I'm incredibly reliant on my diary. For those of you who have never heard of it, the bullet journal is a method of organising a diary which involves choosing your own layout, and uses symbols to represent concepts. I've found it incredibly helpful for organising my daily workload as a student, and even more so since starting my placement.
My bullet journal is broken down by month. Each month starts with a monthly spread, which has a large calendar so that I can quickly see important dates and appointments. I also have a monthly to-do list, which will include things like chores which only need doing once or twice in the month. These make sure I don't forget anything - something I'm quite prone to!
The "goals" section of this page helps to keep me motivated, as I love setting myself targets for the month. However, I rarely achieve all of them; I don't see this as a problem, as I'm happy to just push them back to the next month! I find it helps me to learn timescales more accurately; since doing this, I know know that there's no way I'll get through my reading backlog while also working, but it is possible to learn 50 Japanese characters in a month.
The most important part of my monthly spread is my trackers. There are two types of information that I keep track of. Firstly, I keep track of important statistics, such as how much money I've saved for my post-graduation Japan trip. I also track "habits"; these are things that I want to do every single day. Currently my habits include working on my university project, taking vitamins, exercising and doing some kind of learning or development (blog included). However, I've found that I sometimes forget to tick them off, and then my tracker looks very sparse! I'm planning on moving this section to my daily planning page in the future.
Speaking of my daily spread, here it is! It's not been filled in because of the confidential nature of my placement work, but I'm sure you can get an idea of how I use it. I add a small calendar and a "reminders" section at the top of each page so that I don't forget any important events happening in the next week. I also have a section to take notes, and a "back burner" where I keep projects that need doing but that are not a priority.
Each day is split into two sections, "work" and "other". Work refers to things I do for my placement or for university, so will include appointments and tasks I need to complete. Other is used for non-work activities, such as meeting up with friends, housework and personal projects. Normally the work section is completely filled up but not all ticked off - that's not a problem because I just move it to the next day.
I love how customisable the bullet journal is, and I really enjoy experimenting with the layout. I wish I had the time and creativity to create the beautiful layouts which you see on Instagram, but collage and washi tape will have to do for me!
Do you use a bullet journal? How do you use it? Let me know in the comments below!
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