Minimalist BULLET JOURNAL Guide // How to Begin a Bullet Journal

hey everybody today is another bullet journal video my name is Elsa I live full-time in a 13-foot scamper trailer with partner Baron and dog camp we've been living this way for over three years and in my bullet journal I keep a detailed record of all of it today I'm going to show you how to make your own bullet journal based on my own personal minimal style the bullet journaling method was developed by writer Carol it's a method for rapid logging rapid note-taking and with that basic structure there are infinite possibilities of what you can do I will explain his method briefly in a minute but first let's talk tools you'll need a journal I use dingbats journals with dotted paper they're eco-friendly all materials used are degradable vegan and recyclable they use less water than standard notebooks and any extra water is then treated and put back into the system cleaner than it was gathered or so they say this is my second dingbats journal and I really like it you'll need a pen a lot of people use piles of markers and pens and I used to be one of them but I don't have a lot of space in the scamp and realize that it's easiest for me to use just one pen in just one color I used to use felt-tip pens and I still use them when I'm making my spreads but for the most part I just use a basic rollerball pen I have a ruler that helps me make straight lines but it's not necessary here's an example of a spread I used with no rulers and it still looks great I also have a tiny photo printer for my journals I do a lot of photography and think it's fun to illustrate a month with one photo it's an HP sprocket printer the quality of the printer is pretty eh it prints all my photos pink for some reason but the photos are sticky and it's small and easy and that's all my tool is you really don't need much just like I was when I started bullet journaling a lot of you tell me you're afraid to begin a bullet journal because you don't know what spreads to make or how to organize or what to track you've got option overwhelm and to that I say start simple your bullet journal will evolve as you do I started my bullet journal with a few cutesy spreads that I saw a lot of other people do but I never used them never to them and personally found them to be a waste of space my new journal begins with a calendar of all 12 months this helps me create all my monthly spreads being able to quickly see the days of each month I then have a birthday spread so I can let all my favorite people know I'm thinking about them here is my blank February spread I do a one-page monthly calendar that specifically operates as a way for me to track my location since we're moving all the time each box of the calendar is made up of four by four squares with the leftover space below I'll attach a photo of the month and write out some goals I always keep a gratitude page I find this to be one of my most important pages every month I write gratitude at the top and number the days of the month typically I also add a daily memories page one line of memories each day but winter is slow and I'm daily journaling instead I also like to add another rotating daily page I changed this every month to give myself something new to track and learn about myself [Music] I then keep a 2-page monthly calendar this is where I do all my monthly planning and scheduling I used to do a two page weekly calendar but I could never fill it and didn't like the wasted space I then went to a smaller form of a weekly calendar the problem with this for me was that I wanted to see all my days of the month on one page so I condensed even smaller to my two page monthly calendar like this I can see the entire month at a glance each of these boxes is 7 by 10 little squares the bottom row is 7 by 9 because the page is only 39 squares tall and 28 across I write the day of the week at the top and the date in the corner and in these boxes I use writer Carol's bullet journaling method I used a dot for a task annex when a task or event is complete a dash for a note open circle for an event an arrow if I've moved a task forward or backward in the week I personally use a triangle to denote quick memories an exclamation mark for important things and a strikethrough means delete here's what it looks like in practice I'm tasking myself to find something red to wear because the Kansas City Chiefs made it into the Superbowl I've got a task to get camp new food with a note to switch to the lamb blend there's an X on the dot because I completed the task there's a few more tasks and then an open circle for the event of ecstatic dance there's an important note to eliminate dairy from my diet and below that a deleted task to buy doughnuts if you don't want to create a big grid for your monthly calendar here's an example of writer Carol's monthly spread you've got the days of the week on the left and the date on the right you list big events next to the number and on the page on the right lists out all your monthly tasks here's an example of my old weekly spreads made super simple with one pen and no ruler these spreads take maybe two minutes to make and require no artistic skill and I actually think the minimal look is cooler than decorative but that's a personal preference and on that note about minimal style some people like to give me sass about my bullet journal not being truly minimal and yeah when you look at it it doesn't really seem minimal at all but it's the information that's complex the spreads are as minimal as you can make them this is my tracker two lines numbered at the bottom with the days of the month on the Left I list all the things I want to track I personally track stimulants I like seeing how often I'm stimulating myself with things like caffeine sugar and alcohol above that I track foods things I try not to eat too much of foods I want to be sure to add more of I like to keep track of exercise and vitamins and whatever else in the month I'm interested in if I consumed or participated in something that day it gets a dot simple as that these lines here mean that I began tracking that thing mid-month the line is the day I started tracking it you can track whatever you want here work projects chores water intake how often you smile at strangers or give to other people the options are limitless above that I like to keep track of my intermittent fasting it makes me feel good the open circle means that I broke my fast or ended my day with a caloric drink and the close circle means that I broke or started my fast with food above that I tracked my mood stress and sleep I tracked my sleep based on hours 0 to 10 usually staying in the 8 to 9 range I tracked my stress on a scale of 0 to 10 zero meaning low stress 10 meaning high stress I want that line to be as low as possible I tracked my mood in the same way but zero meaning bad mood 10 meaning great mood and I want that line to be high when I see my mood and stress dip into each other it means I had a turbulent day and by tracking this way every month I'm able to see that those spikes often happen when I'm not getting much sleep I keep this particular tracking graph in the same spot on the page every month so that I can quickly compare side by side I also look at the varying points in the graphs and follow them down into my diet and activity trackers to see how they correlate with my recent diet and exercise it's all very fascinating to me on the following pages I have my fertility awareness method chart I don't feel comfortable teaching the workings of this fertility awareness method and recommend you read the book taking charge of your fertility by Tony West slur if you're coming into this completely new in a nutshell the fertility awareness method allows for me to see different spikes in my hormone levels based on my temperature that I take the moment I wake up I can tell based on my temperatures when I'm ovulating and when I will start my period temperatures should be low during the follicular phase of your cycle when estrogen is naturally high and should be high during your luteal phase when estrogen lowers and progesterone is high I began tracking my menstrual cycle because I spot before every period every month and think that might have something to do with high estrogen in tracking I've learned that soy a phytoestrogen makes me spot within 12 hours of consuming only during my luteal phase the phase between ovulation and the start of my period when estrogen is supposed to be low when I go to the gynecologist with these findings they usually have little to say and advise for me to get back on hormonal birth control so I have an appointment with a naturopath to try to get this figured out and that's the end of my bullet journal this month but quickly before I leave you I want to mention some of the ways I've been able to maintain a daily bullet journal practice setting up my bullet journal each month takes 30 minutes to an hour it doesn't have to take this long if you haven't got the time but time is kind of the point you're putting time into yourself here create what you need and what you want because you want to take care of and learn about yourself keep your bullet journal simple if it overwhelms you it won't be productive if you decide down the road to add more to your spreads great start small and it will evolve as you do using one color in one pen helps me feel less overwhelmed I also love how clean and minimal my black and white pages look make bullet journaling part of your routine my bullet journal takes a couple minutes to fill out each day that's it sometimes I do it at night before bed and if not I do it first thing in the morning before I open up my laptop leave it out on a prominent countertop or on your nightstand if you don't see it you won't use it and after a while it becomes habit like sleeping with my retainers in I feel incomplete without it if you found this video helpful please give it a like so that you can easily refer back to it and your liked videos folder as you start your own bullet journal don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and feel free to leave any questions you have down below Baron and I read each comment and try to answer them all as best we can thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Elsa Rhae & Barron

Views: 1,114,655

Rating: 4.9560409 out of 5

Keywords: elsa, rhea, rhae, elsa rhae, scamp, scamp trailer, camp, camping, travel, nomad, off grid, cacao, trailer, camper, rv, van, van life, full time, living, life, casita, boler, winter camping, nomadic, fiberglass, 13ft, 16ft

Id: DRt8j7H1GvE

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020