How a Cheap Blank Notebook is Changing My Life

Remember when I mentioned that bullet journaling might be life-changing for me? I was on Day Three of my bullet journal experiment when I wrote that. Now I’m on Day Eighteen and I have to tell you – I absolutely love it. My stuff is getting done. My brain is not crowded. I’m keeping track of little things – not just my To-Dos, but great quotes I hear or read and ideas that I have. MY BRAIN IS NOT CROWDED!

Now, I’m quite nerdy and somewhat techy. I was an early adopter of the iPhone and iPad, have built and rebuilt my blog a few times (and built a couple of websites for clients), use Google everything – Gmail, Calendar, etc. – and am a devotee of Evernote. You would think that someone like me would balk at an analog system when I’m so comfortable with technology, but I don’t. In my opinion, paper simply can’t be replaced in every instance.

So what IS a bullet journal?

If you don’t know already, you can get an overview here or by following the Lazy Genius link in the next paragraph. Feel free to go read about it and come back – I’ll still be here. 😉 The short answer is that it’s a system for organizing your life and your thoughts – not another planner or calendar or to-do list, though (and goodness knows I’ve tried them all!) If you have an extra notebook and some pens lying around, you can create a bullet journal and it won’t cost you a thing.

Special needs moms? GREAT for you.

The post that was most helpful for me in getting mine started was this one from The Lazy Genius and the way she has hers set up is pretty close to the way I’ve done mine. Following is a brief summary with photos of my actual bullet journal. First, my signifiers (yes, I’ve already taped up my journal! I told you it was cheap.):

You can go nuts with the signifiers. This high school student’s legend is beautiful and useful and … not at all practical for me at this stage of my life. Too many symbols to remember! But more power to her! Maybe someday I’ll be as wonderful as a high schooler. 😉

Second, a two-page spread of the beginning of my week:

I listed all of the things that I need to do this week, each with a little box that I fill in as they are completed. As you can see, I have ordered birthday treats for Nathan’s class and a cake for his party, scheduled doctor’s appointments for Nathan and me, and…still have a lot left to do. I had a few tasks on Monday and Tuesday that got shifted to the following day, as well.

I’ve also started a few collections. My current collections are:

• Books to Read (shown above)
• Books I Have Read This Year
• Stuff to Buy After Lent
• Possible Summer Activities for the Kids
• Streaming Video Recommendations

The collections are quite personalized, as you can see 😃, but that’s the beauty of the bullet journal. How often does someone recommend a show or a book and I say, “I’ll have to watch/read that!” and then I promptly walk away and forget the name of the show/book? All. The. Time.

What kind of notebook do I use?

Short answer: a cheap one. Really cheap. I think it was $5.00 on sale at Target when I bought it awhile back (available online right now for $5.99). It’s 5” x 8.25” inches, so it’s a great size to throw in my purse (and I do not carry large purses – ever), and I do carry it with me most of the time. Once this one is filled up, I’ll likely spend a bit more for this one because it has 249 pages instead of 100, a pre-printed index, and the pages are already numbered (plus my engineer brain prefers the dot grid over lines), but you don’t NEED to – a cheap one works fine, as would anything similar that you’ve got laying around. Don’t go out and buy a fancy notebook until you get a feel for how you’ll bullet journal.

You said something about special needs…?

It dawned on me several days ago that the bullet journal is perfect for those of us with kids who have special needs. The idea came to me when Sarah Kate started complaining of knee pain – not long after she had an issue with her ankle. I wrote it down in my bullet journal and the course of action I decided to take at the time (Aleve twice a day). She’s a lot better now, at the one-week mark, but if she wasn’t and we were headed to the doctor, I’d be able to tell him exactly when the pain started, what her knee looked like, how she described the pain, what we had done, and so on.

The example above is a simple one, I realize, but the possibilities are endless. A few of the things you could enter into a bullet journal include:

• Medications your child is taking – for acute conditions and long-term
• Recommendations your child’s therapist makes at the end of a visit
• Websites you come across while researching your child condition, or therapies, or (fill in the blank)
• Doctor visits – all those things they say, because it’s important not to just remember WHAT they said, but WHEN they said it
• Notes from phone calls to insurance companies – what was discussed, when the call took place, and WHO you spoke with
• Milestones your child reaches – exactly what and when

Some of the items you would log in a bullet journal would become a collection, as well. Example: the date your child took his first independent steps, you’d want to note it with details like where he was, how you felt, and so on, but you’d also want to list “Took first independent steps” and the date in a collection, because whenever you see a new pediatric specialist, they ALWAYS want you to fill out a form with their developmental milestones. Do you remember all that stuff? I know I don’t.

One final word of warning: If you have a tendency to get overwhelmed and/or have perfectionist tendencies, DO NOT go to Pinterest and search “bullet journal”. I did that while prepping this post and it almost made my head explode. If, however, you love colored pens and doodles and all manner of Pretty Things, you will find them on Pinterest when the day comes that you have embraced the bullet journal and want to make it beautiful. Today is probably not that day; that day may never come for me. 😉

Have you tried a bullet journal? Does the idea intrigue you? Let me know about your experiences or ask me questions in the comments!