Taking life one Bullet Point at a time

The new academic year is just going to start and will bring with its assignments, exams, fests, events and thus, a ton of late nights and last-minute accomplishment of tasks. If, like most students, you are filled with a fresh enthusiasm to stay on top of your workload and made promises to yourself to not leave everything till the last minute and maybe you even went in so far as to invest in a planner. Ultimately, with most of our time taken up by school work, we don’t usually have time to fill in these planners and they are incredibly boring.

If you really want to stay on top of all your work, you can try this alternative method of maintaining a planner called ‘Bullet Journaling’.

What exactly is bullet journaling?
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘journal’ is a boring old black leather book that has to contain deep and profound pieces of writing that usually start with a salutation like “Dear Diary’’. But, no. A bullet journal or BuJo is essentially a planner that you yourself customise according to your daily, monthly and weekly needs thus also allowing you a creative outlet. You can choose your own design, layout and the kind of pages you want for your own journal. The idea is that when you invest time and effort into designing a journal, it will give you more encouragement to actually use it and thus stay on track of all your commitments.

What are its benefits?
A bullet journal other than the obvious one – helping you stay organised – can help in other ways also.
It provides accountability and thus keeps you on top of your tasks.
It lets you engage in a creative pursuit thus acting as a stress buster.
Filling in the journal at the end of the day gives you some wind-down time and planning for the next day makes you feel more prepared.
It lets you track everything in one place.
It helps you practice mindfulness and thus aids in the achieving your goals.

What can you include in your bullet journal?
Well, the best thing about a bullet journal is that it can include anything and everything you want. You can have monthly, weekly, daily or even yearly pages. Some other sections you can include are:

A mood chart for tracking your mental health
Daily/ Weekly sections
A weekly or monthly essential shopping list
Habits tracker to cultivate good habits like hydrating, sleeping on time, making your bed, etc
A list of book/movies/ TV shows you want to watch
Workout charts
A bucket list or a goals tracker
Food/water intake tracker or a meal planner
Financial or savings/expenditure tracker

According to your own needs, you can change the layouts section wise or even by week. There are literally no hard and fast rules.