Journaling Our Way To Organisation
There’s a common idea that an organised life automatically leads to an organised, stress-free mind. However, living in a fast-paced city like Delhi, I started to question whether I would ever strike things off my to-do list or were these lists just a façade to make my life seem organised. Scrolling through YouTube, I stumbled upon a particular kind of journal quite different from the kind of ‘journals’ I used to keep in 5th grade.
However, this isn’t what makes bullet journaling special, its the fact is that it is left open to you, making it easy to document just about anything.
Bullet journaling is essentially the art of combining your millions of little to-do lists along with your weekly/monthly planner in one master journal, thus bringing a sense of organisation in our lives. However, this isn’t what makes bullet journaling special, the fact is that it is left open to you, making it easy to document just about anything.
One can make their bullet journal as minimalistic as they want or they can make it bursting with glitter, stickers and colour.
All the information you enter in your bullet journal is in checkboxes or lists with bullet points (as the name suggests), making the otherwise seemingly Herculean task of organising our lives look like a cakewalk. Adding to this, it helps us use our brain’s creative juices, as a result making it the perfect activity for our minds to do after a stressful day.
While there isn’t any specific way to make your bullet journal, the general format used by most people starts with making an index, this is where you will write all the lists you’ve made and all the monthly and weekly planners as well. After this, use a page to write the month, this page can be as decorative as you want it to be, make sure it stands out! Then, draw a calendar for the month you’re in and enter all the events you’ll have throughout the month. This is your monthly overview! Now it’s time to break down the month into weeks, thus giving you a concise view of what the month has in store for you, in a less intimidating format.
Hereafter, the ball is in your court and you can add different kinds of lists, be it a ‘movies to watch’ list, ‘short-term goals’ list, or even a grocery list.
One of the most common ones added while bullet journaling is the mood tracker. Many have taken this to a bigger level by making a journal specifically to document their mood throughout the day. It is completely normal for a human being to go through a range of emotions in one day, waking up one may feel happy and hopeful, but as the day progresses they may feel dejected for some reason while ending their day on a hopeful note. In order to tap into one’s emotions and make sure we address whether we’re feeling healthy emotions or not, a mood journal seems like a good option.
When we journal our emotions, it gives us time to introspect on the kind of life we’re living and as a result, helps us in making positive change. When you look at how you dealt with a particular incident at the end of the month, you can ask yourself if that particular reaction was called for or if you would like to choose an alternative emotion to react with in the future. Further, a mood journal helps us to study a pattern in our emotions, making it easy to detect certain signs of depression.
Keeping a mood or bullet journal enables us to look back at the past months and see the amount of progress we make emotionally, in terms of our organisational skills and even in terms of creativity while planning the monthly layout of the journal.
Consciously making bullet journaling a part of your daily routine seems tough, but getting into it is the only struggle, after that all your plans, deadlines and appointments being in one place, you no longer have to frantically remember if you have anything to do when your friend asks you what plans you have for the weekend. Many have called these methods of journaling meditative, as it gives you time off from the daily grind to think and reflect on the day that has been and the future, making it a healthy practice for your mental well-being.
Tania Bagchi
