A bullet journal is such a marmite thing. Some people love it and some people hate it. I started bullet journaling in January 2018 and did not love it that much at the time. I felt a lot of pressure to spend a lot of time creating little drawings in there and I could not find a way to use the bullet journal in a way that’s productive for me. In December of last year I decided I needed to give it another go. There are no rules when it comes to bullet journaling and I just needed to realise this. That’s why I decided to buy myself a new bullet journal and just start fresh. Since I am not a big doodler, I decided to keep my bullet journal as minimal as possible. There’s no real doodles or drawings in my bullet journal and I feel like I am finally able to use it in a productive way to get done lots throughout the week.

A blog content calendar

One of the first things I drew in last year’s bullet journal that I definitely got the most use out of is my content calendar for my blog. For me a content calendar is such an essential planning to have as my head is always all over the place. I use 1 page per month and write down the date. Since I only post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I can easily write down what kind of blog posts I want to post throughout the month. I then like to tick off whether I have taken photos, written the blog post, created links to the things I mention in them and whether I have shared them online. I find that this system really works for me and helps me be a lot more productive whenever I’m working on a new blog post.

Instagram and blog statistics

Then another two-page section in my bullet journal are the Monthly Instagram Statistics and my Monthly Blog Statistics. I like to keep track of my blog and instagram statistics to monitor my online growth, but it’s also super handy if there’s people or a company asking you about your statistics. For Instagram I like to write down the amount users, sessions, pageviews from Google Analytics. I then also like to write down how many followers I have on Bloglovin. My Instagram statistics are a lot easier to get access to. I like to write down the amount of followers at the end of a month and how many photos I posted. There are probably other things I should track on Instagram, but I am yet to discover a good way to write it all down.

Goals and favourite moments

Last year I started writing down goals and my favourite moments on my blog. I actually noticed it was quite hard to stick to my goals, as I had not written them down anywhere besides my blog and had not made them SMART enough. But it also became quite hard to remember all the lovely moments that I had in a certain month. That’s why I decided to create a couple of pages to my Monthly Goals and my Favourite Moments per Month.

Meal planning

Something I only recently started doing again, is meal planning. I recently shared that I had felt quite bloated because February had been such a big cheat month. To bring some structure back into my life, I decided to start meal planning again. I decided to take this task on in the household, as my parents got a bit tired of me always wanting to eat something different. I now like to plan our meals on Sundays with my parents, so we all know what we will eat on weekdays. This way I have a bit of a say in not having to eat things such sauerkraut, which I honestly can’t eat.

Gratitude journaling

Pinja got me into Gratitude journaling last year. It’s such a life changing way to be more positive in life. At first I did not know whether I should write my gratitude for each day down in a separate notebook. I then decided against it, and created a couple of gratitude pages for January, February and March. Here I write down what I have been grateful for every day. There’s things in my gratitude pages such as my friends, good chats with friends or family, sunshine, funny things that happened with my parents, spending time with my brother etc.

Gratitude journaling is great because it has been such a good and easy way to bring some more positivity back into your life. We live in a world where being online is such a big part of life and we're constantly being thrown new content you can compare yourself to. Seeing someone on Instagram having the time of their life travelling the world or buying a lot of designer bags can really make you feel quite insecure and down. I noticed this myself too and I still have days where I compare my life to others. But writing down what you're grateful for on a specific day really helps you feel more satisfied in your own life and it's only through gratitude you will discover that your life is good the way it is, even if there are a few rough patches along the way.

Weekly to-do lists

Like I said in the beginning of this post, I struggled to use my bullet journal as a diary in the beginning of last year. Nowadays I like to use my bullet journal as a to do list instead. I write down all the things I want to achieve in a day and write down anything important that I need to remember, such as meetings. I then also still like to write things down in my iCalendar as there might be some days where I don’t check or forget to check my bullet journal and don't want to forget anything important.

My weekly to-do list is the only thing I struggle with in my bullet journal. I feel like I might miss something if I only would write things only in my weekly to-do list and not also in my iCalendar, so I am still trying to find the right balance in this part of my bullet journal. Nowadays I like to use it as a to-do list rather than a planner, as I find I would only really write down important dates in my iCalendar as I know I always have my phone with me. Some days, when I have a longer to-do list I actually just like to use a separate notebook instead of my bullet journal, so I will just have this list of things I need to get finished before the end of a day. If you're into bullet journaling and have tips for me on how to use your weekly planner, then please do let me know. Because I need organising in my life.