Bullet Journaling = Productive Days! And Snowmageddon.

I'm almost a month in using a bullet journal to organize my days and let me tell you, I am getting SO much more done. We recently had everyone else's equivalent of a dusting (8 inches of snow) but here in Nashville, it was basically a blizzard. The Mayor shut down the city. The husband still had to work, however, because people have to eat. For some perspective, the last time we got this much snow was 2003. Yep. We have this awesome bubble over the city that makes it either rain or sleet, which turns to ice overnight. I'm using my sarcasm font there, can you hear it? It rarely ever actually snows much here though, an inch here and there but that's it really.

This was my bujo entry for those days.... Pardon the *adult* world, I don't get to say them out loud often because having a 7 year old and a 4 year old with super sensitive grown up word hearing, sometimes I just gotta write them.. We had been trapped inside for far too long. As you can see on Sunday, my mother quite possibly saved the boys' lives.




Things were much better this week, obviously. I am trying to add doodles to my bujo. I consider myself possibly the worst doodler ever. Which is moderately hilarious because for 3 summers as a teen, I made those parasols with flowers or hearts or whatever and your name on them. I'm trying to let go of the anger I have at my lack of hand/eye coordination and doodle in the empty spaces in my bujo. I pulled out my staedtler's and tried to remember flower art. It's not perfect but it's fun to fill in the spaces. One of my big ideas for this year is to learn how to hand letter a little more and doodle a bit more adequately. Baby steps, right?

Anyhow, I'm filling in more and more tasks as finished every day. Actually, after I hit publish here, I'm done for the day!! Whatever will I do with my free time?!

I'm going to plan my day tomorrow and knit some more. I'm reading Stephen Covey's book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" right now and didn't know if I was going to have time for reading today so maybe I'll knock out a chapter or two there... I am finding so much more time in my days now that I'm bullet journaling.

I've always liked to do lists but I'm an incredible procrastinator. There's something about sitting down the night before and really thinking about what needs done and what my schedule will allow and merging those two together. I also think having a nice book and pretty pens to write with helps. The list doesn't seem arbitrary. As I'm making my daily, I'm really seeing if I'm living in balance. I no longer feel like all that motherhood has to offer is endless laundry and dishes. And if I'm housework heavy one day, I can adjust my plans for the next day so that I have some self-care and fun built in.

I'm Doing It!!! Keeping My Goals! Or, my new favorite thing to do!

I have recently discovered bullet journaling. It's sort of like a planner but not quite. I always got off track when I tried to use a whole planner, I needed something more specific to each day. And something I could customize to fit my life exactly. Enter the BuJo. Favorite brands are Moleskine (which is what I own) and Leuchtturm. You can choose from lined, blank, dotted grid, or solid grid. There are no rules on how to create your BuJo! None! You design monthly spreads, daily lists, and trackers to fit your life. You can be as detailed or as plain as you want. Bulletjournal.com is the original system. It is quite plain in comparison to mine. I'm not a doodler, but I do like color coding and using a different bullet system than the most simple. Below are a few pages of my bujo.

My legend is pretty straightforward, everything has a specific bullet, a mark if it needs, and a color. If I've started something for work but not finished, I use a green slash to show that it's not quite finished. If I've completed the task, its box gets colored in completely. Not everyone color codes but it makes me easy to see if my days are balanced or if there's something that I'm not working on enough.

I can tell you that I don't enjoy housework so I try to plan it in the middle of days that awesome things are happening. Because, laundry. Housework gets migrated pretty regularly.

That's another awesome thing about my bujo, I have factored in that I am not going to have time or want to finish every single task, every day. I love being able to migrate a task to another day. I don't feel anywhere as lazy if I migrate rather than if I just don't mark a task completed.

Here is a sample of my daily layout. The small print at the bottom of each day are a couple of things I like to track daily. I'm doing the 30 Day Yoga Camp with Yoga with Adriene, so I mark each day if I've done it or not. I also like to track my water, I am able to see how I'm doing each day. I think next month I might draw little cups instead of boxes. And the last thing there is a writing prompt. I like to take a few seconds and track my mood each evening. That way I can adjust my daily task list if I'm feeling overwhelmed or I can add things if I'm feeling bored or particularly energetic!

I love inspirational quotes, this is on the page opposite my legend. It reminds me every single day that I can do what I put my mind to. And it reminds me to be myself, I tend to water myself down at times. I shouldn't do that! I need to let my ME flag fly! :)


Below is a day in my bujo. I chose a word for this year and it's "Push". I need to push myself in all areas of my life so I write it each day in my bujo. It would be really easy to just write it in when I do my monthly layout but that would defeat the purpose. I like to consider the word each day for a few minutes while I write it out. To think about what area in my life I need to push myself in that day.

So, that's my bujo in one post. I am finding it incredibly useful and I am getting so much more accomplished each day rather than waiting for everything to pile up on me and rushing at the last minute to get clothes washed, Thrive business attended to, the house cleaned, etc. When I was doing that I found that I had very little time to focus on self care and doing things I enjoyed. Or, I would goof around doing things I wanted to do while ignoring things I didn't. Ha!

There are some amazing blogs out there about bullet journaling. One that comes to mind immediately is Boho Berry, she has BEAUTIFUL layouts and her lettering is incredible. I'm not much of a doodler so mine is pretty straightforward. My best friend, Alisha, has an amazing bujo. I'm going to make her blog about hers, y'all need to SEE her awesomeness.


That's it for today! Do you use a planner or bujo?

Resolutions, shmezolutions...

I am the worst at New Year's resolutions. The literal worst. I some half-hearted statement about "this year is THE year". But, the year for what? And whatever it was is usually forgotten by the end of the first week. For me resolutions=magically attaining whatever I only sort of want.

This year, I threw out the idea of a resolution. This year, I have GOALS. Goals have a start point, a list of steps, and an end result. There's no magic in that. Only hard work and determination. I don't feel like halfway doing things in my life anymore. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to DO it.



Here are my list of goals and a few of the steps I'm going to take to reach them.

• Better Self Care
• I'm going to stop feeding myself junk food. My body is a dang temple that deserves healthy food.
• I'm going to push myself physically and then I'm going to rest when I need it.
• I am going to set myself up for success with meals by buying healthy foods.
• I am going to have days where I just veg and read, sometimes I need to just go inside my head and that's okay. It is NOT selfish.
• I am going to practice affirmations.

• Moving Up Ranks in My Thrive Business
• I'm going to build new relationships.
• I am going to help people improve their lives by taking control of their wellness
• I am going to help my team in any way I can
• I am reading books on Network Marketing

• Move My Body
• I am going to do some sort of physical activity every day. My preferred mode is yoga but if it ends up a dance party in the kitchen while I cook dinner, I'm going to be happy for the movement.
• I am going to hit 10k steps 4x a week. I have a feeling I'll be doing lots of laps around the house! HA!

• Keep Up with My Bujo
• Oh my gosh, this one is easy because I love doing it. Checking off color coded boxes just makes my heart happy. 
• I will set up my day the night before so that I know what is coming up and what needs to be done. I'm thinking that this will make more effective use of my time.
  
  
  
  
• Knit More!
• I have so many knitting projects that I want to make this year. My plan is to finish at least one a month!

Do you make resolutions or goals? Do you keep them? Do you have a plan? Share with me in the comments!