I BuJo. Do You?

Since high school (1977) I've kept a sort of planner.  Back then it was a free pocket calendar from Hallmark (remember those?).  Over the years I would try this or that brand of real planner but they never worked for me. 

Then one day this spring I was cruising around Pinterest and saw something about "bullet journals".  The images were often very beautiful but what appealed to me was the idea of a planner that was totally personalized by me, for me.

Bullet journals are the brain child of a guy who needed a more flexible planner to keep his life in order.  He came up with the idea of using a journal type book to use as his planner and keeping his info concise - ie bullet notes.

The idea took off.  And women got a hold of it.  

Now bullet journals (aka "BuJo") are part planner, part journal, part art journal, part book of lists.

I liked the idea of making it my own.  So in mid-June I gave it a shot.

The traditional BuJo is in a bound book or notebook.  It can be as simple as my first BuJo which was this composition notebook from Dollar Tree or an expensive leather bound affair.

The premise of the BuJo is you just start writing in your info.  You have to keep track with a detailed index to get to where your recorded info is kept.  Page numbering is very important.

How you do a calendar is up to you.  There are 'monthly', like the one above.

Or weekly.  Or daily, as the one above.  Using a combination or all works too.

I added a pocket in the back using a photo enlargement I had.

By mid-August I was hating using a bound book.  It just didn't work for me, especially having my lists scattered all thru and having to dig for them.  Also any mistakes where there forever.

So I switched to a binder.  I had on hand an old Franklin Covey planner that my mom had given me when she retired.  (It was one of the systems I tried and couldn't get to work for me).

I bought a 7 hole punch so I could make my own pages or add in a bit of info I wanted to keep.

I don't do the fancy doodling or art work a lot of people do.  I mainly use washi tape to make dividers or to pretty it up a bit.

The beauty of using a binder is that you can do sections and add as many pages as needed.  My binder BuJo has 4 sections.

There is the section called "collections" in BuJo speak.  This is any sort of info you want to have.  My is pretty much practical stuff.  One of my big issues with the traditional BuJo is when your journal is filled and you start a new one, all of those lists have to be rewritten in the new journal.  Good grief!!  Using a binder, I never have to rewrite.

I also have an index for my planner/calendar section.

My other two sections are not indexed - they are my KonMari section and my blogging section.

Here's a few pages out of my "collection" section to give you an idea of how useful it is.

My housekeeping schedule.

Places I take classes at and classes I have taken.

Packing list for trips.

Photos (off of Pinterest) of projects I want to do.

Things I want to can so I can jump on a good deal when I see it.

My KonMari 'to do' list.

And my KonMari "atta girl" gold stars.

Then it moves to my planner/calendar section.

Each month starts with a motivational saying.

After a few regular monthly lists, this is what I use for planning.  The weekly system ended up working best for me.

Best thing is it fits in most of my purses so I have everything I need with me all the time.  

What sort of planner do you use?