Journal Life!

Some time ago I saw a bookshop promoting Bullet Journals. I had no clue what they were.
What I do know is that I love journals. I try to keep four of them. I don't share my deepest darkest secrets (I don't really have many of those) in them but I do share bits of information and what interests me.

Journal 1 - Literary Journeys - In this I share some of my notes which help in writing up book reviews for my blogs. Each page has the following sections - Book Title, Author, Plot Notes, Character Notes, Favourite Quotes, Other Books to be read by this Author, Date Started, Date Finished and a place to rate the book out of 5. It is a pen and paper version of Goodreads with a few extras.

Journal 2 - Q & A - 365 Questions - 5 Years - 1825 Answers - I bought this journal while on holiday in Europe and each day there is a question to answer. A few of the 365 questions or statements to answer include Today was delightful because....., Where do you go for good ideas?,  What was the last thing you  baked or cooked? and so the very long list of 365 goes on.  There's room to answer for five years and I try to write in this journal as much as I can.

Journal 3 - 3am Journal - This is a journal I picked up from one of my favourite stores Kikki K a year or two ago. What's supposed to happen is that you wake up at 3am or some other unearthly hour of the evening with all these amazing ideas and you quickly jot them down in your 3am Journal. Thankfully, most of my ideas come at more friendly times of the day so I just use it for notes and ideas.

Journal 4 - Literary Listography - I just love this reading journal - so much so that I'm too scared to write in it. On each page there is a bibliography list to complete. There are more than 70 lists including My Top 20 Most Beloved Books,  My Favourite Classics, Fictional Characters I Connected With, My Favourite Book Covers, etc.

And now I'm about to add Journal 5 to the pile - A Bullet Journal.
A Bullet Journal is  described as the "analog system for the digital age" by its creator Ryder Carroll. He says the Bullet Journal is a customisable and forgiving organisation system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less. From the research I've done Bullet Journals can be as simple or as complex or as creative as you want them to be.

I'm still in the research phase as to what sort of Bullet Journal I want to keep but there is so much resource out there on the web - whether it be Instagram, Facebook or other areas of the Internet to explore. I'm hoping to keep a Bullet Journal with a bit of a bookish theme. I've already found one Bullet Journalist who designed her own Book Bingo which I loved.
I've started following a number of Instagrammers who create the most creative and colourful spreads for each week or month of the year. I'm not that creative when it comes to drawing but having been a fan of scrapbooking and stamping I realise I have a lot of materials I can use.

And I have now found something for which I can use the pens I initially bought for the adult colouring phase I unfortunately had to give up. And there is a huge amount of templates of Bullet Journal pages available to download online. You can also buy templates to help with drawing more than stick figures.
I will leave you with a few people to follow on Instagram and some links if you want to start a Bullet Journal.

To follow on Instagram

@bulletjournal
@bulletjournal.ideas
@thebujobuzz
@written.intentions
@journalwithpurpose
@bujobeauties
@candyloucreative
@fischrjournals
or search with the hashtag #bulletjournal

Some links
https://kalynbrooke.com/life-and-style/time-management/how-to-start-a-bullet-journal/
http://bulletjournal.com/
http://www.infiniteplanner.com/
Or just type Bullet Journal in Google for thousands of resources!