If you are a Pinterest fan, you have doubtless heard of “Bullet Journals”. If not, keep reading…
I have to admit, the concept of bullet journals intrigued me, but, as with Bible Journaling, it took me awhile to “jump on the bandwagon” and give it a try. Part of it was that there are so many different formats you can use, and so many things you can “track” that I had trouble deciding where to start. So I checked out Pinterest for ideas.
From what I can figure out, a bullet journal is a fancy way to keep track of everyday chores, routines, goals, and habits. Not unlike the progress charts I gave my students, where they got a sticker for each day they did their silent reading, or whatever, a bullet journal can be a fun way to encourage yourself to do things.
You can also look back later and see how well you did. My first attempt at a bullet journal was in November, when I decided I wasn’t eating enough fruits and vegetables. I thought a minimum of 5 baby carrots was a good place to start. (Don’t laugh, I had to start somewhere!) I liked the idea of drawing in the individual carrots as an added motivator. Zucchini or celery sticks sounded like a good snack, and you can see how bell peppers were added as an afterthought. You can also see how long that lasted. 
It wasn’t until February that I decided to give bullet journals another try. This time I gave myself goals like “no dishes in the sink each night” or “bathroom counter clean every day”…The idea was to fill in the boxes for each day I pulled off a goal. Most of them started on the 17th, and you can see how that one also “bit the dust”.
In March I tried yet another idea. This time I would list things I was supposed to do each day and fill in the boxes as I went along, with the dates at the top of the page. I put “Make the bed” first, because that’s something I already do every day, so I knew I would have at least one thing I could always fill in as done. The second line is “Scoop the litter box”, which as you can see I did pretty well at. The rest…well, not so much. Those categories were things like exercise, sewing, crochet, sleeping for 7 or more hours each night, and drinking enough water per day. 
Still, my March journal worked okay, so I decided to go one step further in April and make “habit trackers” to see how many times per month I did various activities. I’m not including a photo of my “Cleaning and Organizing” page because, well, we don’t want to take “truth in blogging” too far…
I will admit I added “Watering” to “Yard Work” as an afterthought. It was a way to get a few more boxes filled in. But hey, it’s my bullet journal, so I get to make the rules, right?
This is how April ended up. In looking back I can see that I still need to work on hours of sleep. I got the sleep info from my “Fitbit”. The numbers in the boxes of the 4th row are the hours and minutes of sleep, if less than 7 hours, recorded each morning. And as much as I wanted to, I didn’t “round up” on the 21st, when I clocked in at 6 hours, 57 minutes! (You can see it’s been erased, though, so I was thinking about it. But, honesty prevailed.) 
So now it’s May, and we’ll have to see how this one goes. One thing I have noticed is that if you illustrate your bullet journal, it’s fun coloring it in when you should be spending time doing the actual activities you are trying to track.
Nana's Whimsical World 