Hello! You must have found this article because you’re ready to step into the wonderful world of bullet journaling. There are so many bullet journal styles and ideas out there, ranging from extremely practical to incredibly artistic. While all styles of bullet journaling aim to accomplish one thing: help keep you on track for the day and your life, it’s definitely not one size fits all, so I’m here to help you figure out what will work best for you!

1. Little Miss/ter Practical!

Straight to the point is the key to this layout! An overview of your week’s goals and tasks, a daily breakdown, and a couple of notes to fill a page or two! This might be the style for you. If you're looking for a more complex designed planner, you can always check out our blog post on how to decorate your 2021 planner. If black and white isn’t your style, using colors to segment each portion is an easy fix! The 2021 Petit Planner is easy and perfect if this is your desired journaling style.

2. Monthly Layouts

Maybe you don’t need as many details as I do, and that’s great!  A monthly layout might be more your speed. This is a clean, easy layout for long-term goals and tasks! It keeps you on track without overwhelming you or creating a micro-management style that doesn’t suit your lifestyle. The 2021 Essentials Planner has a great pre-made layout that you use to help you achieve your goals and tasks. If you are looking for other pre-made designs, you can always view our collection of 2021 planners.

3. Binge-Watcher Alert!

Being locked indoors has brought out the binge-watchers in all of us so maybe a TV Show/Film tracker is something you want to include in your bullet journal. You can create pages to schedule, rate, or remind you of release dates for your favorite shows and films. This works for music, albums, singers, books, etc. This way, not only are you able to keep track of things that make you a more productive person, but you’re also able to keep track of things that make you a happier person! The BDJ Notebook is simple and versatile. It can suit any of your bullet journaling needs.

4. Financial Trackers

Keeping track of monthly expenses can be annoying, while some people choose to keep their monthly bills, check their email to compare and contrast, keeping records in your journal is efficient and neat! You won’t need the physical clutter of paper bills or the email clutter. You can see monthly bill trends, and if you need to adjust your utility usage. Not only that, but you can also keep track of your savings goals. Say you’re saving for a new bag, phone, apartment, or a trip, seeing how much money you need to save right beside how much you spend monthly helps you create a realistic timeline, or show you where you need to compromise to fill that bar up quicker! Any of the Archive notebooks are great because you can choose between blank pages, dotted, or quadrants.

5. Meal Planner

We’ve all opened our fridges, stared, and wondered, ‘What do I want to eat?’ or ‘What can I make with what’s in my refrigerator?’. A meal planner is a solution to these questions. Planning meals not only lessens the stress of having to think about what you’re having for breakfast, lunch, or dinner - it also makes your grocery shopping more efficient and financially-savvy. Knowing your menu for the week gives you a clear idea of what you need to buy, and it prevents purchases that you may forget about and go bad in the back of the icebox. Using the meal planner to track your meals post-consumption is a possibility, as well. If you’re trying to be more conscious of what goes into your body, this is definitely a great bullet journal addition for you!

6. Dates to Remember

Maintaining a page that can remind you of your friends’ birthdays, your parents’ anniversary, annual family plans, holidays is great at helping you maintain your relationships. It’s easy to see when you should be greeting people, blocking off dates to celebrate with them, and sending them a little extra love. (Noting the national holidays also helps you plan out leaves and vacations).

7. Habit Trackers

Habits are made or broken when you do or don’t do something for 28 days. Having a habit tracker is a great visual to show you your frequency in maintaining that behavior. Yeah, there may be apps to help you with this, but I feel pen and paper is a more effective method.

8. Goal-ie!

Remind yourself of your goals. Life goals, annual goals, or monthly goals! Adjust them according to your life’s needs and changes. What’s important is you have a constant reminder of the things you want to achieve. Keep focused!

9. Mood

Keep track of your mood. How did you feel today? Yesterday? How will you feel tomorrow? Being able to recognize the dominant emotion of the day may help you adjust, reevaluate, and reconsider how you react to things that happen in a day. You can track by coloring in circles, smiley faces, or scales. Any way that’s easier for you to track is the right way for you. The Inspire Sketchbook journal is a great place to draw your feelings, too.

10. Express Your Gratitude

Be grateful, write it down. We have to remind ourselves what we’re grateful for and revel in it! Let's record things you’re grateful for being the last thing you do before you sleep at night so even in sleep, you’ll remember that there are great things in life. Note them down in your Advocacy Notebooks so you’re not only happy with your life, you make someone grateful for something in their lives too.

11. Keep Clean

Make a cleaning routine! Create a chart that reminds you of what needs cleaning and when. Scrub the bathrooms, wax the floor, wipe the ceiling fans. A clean home is a happy home and this helps you maintain that! Unleash your inner cleaning genie with this bullet journaling idea.

12. Brain Dump

These are the pages to let the clutter out of your head. There are times when your brain is so filled with ideas and there’s nowhere for them to go. Well, this is it. Pour out your ideas and brain noise into the allotted pages of your bullet journal and you’ll free up some very sought-after space in your head. You can even have a specific notebook for it! The Forget Me Not Ideas Notebook is an amazing option.