I'm Bullet Journaling... again. Here's why!


Hi, reader!

I hope you're doing well. I'm so excited to share this new post with you. I've been wanting to post something on the blog but then I realised, I need some break from it. And well, I became too generous on the giving haha. 

Anyways, I'm sharing my new journal and spread for the year. I know, it's already too late for this but if you've been around here for a while, you know how things work here, right? 

The last time I shared my bullet journal was back in November of 2018. I can't believe that it's already been so long. After that, for a brief period, I left bullet journalling. During that phase, my life seemed scattered and resembled my room when I'm lazy. And that's NOT appealing at all. 

After a phase of realisation, I concluded that I've let go of one of the most crucial habits of my life. I don't mean to imply that I'm extremely dependent upon planning and if it's not there, things will certainly fall apart for me. But rather, I felt that I was less of a mess when I primarily had control of every day of my life. So, I've cumulated a list of things that has made me acknowledge the significance of journaling. 

My BuJo for 2021

Before I get into the list, I want to share my theme for this year. Who's excited? 

Again, as most of my journals, this one is also from Bhav Products. This post is not sponsored but I love to support Nepali brands that I like. This is their B5 ringed notebook and the ones I used before were A5. Just when I started using this, I realised I'm not a fan of this one in particular. I loved the A5; it was compact, and its pages rarely had issues bending with the ring. But the B5 one is not as flexible. 

Also, in terms of paper thickness, both of these aren't well suited for heavy ink work. I'm not sure about the weight of the A5 papers but they did hold on to my needs before but from B5's 100 gsm papers, one can see light traces of the preceding page. I hope they will improve these issues in the future but for now, it satisfactorily suffices my needs.

Since 2020 was dreadful for everyone, including me, I felt the dire need for hope to make things better this year. I chose the classic poem of Emily Dickinson, "Hope" is the thing with feathers. Personally, reading those stanzas leave goosebumps in my skin and I usually recite them to revive my optimism. So I knew that this had to be somewhere I could see every day.

I intend to write the poem throughout the journal till the end of the year. It could be anywhere in the pages of my journal so I can't tell which line goes where but I do know that, by the end of this journal + year, the poem will also conclude.

I also want to thank my friend Swarnima for gifting her beautiful leaves stickers. I finally got to use them this year. I might sound a little biased but I love them so much, they're perfect to use on my journal. 

Also wrote a letter addressed to me to read at the end of this year.


Why am I bullet journaling again?

After a ramble of my BuJo information that nobody asked for, here's the section this post is really about. I've listed out a few of the reasons why I felt necessary to get back into bullet journaling. And I also read Ryder Carroll's BuJo introductory book The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future which was helpful and ~obviously~ encouraging to get back into it.  


• An archive of my life

I'm one of those people who love to write on a diary but never get to maintain the streaks and feel demotivated until I give up eventually. But when I revisit my old journals, I regret not writing about so many things that occurred over the years. The most unexpectedly simple stories weigh more for me in the future, depending on when I'm reading them. 

Through BuJo, I get to keep notes of what happened each day rather than writing chunks of stories with embarrassing grammatical mistakes. And on days when I don't have much to write, it points me out how I've wasted the day. Overall, it acts as a time machine where I can evaluate myself and also cherish my precious moments. 


• Building habits

There's a habit-tracking system in BuJo. But here, I don't mean to talk about it. 

Instead, using my bullet journal every day is the most important habit for me. That's because I'm not a disciplined person and it's essential that I try to be disciplined to some extent in my life. When I use my journal on a daily basis, I seem to complete most of my task, get to doodle here and there, try my brush calligraphy on some random page and write more as I over-think. It may look like I'm only planning my day in my journal but it adds so many habits of mine that I usually wouldn't pursue. 


• Calms me down

I know that a lot of people look at beautiful journal spreads on the web and doubt that they'll ever be able to start journaling. But honestly, bullet journaling is supposed to take your stress away, not the other way round. When I started out, I didn't think about how it's going to look. Rather, I just wanted to get things done. Luckily, I enjoyed the process and continued experimenting each month. That became my escape. My journal became more than a planner to me. And I honestly don't care if it isn't as good-looking as other planners out there because what it holds is more important than how it looks. 

Looking back, I cringe a little at my older spreads but they're still dear to me. They helped me as a friend, kept all my secrets and dreams, and were the only ones who believed in them. This process has become so therapeutic to me. I look forward to spending time with my pens and colour pencils to write on it every morning, or any time of the day. It just makes me happy and at peace. 


• Daily organisation

When I took a break from bullet journaling, I was tired of "going-with-the-flow" while internally screaming to be organised again. Having to plan my day in the beginning and evaluating it at the end is something I enjoy the most. Things won't always go the same as planned and sometimes unexpected events make the best out of a day. But such surprises occur occasionally. On most of the days when I didn't plan, I realised that I was just waiting for something exciting to happen while I wasted my time thinking about what to do. But when I plan out a day, I feel confident and look forward to crossing off tasks from my list.


I had to use a correction pen to hide the ink spots from the page that followed.

Alright, that's all for now! If you can relate to me, then I hope you consider trying out this system or maybe give it another chance? But I also understand that it isn't for everybody so hey, no pressure there, alright?

Talk to you in my next post! x

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