looked wonderful... but couldn't I do something like that myself?

I started reading around and saw that the bullet journal is a huge trend. (Just google bullet journal if this trend escaped you until today).

Originally, bullet journals were very simple and functional, but crafty people got their hands on them and turned them into little gems of calligraphy, zentangling and all kind of other beautiful ideas.

I decided to start simple this year - if it works for me, I can set up a more elaborate journal next year. No fancy lettering, no decorative boxes etc., just the basic bullet journal structure, adapted to my needs.

I keep this journal next to my laptop and it starts to fill up nicely for January. Appointments, to-do lists and other lists - gift ideas, yarn shopping, craft projects... everything has place in my personal journal. I number the pages that I write on, and fill in the table of contents. It will be easy to find stuff in the course of the year.

While I started using it, nearly a month ago, I noticed that some elements of the Fly Lady system came up, too. C. ten years ago, at a time of personal crisis, I discovered Fly Lady. While my home was never in chaos, I still adopted happily many of her ideas because they really suit me. And I put up my control journal for the house then and kept updating it over the years.

So my personal journal has a housekeeping department, too ;-)

I'm a person who likes to keep tabs on her life. I keep lists of the food I served when I invited people so I won't cook the same food or make the same cake for them (or if they loved it, I'll make it again to make them happy). I write down which outfit I wore to which lecture so my listeners won't see me five times in my green dress. No store-bought journal I ever met thought of these things :-)

I also put tarot- and astrology-related content into this journal. It's so nice to write things down by hand.

I still use my Google calendar to jot down appointments on the go, and Evernote for brainwaves when I'm somewhere on a train. (I use Evernote for my work and as tarot knowledge base and LOVE it). But this year, I want to make a DIY journal work for me, with elements and ideas taken from different sources.

I'm interested to hear whether others have also been infected with the bullet journal bug, how they implement it and how it works for them.

Update: I made a crochet cover for my very simple notebook. Now it looks really great on my desk, and the cats simply LOVE it.



I used up much of my leftover yarns...


... thrifty old me

[kyan]

your journal cover is colorful and very crafty. you do sound very organized with the notes you keep — i like how you keep track of the cakes you bake!

i used to keep journals and do love a good fountain pen. the “bullet journal” is a new term, i’ll have to look it up.

it’s funny because just yesterday i found an old calendar from 1981 that i’d used as a sort of journal, and wow was that an interesting read!