As well as helping to keep you organised, journaling has proven effective as a therapeutic tool in my own mental health journey.
Let’s start with the basics: starting your own journal, top tips and inspiration ideas.
Buying a bullet journal
Journaling can be done on any budget, using resources from around your home or starting afresh.
A journal is traditionally kept in a dotted notepad, however I have seen so many creative ways of using lined pads, plain pads and even iPads.
Three examples of tried and tested journals available online at Amazon;
Amazon Basic - £6.99
Stationary Island - £8.99
The Little Journal Co - £12.95 [My personal go to choice]
When it comes to pens my advice is use whatever you are comfortable with. My go to pen is my free gym membership pen!
Mix and match black fine liners with a range of colour felt tips. When you’re comfortable you can even experiment with water colours, gel pens and oil pastels.
Three examples of pens available on the high street;
The Works Black fine liners - £1.00
Steadtler Brush pens - £7.00
Zebra Midliners - £22.98 [these can be bought individually for around £4.00]
Washi tape is a great extra for filling blank spaces, underlining titles or adding patterns if you're not feeling too creative.
Three examples of tried and tested tapes;
Poundland (pack of 3) - £1.00
The works (pack of 24) - £5.00
Amazon (pack of 4) £8.99
Once you have your stationary it's time to decide what you are going to journal about. I keep mine as an everyday life diary, it's a nice way to track your progress throughout the year and keep records to look back on.
My main focus of my journal is bookstagram. Like every book reader I have an endless TBR pile, so I use a simple bookshelf to track the reads I want to get through.
A few ideas for your journal
Track the books you have read throughout the year using a simple graph for each month.
A habit tracker is a great way to help stick to those new year resolutions.
A birthday page is a great way to jot down all the important dates you really shouldn’t forget.
When creating your bullet journal, use as much reference and inspiration as you can get your hands on. There are endless supplies of useful information accessible on the internet. Always remember to put our own twist on your journal too! When I’m stuck for ideas I like to research social media apps to spark my creative brain
cells.
My go to web apps
Pinterest
Instagram; keep an eye on the following hashtags, bulletjournal, bulletjournaljunkies, bujo
DaFont.com is a great resource for using new fonts
As well as using websites you can always draw inspiration from other content creators. Instagram has created a wide platform of accounts showcase it the work they have created.
My go to accounts;
@bulletjournal.dailyy
@bulletsandconfetti
@bulletjournal.by.lena
Hopefully this has given you a head start on creating your own bullet journal, keep an eye out for more blog posts and bullet journal content. Remember the three simple steps of keeping a journal: 1. Stay Simple.
2. Be creative.
3. Have fun.
Aimee-Louise @pretty_little_readers
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