July #BulletJournalChallenge

Hello everyone!

We made it to over a 1,000 photos in the #bulletjournalchallenge hashtag over on Instagram! It wouldn't have been possible without all of your fantastic photos and ideas, thank you for being awesome! Many newbies to the Bullet Journal like poking around in there to get inspiration on what to do with their Bullet Journal, which makes it both a fun AND useful Bullet Journal source.

Some of the prompts were especially fun to see photos of such as useful lists, new hacks tried, page or idea that didn't work. I also loved seeing photos of how others meal plan in their Bullet Journal.

Here are some that stood out to me from this month's challenge:

#bulletjournalchallenge catch up, Day 7: Menu planning. The left is my menu plan in my weekly spread; it's just a quick list of dinners that I plan out as I plan for the week. (When I'm doing a more involved menu, like for the clean eating challenges we participate in, I use a menu that I print from the computer and keep on the fridge.) The right is not exactly a menu plan, but it's my plans for making freezer meals for after the baby is born. Now that I'm mostly done making them, it can serve to keep track of what we use and what's still in the freezer. #bulletjournal

A photo posted by Amy Vassar (@amyvassar) on Jun 20, 2015 at 7:12am PDT

Day 12 | #bulletjournalchallenge (wow, I'm behind!) :: when & how do you migrate? :: the night before when I'm ideally setting up the next day, I review previous pages for open tasks. If a task is not time sensitive, I leave it. If I've procrastinated enough and now it's urgent - I will migrate to today's page. If I'm sick of flipping, then I will migrate all open tasks to today's page and put a little blue heart in the top right corner of the right page to indicate the spread has been processed. And a la #flylady, I try to make Wednesday "Anti-procrastination day" and knock out as many pesky tasks that seemingly remain open. #planneraddict #plannernerd #bulletjournal

A photo posted by Melanie Smith (@melliesm1th) on Jun 15, 2015 at 7:36am PDT

I'm so behind on the #bulletjournalchallenge. Day 4: My daily routine is to keep my #buju open on my desk and update it as I work then again each night. Day 5: almost done? Idk what to show here! Day 6: New hacks I've tried...I do the weekly spread horizontally and track everything there. Also, I don't draw boxes. Day 7: Meal planning-my husband usually cooks but I do have a space on my weekly for dinner ideas. Day 8: Hand drawn spread? They all are...I can't add in pages that are printed. Too #ocd. Day 9: Last 3 spreads-they all look like this as I only do weekly spreads, no dailies. I have a list section at the back of my #bulletjournal. Whew! Hopefully I don't get so far behind again!

A photo posted by @daniellecnoel on Jun 9, 2015 at 12:18pm PDT

Planning in progress with new hacks I'm trying... For meal planning and focus in my #bulletjournal. Inspired by @tinyrayofsunshine 's weekly spreads I adapted this one for a handful of daily must dos, while also allowing for some future planning on other days of the week. The smaller row is an attempt to focus on two projects per day so my brain can focus, and the last row is for food journaling. I meal plan on Google Calendar with my husband but this captures the spontaneous food decisions I make. The bottom is my "space of requirement", serving as Tasks for the Week, Errand lists, and purchase stuff for work. And yes, there's a LOT of traveling this week! Stickers from #theresetgirl and #washi from Michael's. #projectmanagement #productivity #planner #planning #bulletjournalchallenge #juneplannerchallenge #bujo #maybooks #plannernerd #plannerhack #mealplan #foodjournal #foodtracking #focus

A photo posted by Jessica (@prettyprintsandpaper) on Jun 8, 2015 at 3:12pm PDT

Day 7- meal planning - if I meal plan in my BuJo it normally looks like this. The week starts on a Thursday because that's what day I do shopping :) most of the time when planning I look what I still have in the freezer and plan around that :) #bulletjournalchallenge #bulletjournal #bujo #planner #journal #mealplan #mealprep

A photo posted by Samie (@sj_projects) on Jun 7, 2015 at 9:41pm PDT

June Bullet Journal Challenge, Day 5: Almost done -- I don't really know what this one was supposed to be about, but hey, here's my almost-done weekly spread, since it's Saturday. Next week I'll be using separate daily pages; I'm thinking I'll put tasks that aren't necessarily for today onto the week spread and migrate them to specific days as I get ready to do them, maybe? Sometimes the freedom to do whatever I want with this thing can be confusing. #bulletjournal #bulletjournalchallenge

A photo posted by Thea BH (@akatonboodonata) on Jun 6, 2015 at 2:25pm PDT

Day 1: How long does it take you to set up your bullet journal? June's #bulletjournalchallenge It took a little over an hour to get these pages setup but that did include interruptions.

A photo posted by simplysonya (@simplysonya) on Jun 1, 2015 at 9:18am PDT

Day 6: New Hacks I've tried ✨ This picture is from a couple days ago but on Monday and Tuesday I needed to be extra organized. So I also drew a time ladder on the side of the journal. #bulletjournal #bulletjournalchallenge #bulletjournaling #journals #journal #journaling #planner #plannernerd #planneraddict #studyblr #studygram #diyplanner #notebook #notebooks

A photo posted by @chasingpaperstars on Jun 6, 2015 at 11:22am PDT

#JuneBulletJournalChallenge Day 3 How have you overcome bullet journal cons? The bullet allows for a lot of customization which is amazing. I only see a con in not being able to write in a built in calendar but that can be done or there's always the being able to write it in in your daily block. #bulletjournalchallenge #bulletjournal #studygram #plannergirl #planningislife

A photo posted by Organize and Study (@organizeandstudy) on Jun 4, 2015 at 7:26pm PDT

Day 3: #bulletjournalchallenge Dealing with the system's 'cons'. I sometimes have a habit of setting up two or three days worth of tasks in a row which results in a lack of space if something comes up that must be inserted into the current day. Easy- post it notes -especially if it's something that I don't want to be permanently recorded in the journal. If I do, then I'll write it to the right of a current task, but that rarely happens. Also pre-formatting my days with a certain number of tasks reins me in from over-extending myself. Tomorrow is another day! #bulletjournal #bulletjournaling #bulletjournaladdicts #bulletjournaljunkies

A photo posted by ~Elena~ (@weekendwife) on Jun 3, 2015 at 6:11pm PDT

- Day 2: useful lists #bulletjournalchallenge recreated my snail mail log to protect penfriend privacy. I write down my penfriend's name, write the date of when I receive their letter, create a half filled box, add a double forward slash and then when I send it off I write that date and fill in the rest of the box. Gives a nice overview of where I'm up to with writing replies and who I haven't heard from in awhile. My other useful lists include websites, notebook sizes, reading list, important numbers, list of lists, list of wish list challenges, opening hours of stores I frequent, and personal bests at the gym #bulletjournal #decadethirty #notes #quotes #tinywriting #calligraphy #notebookaddict #pens #stationery #notebook #writing #journal #artjournal #journaling #typography #lettering #handlettering #handwriting #planner #plannerd #planneraddict #penpal #penpals

A photo posted by Dee Martinez (@decadethirty) on Jun 2, 2015 at 4:33am PDT

Day 6: New hacks you tried Last month, I tried adding a month grid calendar on a spread and a weekly spread (which morphed into a two-week spread). Those didn't work well for me, so this month I added a flip-out month calendar with monthly tracking grid, a weekly spread, and a daily spread (all ideas from @domestikengineering). So far it's working much better for me. The only thing I'm concerned about is when I need another collection page(?). I may be able to squeeze those in between weeks-I'll have to see when it comes up. #bulletjournal #bulletjournalchallenge #PhotoGrid

A photo posted by Erin Quick (@erinlesley09) on Jun 6, 2015 at 8:59am PDT

#bulletjournalchallenge 04. How I keep my #bulletjournal updated: That is the aspect about the bullet journal from what I can tell that it works for me; I update whenever I can, in between tasks I do at my desk, or on a day off like today, on my balcony, using the free time to update for July already! I didn't update other planners that often and didn't have that plannerpeace! @tinyrayofsunshine

A photo posted by Yes, I need Coffee! (@yesyescoffee) on Jun 5, 2015 at 10:05am PDT

I noticed quite a few people were taken by domestikengineering's layout for having monthly, weekly and daily in view all at the same time, shown below.

Daily view in my BuJu. #bulletjournalchallenge #bulletjournaling #bulletjournal

A photo posted by Domestik Engineering (@domestikengineering) on Apr 3, 2015 at 8:34pm PDT

Lastly, here's one of my submissions, it also happened to be my 'most liked' photo (ever). I tried this out for the first week of June. It actually worked pretty well for me. I enjoyed having the different aspects of my life divided up. The number of checkboxes indicate how many times I wanted to get that task done that week. Did I complete everything on it? No, but most of it, yes I'm happy to report. I used the squares at the bottom by placing a checkmark and writing in the task from the above goals brainmap as a way to keep myself accountable. Reviewing and logging everyday was key for me.

Day 6: New hacks I tried. Well, I just set this up today. Part of this was inspired by @tiealittlebow87 😊 her handwriting is so beautiful and I wanted to try out the style. I think it's a brainstorming goal planning type of page? Having something super pretty to look at like this definitely makes me want to keep glancing over at my goals for the week and check off boxes. 😄

A photo posted by Kim (@tinyrayofsunshine) on Jun 7, 2015 at 7:52am PDT

Check out the full feed of photos for the challenge

here

.

July's Bullet Journal Challenge + Printable

We are back with another challenge for July!

My lovely friend Dee from DecadeThirty is back this month with another beautiful printable for the Bullet Journal challenge. This time in four sizes! Original, Regular Midori Traveler's Notebook, large Moleskine, and pocket Moleskine. Grab them

here

 (they should download automatically). Isn't her handwriting just divine? She just opened up an Etsy

shop

to sell some handwritten planner printables such as habit trackers. If you want to know more about how she writes so beautifully, visit her blog at

DecadeThirty.com

to see a recent post on her handwriting and tips on refining yours.

Of course, you can always write up the challenge in your Bullet Journal as well :)

I'm excited for the fifth (wow! How time flies) Bullet Journal challenge. I tried to make the challenge a bit more open-ended this time. There's a fun 'make your own prompt' prompt, that way you can share anything you want about your Bullet Journal as part of the challenge.

How to join the Bullet Journal Challenge?

It's simple, just head over to

Instagram

and sign up for a free account if you don't already have one. Look at the prompt list every day and take a corresponding photo of your Bullet Journal, write a bit about it and use the hashtag '#bulletjournalchallenge'. Using the hashtag will ensure it is added to the pool of photos for the challenge. Here's an example:

#bulletjournalchallenge June 1: How long does it take you to set up your journal? For my weekly plan, it usually takes me about 20 minutes. Monthly pages take about the same. Other than my daily schedule/to-do lists, these are the only regular spreads that I do. #bulletjournal

A photo posted by Amy Vassar (@amyvassar) on Jun 1, 2015 at 4:14pm PDT

Hope you join us for July's Bullet Journal Challenge!

Notes: If you would like for me to remove your photo, let me know and I will do so promptly. 

The Bullet Journal was created by Ryder Carroll, please check out the

BulletJournal.com

website for full details on how to get started with a Bullet Journal.

The Bullet Journal Challenge is a challenge that I created as a fun way to share our Bullet Journals and get ideas for maximizing our Bullet Journal savviness. If you have any ideas and suggestions for prompts, I'd love to hear them!