7 Tips for Making Your Own Bullet Journal

Bullet journals are the new trendy thing to buy and post on your Instagram story. In addition to being trendy, they can be kind of expensive. If you’ve wanted to start bullet journaling but don’t want to spend a lot of money trying it out, here are six ideas for pages to get you started on making your own bullet journal. You can buy cheap journals at your local bookstore and spend a day creating a book full of pages for keeping track of everything important! One with grid lines on the pages works best (unless you have great line-drawing skills).

1. Track your sleep

Keep track of the hours you sleep each night. Make a page for each month and line the dates from the top to the bottom on the left side of the page. Write the numbers starting with around 10 pm going to around 8 pm the next day (or adjust the numbers based on when you go to sleep and wake up). Each morning, highlight the numbers indicating when you went to bed and when you woke up to track how much sleep you’re getting each night.

2. Keep up to date on birthdays!

Do you only trust Facebook to remember your friends’ and family’s birthdays? I know I do - so days that I don’t go on Facebook, I completely forget about birthdays! Your bullet journal can help. Draw a different photo or word art for each month and make a list of birthdays and names under each! Never forget another birthday again!

3. Know when Shark Week is coming

Alright ladies, how many of us are actually good at tracking our period? I’m not, so if you are - kudos! Add a period tracker to another page in your bullet journal. Make a grid to highlight each month and day and color in the days that your period lasts each month.

4. Put your book and movie list on paper

I have a never-ending list of books to read and movies/TV shows to watch. Make pages in your bullet journal to keep tabs on that long list and color them in as you read/watch them! If you’re super artistic, you can make the page look like a bookshelf or movie theater. If you’re not artistic, like me, you can just make a list in pretty font!

5. “Good words are worth much and cost little.” (George Herbert)

Finally write down those quotes that you wish you would have put as your high school yearbook quote or reblogged on Tumblr. Make a cute page to fill with your favorite quotes - from things that make you laugh to the inspirational stuff that gets you through the tough days.

6. One smile a day

As a future social worker, I think it’s vital to think of positive things that happen each day. I started a mindfulness journaling strategy a few years ago where I jot down three good things that happened each day. These can range from things as little as someone smiling at me, to nice weather, to seeing a cute dog on my walk to class! Make a page where you write down one thing that made you smile each day! It’ll keep you grinning even on the grim days.

7. Travel tracker

I absolutely love to travel. I’ve got a travel bucket list longer than I can even keep track of anymore. Print out (or draw if you’re talented) a map of the US or of the world and color it in as you go to new places! It’ll be easy to monitor where you’ve been (and it’s pretty Instagram-worthy).