Beyond Bullets: Creative Journaling Ideas to Customize Your Personal Productivity System by Megan Rutell Published by Ulysses Press on November 7, 2017
Pages: 128
Goodreads
FUN, COLORFUL, AND CREATIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEWEST PRODUCTIVITY PHENOMENON.
Going beyond basic tools, this book offers tips, tricks and creative ways to transform your notebook into a treasured life companion, including:
Ornamental letteringPersonalized habit trackersColorful calendarsDecorative headersCustomized productivity listsInspiring artworkCreative future logsUnique planning pages
I was just on hoopla digital and spotted Beyond Bullets Creative Journaling Ideas to Customize Your Personal Productivity System and instantly how to request this to read.
If you know me in real life you know that I have been on the planner bandwagon for roughly 2+ years and I absolutely love it because it allows me to get creative and then I heard about Bullet Journaling and quickly found out all that I could and jumped on board. I found that Bullet Journaling has allowed me to be much more creative and I love that. Its been awhile (many years) that I have been this creative.
When it comes to Bullet Journaling I am always looking for ideas and ways to make this system work for me so that is why I picked up this book. Its a super quick and easy read. Plus its nice to switch somethings up either daily, weekly or monthly.
The book covers topics such as supplies & tools, tips & tricks, building a foundation, planning pages & templates, special pages & collections, header styles along with banner, frames, borders and doodle embellishments.
I have noticed that in my year long journey with Bullet Journaling that this is your journal and you can do what you want with it, it doesn’t have to be perfect all the time and its okay to make mistakes. It doesn’t have to be the fanciest looking as long as you like it that’s all that matters.
I also realized that you can literally use any kind of note book you want and that you don’t just have to use a certain brand. If your unsure go for a cheap note book and then work up from there. I know I started out with a LEUCHTTURM1917 A5 dotted journal and that was because it was on sale at my local bookstore and since then I tend to buy them when I see them on sale. There is so many kinds of note books and sizes find something that you are comfortable with.
Which leads me to the first topic of this book. I loved how Megan took the time to talk about the different kinds of notebooks and the pros & cons of each style. This is a great introduction for beginners who feel overwhelmed with all the choices there is.
The next topic she discusses is pens and the various kinds and I have personally used Staedtler fine liners and gel pens. I haven’t dipped into the more expensive pens and they work just fine. You can literally use any kind of pen that you want.
Next up is decorating your bullet journal you can use stickers (which I use either from planners kits, sticker books from MAMBI or any other ones I find in the store), water colors, pencil crayons, stamps, stencils, washi tape (this is something else I use all the time in my bullet journal as you can literally do so much with it) and basically anything else you feel like you want to use.
A great idea that was brought up was using a ruler and compass. If you are like me and can’t make straight lines then this is highly recommended. I haven’t used the compass yet as its nothing something I have used in my bullet journal.
When it comes to bullet journaling I tend to keep my fairly simple. I don’t use the index to document pages because I never reference that page and I don’t use the key legend and that is solely my opinion. I like being able to do what I want in my own journal without following what everyone else is doing. Also before I put any pen to the the paper I always do a rough draft in pencil just to get a feel of the page and before starting a new bullet journal I always make notes of what works and what didn’t work also it makes it easier to better organize this way.
One of the sections that I really enjoyed the most was the planning pages and templates. I have always done a decorative monthly introduction page followed by a calendar to document appoints etc. a no spend page, habit tracker, a books read page decorated with a book shelf (this would also include pages read, genre, author, book goals, books bought within the month, books sent, books read total and page total of the month) and weekly layouts (mini calendar, to do lists, hockey schedule for the week, importants list, and notes).
From the book I got some layout ideas to change things up in my weeklies and I love how Megan explains things out so it all makes sense because there are things I was curious about and she explains it so it makes sense. I have already spotted some things I want to try adding to my bullet journal in the months to come.
Another section I really enjoyed was the special pages & collections. I spotted a few that I really want to focus on next such as a gratitude log, an affirmations page, bucket lists, and a quotes page. All pages I have thought about but never did perhaps now is the time to think about it.
When it comes to headers, writing, banners, frames and borders I am very basic and not so artistic but reading this chapter its not as scary as you make think it is and seeing it laid out I realize that I can totally do that so my goal for the rest of the year is to try and do that on my pages. I loved how Megan included images on how to do them as well. She even showed how to do some doodles.
Just remember its your bullet journal and you can do with it what you please, just remember it doesn’t need to be super duper fancy and perfect, we all make mistakes so embrace yours.
I am definitely going to order a physical copy of this book to have on hand for future reference.
Would you be interested in seeing a weekly or perhaps monthly look at my bullet journal here on the blog? If so please let me know in the comments section and what you would like to see.