reflections on a bullet journal


I've been bullet journaling since middle school.

In the past, I've made fancy, over-the-top cover pages. I never look at them. In this journal, I left a quote on the cover page, and added two other pieces of ephemera later. I'm using a dot-grid journal from Cognitive Surplus.

My yearly calendar functions as a period tracker. While I left space to write in events, I did not use it. This is typical for me. I've found that putting events on a digital calendar and copying them down to my monthly calendar is more effective.

I made a quarterly spread to try and track things I was doing and things I finished doing. There is a second page (not pictured) which was supposed to be for reflections on the things I was tracking. I used it once. This was the first time I made a quarterly spread for this. Since then, I've created a few iterations of this which serve the same purpose. I'm not sure what was originally on this page---notes on a writing project? I think they make a good background; they add character. I made the tea-stained paper. I think the washi tape was from Cognitive Surplus.

When I first started bullet journaling, I divided sections month-by-month. I've learned that working in six-week cycles makes more sense to me. Months are too short, constrained, and a bit arbitrary. Six weeks gives me time to plan in advance without planning too far in advance. I'm trying to explain why it works, but I can't. Rachael Stephen is a Youtuber who does her own thing with cyclical bullet journaling; I recommend checking out her videos. They're cozy, comforting, and familiar. I rewatch them.

an assortment of weekly spreads

Click here to view.