One of my favourite New Year’s activities is setting up my Bullet Journal. Here’s my 2022 Bullet Journal setup.
What is a Bullet Journal?
"It's part organization, part soul-searching, part dream-weaving."
Ryder Carroll, a digital product designer, developed the Bullet Journal, an analogue personal organisation system. The Bullet Journal brings scheduling, to-do lists, brainstorming, and other organisation tasks into a single notebook.Â
Since sharing it with the public in 2013, the Bullet Journal, or BuJo for short, has become very popular. The social web can give you the impression that Bullet Journaling is complicated and laborious, but it doesn’t have to be. Watch the original 2013 Bullet Journal video below to get a good sense of this simple system. You can also check out my Bullet Journal 101 to learn the basics.
Browsing social media, blogs, and YouTube, you’ll find many beautiful, elaborate, artsy Bullet Journals, and mine is not one of them. Here’s my approach to Bullet Journalling, how it has changed over the years, and what’s in store for 2022.
My Bullet Journals from 2015-2021
I’ve been using the Bullet Journal method since 2015. My Bullet Journal is a productivity tool above all else, and it has always been simple, but it has changed a little over the years as I have experimented and adapted the system.
My first Bullet Journal in 2015 was a soft Moleskine grid notebook. One reason I love the Moleskine notebook because it’s in an icon,” the heir and successor to the legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.”
In 2016, a colleague gave me a pink, ruled notebook, and I experimented with keeping a professional Bullet Journal and a personal one. That didn’t work out, and I returned to a single Bullet Journal for All The Things in 2017. I also switched from the grid to the dotted hardcover notebook, which I have been using ever since.
When I visited a local stationery store at the end of 2019 to buy the following year’s journal, the store was out of my favourite dotted, hardcover Moleskine notebook. They had the double-thick version, which I used in 2020 and 2021.
The contents of all my Bullet Journals have remained, more or less, the same. There’s always been an index, some collections, a monthly log, and rapid logging. I had a future log in 2016 and 2017, and I’ve never had a weekly log. Since I know my key, I stopped including it in the journal at some point.
My Bullet Journal setup for 2022
A new notebook
In 2022, I’m trying a different brand of notebook. Bullet Journal creator Ryder Carroll partnered with another legend of stationery, the German company Leuchtturm1917, to produce a branded, dedicated Bullet Journal. Edition 2 comes in Black and Blush; I got it in black.
Like my old favourite, the Moleskine, the Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 is a hardcover dotted notebook with a pocket and an elastic closure. That’s where the similarities end. The Moleskine is a blank notebook, but the Leuchtturm1917 is designed to be a Bullet Journal. It features a grid guide, page dividers, wider margins, key page, intentions page, index pages, future log pages, three bookmarks (Moleskine has two), stickers, and a quick guide to the Bullet Journal.Â
The Leuchtturm1917 is a little wider than the Moleskine. The Moleskine has 240 pages of ivory-coloured, 70 g/m² paper; Leuchtturm1917 has 206 pages of 120 g/m² paper. The pages are not white but not as ivory as Moleskine. I never paid attention to how much ghosting there is in my Moleskine until I prepared my Leuchtturm1917. I can still see the writing of one page on the back of the other, but it’s not as apparent in the Leuchtturm1917.
Many blogs and YouTube videos compare Moleskine, Leuchtturm1917, and other journals for the Bullet Journal. YouTuber Elizabeth Greer Turnbull of Plant Based Bride has a good video review of the Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 if you’d like to see more.
I appreciate some of the features of the Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2. The grid is helpful, the wide margins are nice, and the numbered pages will save me time. I love having three bookmarks, and the pages feel smooth and creamy. However, I prefer unlabelled pages.
Key, Intentions, and Index
The first 11 pages of Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 are labelled. The first spread has a key and intentions page. I haven’t written a key in my Bullet Journal in years. After all these years, I’ve adopted Carroll’s key and changed it a little. For example, I prefer checkboxes over bullet points for tasks and bullet points over dashes for notes. I’ve never set intentions for my Bullet Journal, but I added a couple of quotes about journaling to this page. After the key and intentions spread, there are two spreads for the index; I only need one. Two spreads for future logging follow the index.
"It was always intimidating starting a new journal. So much pressure to make everything perfect from the start. It was a relief each time she made her first mistake or two and realized that her journal was more gracious and forgiving toward her than she was toward herself."
I used correction tape to cover the labels (and the many mistakes I make).
Collections
After the index, I migrate a couple of collections that have been in all my Bullet Journals for a few years.
CP’s Guide to Life: These are principles I try to live by. They include my code of ethics, my Priestess commitments, inspirational quotes, and character strengths and virtues I aspire to. This used to be one spread, and in 2022, it’s two spreads.
Important Info: This is one page of some important information at a glance, primarily dates, such as when I had my IUD inserted, when I had my last cervical cancer screen, and my COVID-19 vaccines. Some of this information is captured elsewhere, such as My Health Record, Australia’s national digital health records platform, but flipping to this page is quick and easy.
Donations: A list of my donations. I keep digital receipts for tax purposes but like having a list at a glance.
Purchases Waiting On: In previous years, one page was enough to keep track of the online purchases I was waiting for, but I’ve shopped online a lot more since the pandemic began. There is a spread and one page dedicated to online purchases I’m waiting on in my current Bullet Journal. I expect to shop more locally in 2022, but I also love buying unique items on Etsy and supporting Kickstarters, which can take many months to arrive. So, I’ve dedicated one spread to the online purchases I’m waiting on and will create a second down the road elsewhere in the journal if I need it.
Future log
I haven’t included a future log in my Bullet Journal since 2017, but I include one in 2022 because I expect to have a busy year. I use Google and Outlook Calendars for personal and professional appointments, birthdays, reminders, holidays, and so forth. There’s a lot of them, and I don’t want to or need to duplicate them in my Bullet Journal. I only want an overview of my year for quick reference.
The next spread is for regular tasks and activities. This was a new addition to my Bullet Journal in 2021. It lists different routine tasks and activities I perform every day and every week of the month.
For example, I make offerings to my ancestors and Guerreros on Mondays, and, at work, it’s my content planning day. During the second week of the month, I collect and evaluate the analytics for the website, intranet, and social media platforms at work.
This spread is handy when I haven’t had enough coffee and have one of those “What am I doing today?” moments. It helps to keep me organised. In 2021, I used five pages (one page and two spreads) for this, but I didn’t need them all. I’ve dedicated one spread in 2022.
The highlighting that you see on my future log and activities pages are as flowery as I get. Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 has rose gold accents, which prompted me to choose a pinkish-highlighter.
And then, my monthly logging begins.
Monthly log
The Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 includes a sheet of stickers. It’s nice that I don’t have to write the month’s name, all the days of the week, and the number of days. I will try it in January, but I don’t know if I will stick with it because I may want more contrast.
My monthly log is simple. As I said earlier, important dates are in my Google and Outlook Calendars. For my Bullet Journal, my monthly log is an overview of the more important activities and tasks that I need to pay attention to, particularly by week, and I like to add the lunar phases. Monthly tasks and other notes are on the opposite page.
The next spread is for listing accomplishments and gratitudes. I’ve journaled gratitudes for a few years. Some days are sweeter than others, so I don’t pressure myself to find something to be grateful for every day, but I find that they come easily.
The accomplishments page is new in 2022. My manager and colleagues can tell you how bad I am at noting and speaking to my achievements, and this page is an effort to be better at that.
Weekly log
The next spread is my weekly log. Some weeks are busier than others, and this weekly log comes and goes throughout the year. The calendar page on the left highlights some crucial activities and the tasks page on the right is divided to separate work and personal tasks. There’s also a little section for items that come up but are to be done later.
The following pages are blank. Here begin the daily notes, rapid logging, etc. These pages are a chaotic mix of my day’s work, notes from meetings, brainstorming, planning, and so forth.
What's not in my Bullet Journal
My Bullet Journals have had more collections in previous years, but most are now stored digitally. For example, I keep track of books on Goodreads, and I use Trello for project management at home and Microsoft Planner at work. I don’t track habits because those are part of my routine, and it would be weird if I didn’t do them.
My Bullet Journal looks more mundane than magickal. I don’t compartmentalise these areas of my life, but much of my Pagan material is stored elsewhere. For example, my Book of Shadows is a physical book I wrote when I was initiated. I write other materials in Word documents and have digital files. I don’t keep lists of correspondences and things like that in my Bullet Journal because either I already know them or have reference books and websites.
I don’t store much magickal information in my Bullet Journal because of its temporary nature. I don’t use a Bullet Journal for information that I want beyond the year, as is the case with most magickal notes.
What about pens?
We stationery lovers often ask what pens a person uses. I use a variety of them.
For small writing, such as those numbers in the future log and lines, I use a Pigma Micron 01 or 03 or a Faber-Castell 0.3. For everyday writing, I like Pigma Micron 04 and a Faber-Castell 0.5.
When I ordered my Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal Edition 2 online, I also purchased a Marvy Le Pen and Le Pen Flex for the first time. The Flex is suitable for hand-lettering, and I’ve used it for a few headings, but I’m not very good at hand-lettering.
The Le Pen is a delight to write with, but I like the Pigma Micron and Faber-Castell pens more. However, my workhorse is the inexpensive Artline 200 Fine 0.4 in black, and I pick up a few every time I’m in the office supply store. I used a Crayola Washable SuperTips Marker for highlighting, but my favourite is the Stabilo Boss highlighter.
Other supplies I rely on are my Staedtler Mars Micro 775 Mechanical Pencil 0.5mm, a Staedtler eraser, correction tape, and a 15-cm clear plastic ruler.
That’s it! That’s my 2022 Bullet Journal setup.
