c/bullet-journaling

Bought a $50 bullet journal off Etsy and the paper bled through with every pen I own

I got this handcrafted leather journal from a shop called CozyPlans last month and it LOOKED amazing but the 80gsm paper they used is basically tissue paper. My mildliners bleed through to the next page and even a cheap biro leaves ghosting. Anyone else get tricked by a pretty cover on a journal that can't handle ink?

PSA: wasted $80 on those fancy pre-printed bullet journal stencils...

Bought a set of 5 stencils for my monthly habit tracker and they slid all over the page no matter what tape I used. Now I'm back to drawing lines by hand and wondering if anyone else found a stencil brand that actually stays put?

My friend's simple habit tracker made me realize I overcomplicate everything

I was showing my buddy my monthly spread last week with all these color coded symbols and migration arrows. He just shrugged and showed me his - it's basically a 3 column list with check boxes. No collections, no future log, just tasks and a small mood tracker. He said "I tried doing all that fancy stuff but I stopped actually using it after 3 days." And honestly, it hit different because I've been doing this for 2 years and I still spend more time setting up spreads than actually logging. Has anyone else gone simpler and found it worked better for actually sticking with it?

I finally gave mood trackers a real shot after years of thinking they were fluff

I always wrote them off as too cutesy and not useful, but after 6 months of tracking my sleep and anxiety together I can actually see patterns I missed before. Has anyone else had a simple spread change how you look at your habits?

Hit 100 pages in my journal and it threw me off

I started my first bullet journal back in March and just realized I filled 100 pages already. That surprised me because I thought I'd give up after a month like every other hobby. Does hitting a milestone like that make you want to keep going or just make you feel like you need a new system?

Wasted $45 on a fancy bujo notebook that bleeds through everything

I picked up this expensive notebook from a local shop in Portland because the cover looked amazing. First time using my Tombow markers on it and the ink bled straight through to the next page. Total waste of money since I can barely use half the pages now. Anyone have a favorite notebook brand that actually holds up to markers without bleeding?

Finally stuck with one layout for a full month

I spent 3 years switching between weekly and monthly spreads every few weeks. Last month I just picked a simple weekly layout and stuck with it... anyone else struggle with constantly redesigning their system?

Discovered how much I was overcomplicating my weekly spread at a conference in Nashville

I went to a work conference in Nashville last month and brought my bullet journal to take notes. By day two I noticed this guy next to me had the simplest layout - just a date column and a task list, nothing fancy. I was spending 45 minutes every Sunday drawing out my week with color coding and boxes and all that. Now I use his basic format and it actually frees up time to actually get things done. Has anyone else found their system getting too elaborate and needed to trim it back?

The week my bullet journal actually saved me from a total meltdown

Hit my 100th page in my bullet journal this morning

Honestly I didn't even realize I was that far in until I counted the numbered pages. I started this journal back in January and I just kept going with dailies and weeklies, never thought I'd fill a whole notebook. It matters because I've never stuck with any kind of planning system this long before, usually I quit after a month. Ngl seeing that 100 gave me a weird little boost to keep going with my habit tracking too. Has anyone else hit a page count that surprised you?

Finally filled my entire monthly spread without crossing anything out for the first time!

Shoutout to whoever found that stat about wasting 30% of your bujo on bad layouts

I read an article from Tiny Ray of Sunlight last week that said people who don't sketch out their spreads before inking waste nearly a third of their pages on mistakes. That number floored me. I just did a count in my 2024 journal and yep, I had 8 wasted spreads out of 24 total. Way too much. Anyone else notice how many pages you toss because you rushed the planning step?

TIL my habit tracker was making me feel worse, not better

I had a row of 20 things I was tracking every day for about 6 months. Sleep, water, mood, exercise, reading, you name it. Last week I missed 4 days in a row and when I went to fill them in I got this knot in my stomach. Realized I was using the tracker to beat myself up over things I didn't do instead of just noticing patterns. So I scratched the whole thing and now I only track 3 things: did I go outside, did I eat vegetables, and did I talk to someone I care about. Feels way lighter. Has anyone else had a tracker backfire on them like that?

Hot take: minimalist bujos miss the whole point of the system

I was talking with a friend who swears by strict Ryder Carroll style and she called my colorful habit trackers 'clutter.' But isn't the system supposed to adapt to what you need, not the other way around? Has anyone else dealt with gatekeeping over spreads?

My cousin told me to ditch the index and use a yearly log instead

She's been bullet journaling since 2016 so I figured she knew her stuff. I tried it for about 4 months and I kept losing track of old entries. Like I'd know I wrote about a doctor appointment in March but couldn't find it without flipping through every single page. Last week I went back to a proper index and a two page monthly spread and I found stuff in 10 seconds. Has anyone else tried going without an index and regretted it later?

Vent: I stopped using color-coded collections after a friend called me out

My friend Jen saw my bullet journal last month and said, "This looks pretty but you spend way more time on the colors than actually tracking anything." She was right. I had like 8 different highlighters going for work projects, reading lists, meal planning, and it took me 20 minutes each morning just to set up the page. Now I just use black pen and one marker for headers only. My weekly spread takes 5 minutes and I actually stick with it. Has anyone else scaled back on decorations and felt like it worked better?

My buddy the accountant showed me a cleaner layout for my monthly spread

I've been bullet journaling for about 3 years now and I always did this messy block style for my monthly tasks. You know, just scribbling everything in boxes. Last week my friend who does accounting stuff looked at it and said 'why don't you just use columns like a ledger?' I laughed at first but tried it out. Now I run a vertical column for each week with tasks listed down the side and dates across the top. It cleared up so much wasted space on the page. My habit tracker is easier to read too since I can see the patterns across all 4 weeks at once. Has anyone else switched from blocks to columns and found it changed how you plan?

Someone told me to ditch the exacto knife for washi tape tearing and I thought they were crazy

My coworker insisted I'd get cleaner lines tearing washi tape by hand instead of cutting it, so I tried it for my October monthly spread and now I can't go back, has anyone else found a weird tool swap that actually worked better?

My friend told me my weekly spreads were way too cluttered and she was right

I used to cram every single habit tracker, meal plan, and to-do list into one two-page spread for each week. Last month my buddy looked at my journal and said it looked like a mess of boxes and text. She suggested I pick just three things to track per week instead of ten. So now I only do my water intake, exercise, and a mood dot. Going simple like that actually made me stick with it longer because I don't get overwhelmed.

Spent 2 hours building a weekly spread that I hated after 3 days

I got really into that rolling weekly layout everyone posts on Instagram, so I sat down and spent a full 2 hours drawing out columns, adding little habit trackers, and color coding everything. By Wednesday I realized I never used half the boxes and the layout was too cramped for my actual tasks. Ended up ripping out the whole thing and going back to a basic Ryder Carroll setup. Has anyone else found a fancy layout that just didn't work for real life?

My sister shut down my whole system in 5 minutes flat

She glanced at my April spread and said "you spend more time decorating than actually planning." It hit different because she was right - I had 14 different markers, 3 washi tapes, and a stencil set just for one month. Now I keep it to black pen and one highlighter, and my tasks actually get done. Anyone else have a relative call them out on overcomplicating things?

Overheard someone say bullet journals are just fancy to-do lists

I was sitting in a coffee shop last Saturday working on my weekly spread when the guy at the next table told his friend that bullet journals are just overcomplicated to-do lists with pretty stickers. It stung a little because I had just spent 45 minutes drawing out a habit tracker for water intake and sleep hours. But then I thought about it, and he has a point if you ignore the creative side. Sure, I could just write down tasks on a scrap of paper and call it a day. But for me, the act of designing the layout helps me actually stick with the habits. I ended up finishing my coffee and simplifying my next month's setup. Has anyone else had their journaling style challenged by an outsider's comment like that?

Worst week of bullet journaling I've ever had

Last Tuesday I spilled coffee all over my Leuchtturm1917 and lost 3 weeks of habit tracking and daily logs. Tried to recreate it from memory and my whole September spread is a mess of illegible notes and skipped days. Has anyone else had a total journal disaster that made them just start fresh in a new notebook?

DAE think monthly spreads are overrated? Finally ditched mine after 3 months

I was super skeptical of just using a daily log like the Ryder Carroll method says, but after trying fancy monthly layouts for a quarter year I realized they were just pretty doodles I never actually referenced. Who else found that going minimal with just dailies and a future log actually works better?

My therapist laughed at my bullet journal habit, then asked to see it

I was sitting in her office on 4th Ave downtown, venting about how I couldn't stick with my habit tracker for more than two weeks straight. She just chuckled and said 'show me your journal'. So I handed it over. She flipped through maybe 10 pages, then pointed at my weekly spread where I had a color coded sleep log. She goes 'you realize you're tracking your anxiety about not tracking things, right?'. That hit weird. She was right - I had like 4 different habit trackers over 6 months and none of them lasted. Now I just write three things I did that day, no boxes to check or colors to pick. Has anyone else had a therapist or someone outside the bujo world call them out on their system?