If you’ve been following my blog for a while now then you’ll know that I keep a bullet journal and its helped a lot with keeping me organised and some of my spreads allow me to keep track of my mental health.
I like to try and be creative with my journal and I’m so grateful of all the lovely comments I get. My artistic skills are very limited but I do like how my spreads end up looking.
Many comment saying how they’d love to start one but they don’t know how or aren’t artistic enough. In this post I’m going to share with you how you can start your own bullet journal no matter how skillful at art you are!
Be sure to sign up for my bullet journal checklist too to start you on the right track!
What do I need to start a Bullet Journal?
There are many bullet journal Instagram accounts and they all own expensive fancy pens to get the perfect calligraphy in all the pastel colours.
In all honesty, all you need to start a bullet journal is a notebook and pen. Colours are completely optional although I do own the crayola supertips as I like to add colour to mine. Many bullet journals incorporate colours but when you start your bullet journal, you need to think on what you’d prefer.
The most popular choice of notebook is dotted paper although I do believe you can use any type. My choice was the dotted paper and I use the Leuchtturm A5 dotted notebook. I find that this doesn’t allow bleeding from the felt tips and the shadowing on the next page is kept to a minimum.
I think many people choose dotted paper for their bullet journal because it provides a guideline but it’s faint enough to not draw away from the design.
My choice of pens is fineliners as I prefer my handwriting with these though I usually roughly sketch out my design first using a pencil. Some people don’t use pens at all, just fine tipped felt pens. When starting a bullet journal, ensure you have pens that you can use to write with – even if it’s just simple biro pens!
There are a lot of extras that you can have to decorate your bullet journal too such as; washi tape, highlighters, stickers and coloured pens. None of these are essential however.
I’m not artistic, can I still start a bullet journal?
Yes!! Many people think that you need to be artistic to start a bullet journal but there are so many simple designs.
One of my favourite spreads I’ve ever seen has no colour at all! The purpose of a bullet journal is to keep you organised. If colour helps then of course use it, but you don’t need to make it all fancy.
Get inspiration from Instagram and Pinterest. Some keywords to include in your Pinterest search, if you’re not artistic, is minimalist or simplistic. These keywords before bullet journal will provide some beautiful designs, many of which will not require artistic skills. You’ll never be short for inspiration on Pinterest, bullet journals are huge on Pinterest!
If you want an artistic one despite not having the skills, like myself, a good way to decorate it is to look up easy doodles on Pinterest. These are so cute and you can also get step-by-step doodles that are very helpful!
If you’re still struggling, you can start a digital bullet journal and use the tracing feature! I have a whole post on starting a digital bullet journal.
What if I don’t keep on top of it?
That’s completely okay. I don’t keep on top of my bullet journal very often unless I’m at school as I don’t have as many things to keep on top of at the moment. I have months where I have nothing filled in and that’s okay! Usually when I get back into starting my bullet journal again, I fill it in more often.
You can pick it up as often or as little as you want. It may be a little disheartening to have so many blanks but it’ll provide you motivation to fill it in for the next months! If you’re really put off by starting a bullet journal because of this reason, simply don’t include as many fill-in spreads. Maybe only add a mood tracker or habit tracker. If you keep on top of it well, then add some more next time! The beauty of bullet journaling is that you can do it at your own pace, and adapt it to your own needs.
How will I decide what bullet journal themes to do each month?
Instagram and Pinterest! There’s so many Instagram accounts where people share their own bullet journals and there’s also lots of accounts dedicated to bullet journal inspiration.
Pinterest has an abundance of inspiration too and you can literally put in any keyword and they generally have some bullet journal inspiration dedicated around it.
I usually get theme inspiration by looking at cover spreads and that allows me to base all my spreads around that one specific theme.
When I first started my bullet journal, I started a bullet journal board on Pinterest. It’s so full now, that I never run short of inspiration!
You can also get inspiration from YouTube or blog posts! There’s many YouTube videos where the person shows you how they designed their themes so you can replicate it a little easier! I always share my bullet journal posts on my blog. My favourite theme was probably my April one as it was floral, pink and girly!
What pages do I need to include in my first bullet journal?
See, this is the beauty of bullet journaling- nothing is essential! I tend to always have a monthly cover page, a monthly spread, a mood tracker and a favourites page. I think these are basics for those who start a bullet journal, bar the favourites. The favourites is personal to me to include in my favourites posts.
None of these pages are essential at all though those are the things I personally like to track. If you want the basics then I’d definitely recommend a cover page as it separates each month. When starting your bullet journal, you may want to include a key for any symbols you use. I personally don’t use one as I’d always forget what symbols I use and I’d confuse myself. Bullet journaling shouldn’t be confusing.
A monthly spread page can also be useful to help you track events during the month; it’s an easy visual to have a month’s events at a glance. Not everyone includes one in their bullet journal, they just put dates on their weekly spread. I do this but I also like having an overview, like the month at a glance.
Should I wait until the New Year to start a bullet journal?
No! Bullet journals can be started at any time of the year and do not need to be started on January 1st.
The truth is if you wait that long then you’re more likely to not start it at all! My first bullet journal post showed that my spreads for that month was started halfway through November!
You may think it’ll help you more starting your bullet journal at New Year and that’s completely fine but you do not need to wait to start the bullet journal!
There’s no right or wrong time to start so if you’re thinking of beginning a bullet journal then do it now! You will not regret it. Grab a notebook and pen and begin doodling and writing whatever you please. Your bullet journal will fall into place!
I’ve loved my bullet journal and creating cute spreads for these past months. I can’t recommend it enough! It’s so flexible and can picked up or dropped at any time!
Do you have or want to start a bullet journal? Let me know in the comments below!
Love this post.
I’m gonna start my own bullet journal soon! xoxo
https://ayanninablog.wordpress.com/
Thanks! And yayyy! Xx
Hi, I just got a bullet journal and eould love some tips on how to start please. Im afraid Ill ruin it. Thank you.
Anna
You definitely won’t! Decide on a theme and let your imagination run wild! My spreads aren’t incredibly extravagant and search up doodle tutorials on Pinterest to make it easier xx
Been thinking about starting a bullet journal for a long time now I know where to start thank you so much.
Hope you enjoy journaling! Xx
Hope you enjoy journaling as much as I do! Xx
I love your bullet journal ideas ♥ I fell out of love with mine a few months ago and I am wanting to get back into it. I think I need to invest in some new materials for sure! I try not to put too much pressure on myself with themes, because then it starts to feel like work and is less enjoyable for me!
Thank you! And I agree, if you put pressure on yourself then it definitely starts to feel like work! Xx
I love your bullet journal layout, it all looks so cute. The idea of bullet journals is really great, as it’s amazing to have everything laid out so creatively and clearly. This is such a great post xx
Hannah | luxuryblush
Thank you so much! I love mine! Xx
How do i start making bullet journal for school??
Use these tips and check out my other bullet journal posts, especially my February one! I use mine for university so I include a study log and add to-do lists on my weekly spreads and it’s helped so much with keeping on top of work! Xx
I’m trying to start my first bullet journal. I’m just having problems figuring out where I should start.
Start at whatever point you want, a cover page is definitely a good one to start with xx
Yes !! I am too going to start a bullet journal….and had been searching for a complete guide and lo!! got it here…..thanks a lot .
No problem! Hope it helps! Xx
Hi!! I am so excited to start a bullet journal that I even already bought the supplies already and did careful research in the pens and all of that but I am worried because everyone I see everyone uses the Leuchtturm A5 Notebook but I found it expensive so I went and bought another one but I’m afraid that my mildliners highlighters will bleed through it since I saw some posts saying that they bleed through paper.
Hi that’s great! Personally I haven’t used mildliners but it could be a good idea to use a page at the back to test for bleeding? Xx
Thank youu I will! <3
Heyy! I have a question, since we’re all at quarantine and we don’t have as much tasks as we are used to I wanted to start journaling so that when we’re out of this I can apply it to my everyday tasks and get used to it. However I am concerned that since we’re just staying at home most of the time, creating a monthly, weekly and daily spreads would probably be a waste of paper since we’re not doing much these times anyway. So I think I will write first the index, keys, future log and all that to my Bullet Journal but then add the collections/lists like; movies I want to watch, habit tracker etc… and then add weekly and maybe just daily spreads for this quarantine period we’ll be in. Even though I know that this is my Bullet Journal, and I should just create it however I please I don’t have much experience with it and I don’t know if this will be a good solution since all the posts I saw about Bullet Journals refer to doing them a certain way. So I just wanted to know if you think this will be a good way to start journaling or if you have any tips for me.
In my May bullet journal, I haven’t got any weekly spread pages because we’re in quarantine. You can do whatever pages you want. There’s no point wasting pages if you won’t use them. All the page ideas you’ve mentioned will keep you busy anyway, I just have a single page in my May theme dedicated to a “brain dump” which essentially is a page I can write anything in case I have a really busy day xx
Thank you it helps me a lot xx
Glad I can help you! Xx
thank you sooooo much… I do have a bullet journal.. still a beginner but this also really helped me
first I was like ‘ugh where should I even start!!! but then seeing some bullet journal tips and tricks I made a start and I have two sections in my journal ..one is the monthly or weekly updates and weekly to-do lists and the other section is full of my artworks some quotes in calligraphy … self-care things and stuff
That sounds great! Glad my tips can help, you’re gonna love journaling! Xx
Hey, thank u for this, I have bought a notebook and I was thinking about how to start and seeing your pages they were just so that I can relate to this and I don’t feel pressured to do the most beautiful thing ever haha
Thanks for reading! You’ll do great I’m sure! Xx
Do u have ur own instagram page regarding buet journal?
Unfortunately not! I have loads of bullet journal posts though that show what my theme for each month is! Xx
wow this is great! thank you!!! i was quite confused of where to start, but now exactly where to start!💖💖
Thank you! I’m glad it helped! Xx
I just found out about the bullet journal. I am starting mine. I am excited about this!!! Thank you for your help!!! Happy journaling!!
Thanks for reading and you too! Xx
hi, so I’m in total enthusiasm credits to your blog!!! to start my Bullet Journal so my question is which kind of book should i use(grid dotted plain or lined ) as I’ve seen people use all kinds of papers on pinterest etc also what should be the thickness (in GSM) that does not bleed or leave marks…??
I used a dotted journal! I just find it gives me enough guidance without showing up too much! I use the leuchtturm notebook. I’m not sure of its thickness but there’s no bleeding however there is slight shadowing. Sharpies however bleed through most papers xx
ok thanks it helps a lott
Where would I get a good journal?
Would like a lined school composition notebook work?
Any notebook would work! I recommend dotted paper xx