New To Bullet Journaling. Start Here.
Hey friends. I recently started a new bullet journal and so did my middle schooler, here are some things we found essential for our setups.
Supplies list: short and simple, we used Pentile Pens and Zebra Mildliners along with the ruler guide from my past Scribbles That Matter journals. My current one is a classic so it did not come with a ruler guide, and my last actual ruler broke and then was lost. I will be looking into a smaller ruler that will help for my future bullet Journaling needs. We also have some really inexpensive Crayola Super Tips that I bought a few years back as a thing for both my Bullet Journal and her school use, and my toddler will be able to use them as well for school next year since almost 5 years later they are just as good as they were brand new.
I, of course, used my Scribbles That Matter A5 size dot grid journal but my daughter just wanted something that had a lot of pages since she wasn't sure if she was actually going to do a bullet journal or if she just wanted something to sketch down her assignments with no formal page setups. My pages are 160 GSM and my daughters are 100 GSM, so hers will ghost a little if she uses an inkey marker and so far she has used highlighters with no ghosting. Both have a dot grid spacing, one thing she likes from mine is the dot grid so she can at least count to the true middle of the page.
Stickers and washi are optional but I did get some witchy sticker packs and of course I have those washi tapes from Stationary Pal, if I can get a code I will put them in here. You can also get stickers from Dollar Tree and other craft stores, there are always sales on these types of things. I also recommend looking at small crafters and makers markets via any method you have access to.
My simple set up goes like this, I also have linked my video set up for your viewing to go with this guide.
First pages are all the calendars of my year at a glance. I didn't have a clear cut theme, just my ruler marks. I wanted my calendar overview to be a bit bigger than my calendar was for my 2023-2024 set up. The total space for those calendars were 10 months on 3 pages, each small calendar was seven wide and 5 or 6 deep depending on the amount of weeks in the month, whereas the total space for this year's calendar I made sixteen months go between 7 pages six of those have 2 calendars a piece on them and the last page has 4 mini month logs. My pages are only cut in two by the middle or row 15 where scribbles that matter have the middle marker. These mini logs are simply 7 by 5 or 6, again just depending on the weeks and all fit on one page. I have a bigger set up this year, because after experimenting with smaller spaces in my last bullet journal, I decided to do a bigger space because I ended up running out of space and needing to put sticky notes onto my pages. I wanted to avoid that in this journal.
After my calendar pages I went onto my trackers, I did use a page to do my PTO trackers and brought back the mommy and me log as well as brought in our 1000 hours outside which I will be making a separate post about but I do like to log those on my calendars and to have them together on one page just helps me when I want to look back and see when was the last time we did something. Right now I am planning on taking my oldest to the HMart in Mesa and eat at the “K Plasa” nearby. We have been planning that trip for a while but I have just not had the time or funds to take her out. Window shopping is great but I would love to take her to lunch.
I next used a whole page for my Period log and Doctor Appointment log, very much cut and dry. I do like keeping the log of this for my own personal reasons and it helps when I'm in the doctor's office to pull out my log and to pinpoint when something was or if there was a symptom that worried me enough to write down.
I used the biggest TIP IN so far that I have ever used, a tip in is something that is added into your journal either paper or in junk journals it could be postcards and pictures. It is two pages from my previous journal that did not get utilized and I pulled them out to be able to fully use them. These are my moon phase guide and Book Of Shadows information. By putting my moons on this page I was able to start filling this out in the last few months of my last bullet journal. Since I started this log in April of 2024, I also made a dedicated page for the properties of the moon phases and the names of the phases. I also have a wheel of the year log (which is still in the middle of being made) along with my growing information for my garden (Phoenix Arizona Zone 9B) these go hand and hand with me and my personal craft. I felt the need to put these in my journal. I do have a separate book of shadows but this information has been a help since putting it in my first scribbles that matter journal in 2022, I practice a very ADHD, ADD, Stressed and Tired form of a personal craft and the little things are what works in my craft so if it's just a moment of acknowledgment or if it's making sure to do an extra clean of my home during a certain moon, it's good to keep that handy when i’m planning. It also gives me a good chance to look back, if I write that I was feeling stressed so I did a full home cleanse in that window and felt better not long after I see that as a win for my practice.
On the next page, the next true journal page, we have a goal page that has my goals for my Family, Life, Finances and Business. All important things to keep track of, my health goals go under Life and other things will find their spots as well. I even put the 1000 hours outside my goals under Family and this blog is even under my Business section to make this whole website better this year. The goals page also helps later in the journal because I am quarterly business dashboards. And speaking of business the following two pages are more for that, I have a spending log and a main dashboard for 2024-2025 . I feel like these are necessary for me, because again I can keep things digital but for me being able to see these things is what I need. Currently I can see what I have bought for my business and my youtube like my microphone I recently purchased, I can keep track of the amount of times I've used the microphone for my overall business too. Allowing me to see if in a year or two if I get a podcast microphone I can see what kind of use I would get from it and be able to tell that to any future accountant when asked why I need to make this purchase, which is common with some advisors. My dashboard also holds my main projects along with a main log of where I am in the project, for example I have two monthly blogs not related to my videos on my list and I started my journal in June so my log is currently in the negative making this blog the first check in July since June was crazy for my mental health and I did not have the “spoons” to get any writing done. But we strive for imperfect perfection my friends, give yourself the room to do it later if it's not something that absolutely needs to be done for work. This is my job as it's part of my business but it's not my main job at the moment. So that was my justification.
That was the last page of the new journal set up for this year, something else I did off camera was add my password log. The scribbles that matter have an index I don't tend to use as an index so I keep a log of passwords, some people also use this as a reminder of important things to come like birthdays and such. You can also add in a page to the pocket in the back of the journal if you want to keep a log and be able to take it from journal to journal. I know you can keep this digital but I’ve lost so many online things that I need to keep a stand by, which is essentially why I do a bullet journal rather than digital planning. Another reason I do my bullet journal is that I get too distracted and I will log on to do something particular but end up scrolling through pinterest for hours, when I am in my bullet journal I have no distraction to get off topic.
If I were to add to my bullet journal family, I would probably take my trackers out completely. Keeping a health tracker journal or a 5 year journal with these types of information in it is helpful especially if you're experiencing ongoing issues, or even if you're trying to save up for a certain thing. I currently have a lined notebook to keep some of these things in it like main cleaning projects for the house and main medication refills and such.
So that is as simple as I can, I hope that this guide as well as more of my bullet journal related posts will help those that are interested. Bullet journaling is a good way to keep a planner and for some the pre-printed ones are too much that they won't use, that's why my daughter is doing a type of bullet journaling with her setups. There is too much fluff that she doesn't want in the pre-printed ones and she is just happy with the only things in her journal so far, her year at a glance and a main heading of the month she's currently in, leaving ample space to write notes and assignments. Night and day are different from mine, but that's just fine because it's what she needs and nothing more.
I hope you found this insightful and will join me in my next post. Also if this is insightful I have a membership area which I plan on doing members only lives, such as bullet journaling lives not available on YouTube.
Many Blessings My Friends.
