c/bullet-journaling

Still don't get the hype around monthly cover pages in bullet journals

I've been bullet journaling since 2019 and I see all these elaborate monthly cover pages on Instagram, but for me they just waste 2 or 3 pages I could use for actual tracking. Does anyone else skip the decorative stuff and just write the month name in plain text at the top?

Am I the only one who misses the simplicity of old bullet journal setups?

I was flipping through my old journal from 2017 the other day. Back then I just had a monthly log, a few collections for books and movies, and a daily task list. No color coding, no washi tape, no future log spreads with 6 different trackers. Now I look at some of the posts here and it feels like people spend more time decorating than actually using the thing. Has anyone else gone back to a bare bones system and liked it better?

I finally hit 100 consecutive days of journaling yesterday and it kind of freaked me out

I switched from a Leuchtturm1917 to a Moleskine expanded and regret it

I was using a Leuchtturm for 2 years straight and decided to try a Moleskine expanded for my new journal in March. The paper is so much thinner, I can't use my Tombow brush pens without bleeding through to the next page. Has anyone else had this issue switching notebooks?

Honestly I thought spending $40 on a dotted notebook was a total scam

Tbh I used to grab whatever $5 composition book was on sale at Target and called it a bullet journal. I figured a notebook is a notebook, why pay more? But last month I caved and got a Leuchtturm1917 because my friend kept pushing me and I wanted her to stop. Ngl the pages are way smoother and the dots are actually consistent across the whole spread. My pen doesn't bleed through either which was a huge problem with the cheap ones. I've been using it for three weeks now and the difference in how neat my layouts look is kind of insane. Has anyone else switched from cheap notebooks to a nicer one and felt like it actually mattered?

Overheard a guy at Starbucks say bullet journals are just 'glorified to-do lists'

I was grabbing coffee last Tuesday and this guy near me was talking to his friend about how he tried bullet journaling for a month and quit because it was 'just writing down stuff you gotta do but with extra steps.' I almost choked on my latte. I mean yeah on the surface you could say that but its like saying a house is just a pile of wood and nails. The whole point is the system behind it. Ive been using a modified version of the Ryder Carroll method for like 3 years now and its the only way I actually follow through on stuff like my crew schedule or even remembering to call my mom back. But his comment made me think about how easy it is to tell someone else their hobby is dumb when you dont get the deeper habits. Have any of you had a conversation like that where someone just totally missed the point of why we do this?

Bought a $40 pack of specialty stencils for my journal and they were basically useless

I saw these fancy stencil sets all over Instagram and caved last month. They were supposed to help me draw perfect icons and borders for my weekly spreads. But the plastic was so thin that the ink bled under every single time. I ended up just going back to my old ruler and a fine tip pen. Has anyone else found a brand that actually works for this without ruining your pages?

I used to think habit trackers were pointless - my sister changed my mind

My younger sister has been bullet journaling for years and she always had these elaborate habit tracker spreads. I told her straight up it seemed like busywork to me, like coloring in squares just to feel productive. Then she showed me her journal from last June where she was trying to drink more water. She had three months of data showing she only hit her goal on days she set a specific reminder on her phone. That little pattern was right there in the colored squares, something she never would have noticed otherwise. So I started a simple 4-habit tracker in February just to try it out. It is actually helping me see that my mood links to how much sleep I actually got the night before. Has anyone else found something unexpected in their tracker data that changed how you approach things?

Why does nobody talk about how much money gets sunk into sticker collections for bullet journals

I fell into that trap about two years ago when I first started bullet journaling. I must have spent over $60 on various sticker packs from Etsy and Amazon, thinking they would make my logs look more polished and help me stay motivated. But after about 4 months, I realized I was spending more time placing stickers just right than actually writing down what I needed to do. The worst part is that most of those stickers are now sitting in a drawer, barely touched, and I regret not just using a simple pen and a ruler like the original method suggests. Has anyone else tossed a bunch of cash on decorative supplies that ended up collecting dust?

The time I laughed at mood trackers in bullet journals until I actually tried one for 3 weeks

I used to think mood trackers were just cutesy filler pages that people did for Instagram. Like, how is coloring in a little box going to help you process anything? But I had a rough patch in February where I was waking up grumpy for no reason and it was messing with my whole day. So I set up a simple one in my BuJo with just five color options and a tiny space for a few words. After about 10 days I noticed a pattern I swear I never would have seen otherwise. Turns out I was consistently in a bad mood on days I didn't eat breakfast before work as a hygienist. That small tweak of grabbing a granola bar on the drive totally shifted my mornings. Has anyone else caught a weird habit or trigger from tracking something they thought was silly?

Stood in a bookstore in Portland and saw how minimalist spreads keep selling

I was at Powell's last weekend flipping through journal magazines and every single popular one had like 5 lines on a page. Made me realize my cluttered habit trackers were the reason I kept quitting. Has anyone else tried paring down to just a monthly log and a daily rapid log?

Thought my botanical garden spread was going to be the death of me

I was at my kitchen table last Tuesday trying to map out a two page weekly spread with those watercolor plants. My brush slipped and dragged blue ink across three days of habit trackers before I caught it. Has anyone else just abandoned a whole spread and started fresh when the paint went wrong?

Finally picked a monthly layout after 6 months of trying both

I couldn't decide between a vertical timeline and a horizontal week spread for my work bullet journal. Went with the vertical one last week and I actually filled in every single day for the first time ever. Anyone else struggle with picking a layout and stick with it or do you switch back and forth a lot?

My friend told me to ditch my monthly spreads and go full weekly for productivity

She swore monthly pages were just making me overwhelmed but I felt like I'd lose the big picture. After 3 months of trying her method I'm way more consistent but I keep missing deadlines from not seeing the month ahead. Has anyone else found a middle ground between monthly planning and weekly detail?

My coworker told me my weekly spread was too cluttered and I got defensive at first

She pointed out I had 8 different trackers crammed into one page and said it looked like a to-do list, not a journal. After stepping back I cut it down to just 3 trackers and now my weeks actually feel readable. Has anyone else had someone call out their layout and totally shift how you set things up?

Can we talk about the time I had to choose between my washi tape collection and my actual journal?

So I was setting up my weekly spread last Sunday and realized I only had room on my desk for ONE thing: either my box of 50 washi tapes or my actual bullet journal. I picked the washi tape because it looked prettier. Then I spent 20 minutes taping everything down but had nowhere to write. Has anyone else gotten distracted by supplies and forgot the actual journaling part?

Talking to my aunt about her 10 year old bullet journal changed how I see mine

Honestly, my aunt showed me her bullet journal from 2013 last week and it was basically a worn out notebook full of daily logs and no collections at all. She said she never bothered with trackers or fancy spreads, just used it to write down what she needed to do each day and that was it. It hit different because I've been stressing over making my monthly layouts look perfect, but she proved you can stick with the system for a decade without any of that. Has anyone else stripped their journal back to just the basics?

Rant: Spent $60 on a fountain pen and it wrecked my bujo flow

I thought dropping $60 on a fancy fountain pen would make my spreads look amazing. Instead, it bled right through my Leuchtturm pages and smudged every time I closed the notebook. Now I'm stuck with a pen I'm scared to use and a half-ruined monthly log. Has anyone else had a pricey pen totally backfire like this? What cheap pens actually work for you?

Spent $40 on a dotted Leuchtturm and hated how the ink bleeds through

Got one because everyone raves about them, but my Pilot G2 bleeds right to the next page. Anyone else have better luck with a cheaper notebook like a Dingbats?

Friend told me my weekly spreads looked like a ransom note. Switched to minimalist layout.

Used to plan every single day in my bujo now I just wing it week to week

I used to be the person who would sit down every Sunday night and map out every hour of the next 7 days in my bullet journal. Color coded boxes, time blocks, the whole deal. But around 6 months ago I just got tired of it because life never followed my plan anyway. Now I only set up a weekly spread with a simple task list and a spot for notes. I leave space for unexpected stuff like when my car broke down last Tuesday and I had to scramble. Honestly it feels way less stressful and I actually get more done because I'm not fighting a schedule that doesn't fit. Do you guys find planning too rigid or do you still do the full day by day thing?

Showerthought: I just read that the average bullet journal has about 200 pages

Found that in a blog post from a stationery company, which honestly surprised me because my current one is only 80 pages and feels huge. Has anyone actually filled a whole 200-pager?

Rant: I had to pick between a fancy new journal or just using my old one for another year.

I used to spend hours on fancy weekly spreads, but now I just use a running task list and it works way better

For like two years, every Sunday I'd sit down and draw out a whole weekly layout with boxes for each day, trackers, and a quote. It took me about 45 minutes. Then I'd feel bad if I missed a day or didn't fill something in. Last fall, I was swamped with a big house painting job and just started jotting tasks in the order they came up, with a simple dot bullet. It was so much faster and I actually got more done. I think a lot of the super artistic stuff you see online is more for show than for actually managing your time. Has anyone else switched to a simpler method after burning out on the fancy setups?

Showerthought: I used to think a bullet journal had to be perfect or it was useless

Honestly, I saw all the fancy spreads online and felt like mine was a mess if a line was wobbly or I had to cross something out. I kept starting over, which just made me stop using it for like three months. Then my friend, who's a nurse, showed me her journal. It was full of scribbles, arrows, and quick notes from her shifts. She said, 'If it works for my brain on a Tuesday at 3 AM, it's perfect.' That flipped a switch for me. Now I just use a basic Moleskine notebook and a black pen, and I let it be messy. It's actually helped me stick with it because I'm not scared to mess up a page. How do you guys deal with the pressure to make every spread look Instagram-ready?