Well here we are! Week 2 of 2018 and already a new project has fallen on my lap. This one is coming courtesy of Amy, who spent a good part of the end of the year going a little stir crazy looking for some type of new craft to do. After a few dozen hours on Pinterest she started talking to me about this thing they call a Bullet Journal. To be honest, at the beginning I was mostly just humoring her and looking at all of the pictures of these beautifully laid out and artfully designed pages in these journals and thinking I don’t have the time or the energy to put into something like that, but I was glad she found something new and artsy to sink her teeth into.

That’s usually how these things go, at which point she will spend the next week or so making some badass, beautiful thing while I kind of sit back and watch and at the end just get completely blown away by her talent level. It’s something we’ve done on repeat dozens of times at this point, but this time it was different. She kept asking me about it, and trying to get me to look at videos and pictures and kept trying to get me excited about making one for myself. As someone who has kept journals before and who always encourages others to write, I could see why SHE was excited about the prospect of starting one, but I wasn’t understanding why she was pushing me so hard to do so as well. Finally, after some serious side eye and various grumblings, she convinced me to watch a youtube video about it to show me what made the bullet journal so different from a normal personal journal. Fast forward about 10 minutes later and I was sold.

I have mentioned before about how I have a few goals for 2018, and the bullet journal has jumped to the top of the list. I see it not only as a goal in itself, but also as a gateway through which all of the other goals will flow. It is something that I have gotten pretty excited about over the last few days, especially since I see it being such an easy way to keep track of other benchmarks such as workout days, writing days, etc. as well as a way to cater to my obsessive need to keep a schedule. Granted, one of the reasons I warmed up to it so quickly was the fact that I could design one that was more functional than beautiful, so mine is not going to look anything like Amy’s. But that’s part of the Bullet Journal’s biggest draw: it is a reflection of the author and what their priorities are. Case in point, here is how we are both designing our Future Log sections.

Mine

Hers

I have never seen a better visual representation of our relationship in my life. Seriously, can you tell which one of us is the talented one and which one of us won the relationship lottery? Anyways, obviously our journals are going to end up looking vastly different as the months go by, and even more so if we continue doing these down the road in the future. But even if that’s the case I think that they will help both of us in the exact ways we want them to. I’m especially looking forward to the habit tracker I put in mine last night.

I know I look like a slacker now, but hopefully I’m gonna fill this bitch up with colors

My plan going forward is to keep everyone up to date with how the bullet journal is coming along, and if it is having the impact on my day to day life that I hope it will. I will probably judge based on if it is helping me achieve my other goals that I am tracking, how much I actually use it day to day, and if it becomes tedious to try to maintain on a consistent basis. As of right now I am going on day 2 and have opened it a surprising number of times to add things for the upcoming month. I’ll probably wait for another week or so before giving another update to give the just-started-a-journal- enthusiasm to wear off and see where we are at. In the meantime I have another little mini project I have started this week: a laser-cut sheet metal dinosaur skeleton replica that has so far kicked my ass every time I have tried to mess with it. So look forward to hearing more on that saga in the coming days (I’m currently convinced it would be easier to find and build an actual dinosaur skeleton than get this bastard put together correctly). In the meantime I hope everyone else is having a good start to 2018, if you have ever looked into a Bullet Journal or any other journal like it please let me know any tips or advice you would have for a first timer in the comments. I would love to get some feedback!

-CDL

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