How to Start a Bullet Journal

I posted the video below to my YouTube channel last year when I made my bullet journal for 2020. In this post I will talk about some of the same things that I talk about in that video, so reading this and watching that could be helpful if you are a beginner! There will be some new tips as well :)

Some products I mention are linked to stationerypal.com where you can use code "madelynbickel" for 10% off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yrZBTaxrKA

Honestly, the hardest part about making a bullet journal is starting one. Not the actual drawing of your first pages, but the idea of starting. You could probably say that about almost anything though! If there is something new you wanted to start in 2021, this is it. Don't worry if you aren't starting on January 1st; you can start at any time!

Another thing to remember is your bullet journal is your own. You can do it in any way you like. No rules except your own. The way I use mine might be completely different from yours, or exactly the same! You can pick and choose what tips and tricks you follow or don't follow.

Step 1: Getting your Supplies

You can use almost anything for your bullet journal. You do not need fancy pens or markers or any other supplies. It can for sure be fun, but it is not necessary!

For the Bullet Journal itself, you can get one from any craft or office supply store. Michael's, Amazon, Staples, etc. are all examples of stores you can go to! I usually focus of journals in the $6-$15 range. It is definitely great to have a journal with think enough paper where your markers and pens do not bleed through, so you can use the backsides of pages.

For 2021 I am using the PaperIdeas Dotted Notebook. This bullet journal has 188 dotted pages, a table of contents, a folder compartment in the back, 2 ribbon bookmarks, and an elastic enclosure band. I really like this journal! Markers and pens do not bleed through too much, which is great. I got the color black, because I wanted to decorate the front in some way.

My most important material, in my opinion, for your journal is a good black gel pen. My favorite is the Pilot G2 07 Black Gel Ink Pen, which you can get from almost any store that sells office supplies. It is rather inexpensive and can be found almost anywhere, which is why I love it. You want to be careful about it smearing when you write, so be aware of where your hand drags on the page and wait for it to dry!

I also really like the Zebra Sarasa Gel Pen, which is the pen I have been using the most lately.

The next important material is some sort of marker to add color to your journal. As a start, the Crayola SuperTip Markers is a great set. You can use these colors for almost any theme, and they are great for writing titles. They are super simple and can be found at many stores like Target, Amazon, etc.

Another material that I personally love are brush pens. I alternate between using KingArt Dual Tip Brush Pens and Tombow Dual Brush Pens. Both are great! I use these for writing titles in calligraphy fonts. If you are just beginning, they are definitely not necessary, but if you are trying to get into calligraphy then markers like these can be extremely helpful.

Step 2: Start!

Once you get all of your supplies ready, it is time to start! You can determine if you wanted a general theme for your journal, or if you want to pick the themes for each month. I know some other journalers have a minimalistic theme or a certain color, but I like to choose a new theme for each month!

When it is time to start, you want to have some pages before your first month starts to set up your journal. I like putting my name and phone number on the front page in case I ever lose my book.

For my first page, I like to give a little welcome to the new year. In this case, I wrote "hello 2021" with a grey Crayola SuperTip marker, and used a black gel ink pen to add details. On the right side of the page, I like to do a "2021 at a glance," where I write a yearly calendar. I come back to this page each month to see what day it starts on, how many weeks, etc. I used a black Tombow Brush Pen to make a line for the days of the week, then I used a white gel pen to write the days. I love using a white pen on top of black! It is a super fun and easy way to add details. I then write all of the days of each month, which yes, it can be rather time consuming. This page probably takes me the longest out of any of my bullet journal pages, yet I use it the most, so it is totally worth it!!

For my next page, I want to include some sort of goals/intentions for the year. For 2021, I decided to have a "New Years Resolutions" page, where I wrote down my do's and my don'ts for the year. I can come back to this page throughout 2021 to keep myself accountable.

Maybe I can even come back to this page at the end of the year and mark what I actually did and what I did not do!

You can make pages like this that are similar yet different such as yearly goals, what you want to improve, etc. I wanted to include both things I wanted to start doing and things I wanted to stop doing, which is something you could consider doing as well!!

If you are starting your journal at another month in the year, you can still include this page! It is never too late to start achieving some goals!!

The next page I like to have is a 'Title Ideas" page. Normally this page looks super similar from year to year for me, but I still like to keep it. I come back to this page every month when I am making my new pages for ideas.

I wrote the word "title" for this page, so I can see how I would write other words. This page can be super helpful when your mind comes up blank when thinking of how to title a page. It keeps your bullet journal exciting!!

I got most of these ideas from Pinterest, where you can find so many other bullet journal ideas. I also made some of these ideas up, and both ways work!!

There are so many people in the bullet journal community, and it can be great to bounce off of other people's ideas (to some extent of course)!

Step 3: The Months

After you have started your journal and got those initial pages out of the way, you can start making your months! It is totally up to you if you want to make each month one at a time, or make them all at the beginning of the year. I like to make them at the end of the prior month.

Check out my "Settin' Up January" blog post to get more details and tips about how to start each of your bullet journal months!

I hope this page was helpful and made you want to start a bullet journal! Remember that everyone's journal looks different, and you can use yours in any way that you would like. I definitely use mine differently than some others do, and that's ok!!

I would love to see what your journals look like, so please feel free to share!!