Inside My Journal

Hi guys, happy Tuesday! Today I wanted to share with you my most precious item that follows me everywhere these days - my journal! Prepare to delve into a colourful, messy world of scribbled notes and cute stickers.

You've probably seen the huge craze of bullet journalling making the rounds everywhere the post few months, it's hard to avoid. Personally I LOVE it, it's right up my street as a stationery obsessive. If you aren't familiar with it, basically it's a way of making your own journal, with a blank notebook, laid out however you want, and using a system of bullet points and an in depth index to keep things organised. I recommend watching some Youtube videos, as you'll understand better. When I first discovered this system, I got reaaaaally excited (yep I'm lame). But there was one little problem. The whole bullet journal thing seems to revolve around short and sweet bullets, getting to the point, and keeping everything laid out neatly. It's even common practise to have a 'key' for what each different type of bullet means (like - could mean tasks, a circle could mean upcoming activites, etc). Sure there are bullet journal masters out there who are making their own awesome, unique ones and decorating them fabulously; but the felt I'd still be a little restricted if I did things that way.

Let me explain why a little. You see, before I started this journal I'm about to show you (with a LOT of photos, sozzz), I had FIVE planners I was using. Yes, five. Was I obsessed? Did I just keep starting new ones? No and nope. I actually needed different planners for different things. I had one for all things blog related (ideas, advertisers, schedule), one for everything related to The Girl Gang (upcoming events, chat topics, giveaways, newsletter info), one for.. well, just planning really. Like for daily to do lists, things that were coming up in the month, a calender, birthdays, etc. Then I had one for all my design work; this had my whole upcoming schedule for who is booked in and when, how much each person has paid me or owes me, their contact details, notes about what kind of design they want, and how long each design should take. And finally, my last planner was used for creative projects; art inspiration, design ideas, illustrations, collages, things to sell, projects ideas to start, zine ideas, podcast ideas and much, much more.

Phew!

I just spent a huge paragraph just explaining what each planner was for, so please believe me when I say each held a lot of information and was used everyday by me. It was HELL though. It left me feeling so stressed that I had to keep five planners and check and update each one all the time. So when I seen everyone creating bullet journals, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. I'd been using separate planners for each thing, because none of them had the space or layout needed to hold ALL the information. But why hadn't I just made my own then?!

So here we have it. I've took the basic idea of the bullet journal, and made it my own. It now holds all five of these much needed things in one book, and I'm SO HAPPY with it. It's messy, it's colourful, it's absolutely packed and it's very much me.

Now, want a bunch of photos?

I've actually only been able to show you guys a TINY SNIPPET of this journal, because there is so much information in it that isn't for public viewing; such as financial info, contact details, etc. You can see I've actually had to blank out some info in the photos I've shared anyway. I love my journal so much. I use coloured pens, stickers, washi tape, coloured papers, sticky notes, tabs and paperclips to customise and organise it all how I wish. I find them mostly from browsing Etsy, and the journal itself is a dotted Leuchtturm A5 notebook, in yellow. You can find them on Ebay, Amazon, or their own website. I feel so much more organised, put together and happy now everything is all in one place, and I get to decorate it all pretty too! I thoroughly recommend everyone look into bullet journalling, but remember you can make it your own, just as I have. Hope you enjoyed guys! Let me know what you think, and if you'd like to see more posts like this? post signature