My Beginner Bullet Journal to Increase Productivity [minimalist]

I’ve always thought bullet journaling was beautiful and fascinating, but something that wasn’t for me.

I tried my hand at it, but it seemed to take too long and I could never get it as pretty as I saw online.

That is until recently, when I started looking into minimalist bullet journaling and I realized I can do that too!!

Early September I started watching several minimalist bullet journal YouTube videos and it really inspired me to try again.

I purchased a simple, small bullet journal and started using it by mid-September.

Little did I know that this journal would inspire me in more ways than one.

If you want to see me flip through my journal jut watch my video below:

What You Need

The only thing I bought was the journal.

I purchased a 5″ x 8.25″ navy blue, dotted grid journal from Poluma. I wanted a journal with less pages because I only wanted to use it for 3 months. I also wanted something really affordable and this journal had one of the best prices.

As you can see below, I placed my logo sticker on the front of my journal.

I didn’t buy any new pens, but last year I did buy these felt tip pens which are perfect for bullet journaling and are the main ones I use. Otherwise you can literally use anything you have.

I also use a blue Bic Cristal pen, a mechanical pencil, green and pink Paper Mate pens, colored pencils, and a 6-inch ruler. All of which I already had.

Inside My Bullet Journal

On the front cover page I recorded the total number of dots going down and across each page as well as the total number of squares going down and across.

This is good to have as a reference when you are creating certain blocks throughout your journal.

The first actual pages of my bullet journal I decided to record my goals and my “Level 10 Life” chart. I free-handed just about everything (which is why the circles are bit messy, but I like it like that!).

I was inspired to do the Level 10 spread because of Stuart Carter on YouTube. Basically, you rate the 10 areas of life on a scale of 1-10. Ideally, each area would be closer to 10! I’ll be coming back to this chart at the end of every month.

Next, I added pages for blog and video ideas. I kept it very simple by just creating a solid border around each.

The next page is my favorite and is the area that took the longest.

I decided to fit a few things within these 2 pages including the month of September, my goals, content for September for my blog/YouTube, a habit tracker, and a sleep/mood tracker.

For the calendar, I only need this to see the dates/full month. In the future I will probably use it to fill in my expenses which is something I typically do in my planner.

For my habit tracker I have the days going down the left side. Green means I did it, pink means I didn’t, and the black dash means I didn’t care to complete that habit those days.

I’ve been tracking:

• no snooze
• meditation
• Wim Hoff Breath work
• Reading
• Gratitude/Journaling
• Walking 10,000 steps
• Drinking 64+oz of water
• writing 300+ words
• pomodoros
• and evening tidy

The sleep/mood tracker was inspired by Elsa Rhae on YouTube. Again, the days are on the left hand side and I rate my sleep and mood on a scale of 1-5 each day. Blue is sleep, pink is mood.

I like this spread because I can see if my habits and sleep correlate with my mood. As you can see, I also added a little piece of washi tape to make accessing this page easier.

Next, was my first week spread. I had it cover two pages.

The following week I decided to compress it to one page.

The weekly spread presents my new productivity tactic.

First, let me say that after each weekly spread comes my ‘Good Morning’ page. This is where I do my morning journaling.

I write down the date, how I am feeling, and a few things I’m grateful for.

Then I go to the corresponding date on the weekly spread and write down the top 3 most important things I should complete for the day. This has made a HUGE difference in my productivity. I only focus on those 3 things first because they will move the needle for me the most.

I was also trying to do some Pomodoros each day, but I found that doesn’t really work for me (that’s what those 3 circles are in the first weekly spread photo).

Following each morning page is my ‘Weekly Meeting.’ I used to have a meeting with myself (or my boyfriend) last year where I go over my goals, my accomplishments for the last week, the things I need to improve, and the important things for the next week. I have a full blog post on my weekly meetings.

What I really like about bullet journaling is how customizable everything is. I appreciate that I can change things up each week/month if it’s not something I really enjoy.

For example, now I think I need a little bit more space for each day of the week. So I’ll probably turn it into a 2-page spread again but include a notes section.

For now I like the monthly spread/habit tracker. But even for October I’ll be changing up the habits I want to work on.

I added a bit more detail for October by just adding some simple leaves and coloring them with fall colors.

Now that I’ve done all this before, it all takes me less time to complete.

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Overall, I think bullet journaling is something I’m going to stick to!

I love that I have my journaling and daily to-dos all in one place and I’ve found myself more motivated to get my work done.