Sooo, this almost came a bit out of no where for me. I’ve been diligently bullet journaling since January, back when I decided to put down my traditional planner and ~make my own~. At first, it was awesome. I was keeping track of finances on a monthly basis, on paper, while also including how much I was putting into my savings. I bought these Paper Mate Flair Pens off of Amazon, which will now be my go-to teacher/planner pens for life. (They don’t bleed through, they’re super pretty, and unbelievably fun to write with.) And, of course, I made the leap and bought my pretty berry colored bullet journal, ready to take the plunge into orderliness and creativity.
You would think, in some ways, this would be perfect for me. Half the reason I like teaching, and blogging, is because it combines my loves for routine and planning with my love for the arts and fashion. However, I’m also a p e r f e c t i o n i s t. That’s where my problem lies. The need to make my bullet journal look excellent at all times was seriously getting to me. I wanted each month to have a color pallet, and I wanted my cursive to look better than it did. I would do everything in pencil, then go over it with my flair pens, only to realize I made a mistake. Despite this being super annoying, this isn’t what totally deterred me from the idea.
My problem is, and always has been, planning. Actually, maybe not a problem. I’m pretty good at it, I like doing it, and a lot of my friends come to me for help with it. I like knowing what I’m doing in advance, and even on a *day off*, I need to have a plan, even if it’s just a mental list of goals for the day. I don’t like waking up in the morning not knowing the general direction of my day. That’s just who I am!
However, it’s not just planning on a daily basis. I plan hang outs, day trips, dinners and more weeks (…months) in advance. To be honest, this is what did it for me with the bullet journal, in the end. I could not get myself to make it *look perfect* and write my plans inside of it as in advance as I wanted to. I realized I started writing all of my plans in my phone calendar – something I usually only do when I make plans on the fly with someone – only to later write it in my planner.
I’ve relied on a classic paper planner since the 6th grade, and have decided to go back to my roots, and buy a new planner for the school year. I’m head over heels for the ones made by Rifle Paper Company, and plan on purchasing this one.
Anyone think I’m nuts for quitting? What are your thoughts on bullet journaling?
