what i’m working on: writing letters

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Holy mail! I’ve been drowning, in the best way possible, in letters. It’s been crazy! I’ve been getting mail from strangers or people I haven’t heard of, in addition to my regular pen pals. I don’t know where everyone came from! I blame Letter Writing Month 😉 It has been really hard to keep on top of everything and it certainly didn’t help that I basically took all of January off from writing letters. After my bike accident, I was in a super weird place and I had a really hard time putting pen to paper. Things are way better now and I’ve been slowly replying to everyone. As of this post, I only have about 7 replies left!

One thing that has been incredibly helpful for me in staying on top of my replies is my bullet journal. For February, I created a little spread to keep track of all the letters I had to write. It was a little daunting at first! When I created the page, I had about 15 people to write back. Seeing that on paper was like, “whoaaa, how am I ever going to write everyone back!?” but it proved to be really motivating for me. I find that I am really motivated by crossing things off. Also in my bullet journal, I create a task in my daily spreads that is “write a letter”. Just having that task there, and knowing that I want to cross it off, will motivate me to write at least one letter.

I was really hoping to complete all of my replies by the end of February but last weekend kind of got away from me and I just couldn’t do it. I was so close! But it shouldn’t be long before I get all caught up. I really hope I can do it this weekend.

to do: how to track your life

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You guys, my bullet journal has changed my life. I started the journal at the beginning of the year, after obsessively watching videos on YouTube about them. One of the things that really made me decide to start one was the habit tracker that Boho Berry included in hers. It seemed like the best way to keep track of your life; a constant little reminder of something that you needed to do each day.

My habit tracker isn’t much for habits but more for things that I want to make sure to do often, not necessarily daily. I never remember to post to my Dactyl Life Facebook (and I’m still terrible at it) but have that little square to fill in each day really motivates me to do so. I just love being able to look at the tracker and see where I’m exceeding and failing.

In addition to the habit tracker, I set up the blog tracker in my journal. The only way that I am able to consistently stay on top of this blog is to have this tracker. It changed everything. It’s so great to have an overview of my posts, what is complete or needs to be completed, and if I’ve started to work on the next month’s posts.

Do you have a bullet journal? How do you keep track of your habits?

what i’m working on

Personal

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For the new year, I started a bullet journal. In December, I found a video by Boho Berry, which was a flip through of her bullet journal and I immediately fell in love. I’ve never, ever been one for planning or making goals or anything like that but I have always been a list maker and a journaler. I would have multiple post-its notes floating around of things I wanted to do, stuff I wanted to check out or things I wanted to buy. The idea of putting all of this into one simple journal was incredibly appealing. It was also really appealing to start journaling again. I journaled a ton as a kid/teenager and sort of stopped in my early twenties. I love looking back on those times in my life!

In addition to the journal, I use a variety of pens in it. I love my Tombow Dual Brush Pens for headers and making the colored dots. I also use the Paper Mate Flair pens for the daily headers. This month, I’m going to start using my pack of Staedtler pens!

The bullet journal is a super easy system and you basically customize it to work for you. As I mentioned, I’m not big on goals so I don’t have a lot of things I need to do each day, but there are things that I should get done so it’s nice to jot that down and have a reminder there. I’m much better at getting things done when I write down the task. I used Google Calendar for a long time but it’s so easy for me to forget about and ignore. I look at this journal at least once a day, usually more. It’s perfect.

The journal I use is the Leuchtturm 1917 with dots. I purchased the orange cover just because I couldn’t find a purple one with dots. Out the of the colors I could find with dots, orange was my favorite. I’m hoping I can snag a purple one to use when this one is full. I love the Leuchtturm journal as it already has numbered pages and an index. One of the big things about bullet journaling is indexing all of your spreads and collections.

After the index, I jotted down my key. Mine is really simple because I honestly don’t do that much. Everything that I have as a “to do” is something that will get done that specific day. I don’t have a need to migrate tasks or anything like that. I also don’t have a lot of appointments (besides dentist appointments now…) so just having the open circle to differentiate an appointment versus task works for me!

I also have a brain dump as one of the first few pages. I like having a place where I can quickly jot down things that come to mind or things that I want to include in the journal at some point. It’s very helpful!

After the key and brain dump, I began my January spread. I included the first three months of the year on the left side so I could easily do future planning, if needed. On the right, it breaks down January by day and it’s a great overview of things that I have done or want to do during the month. It’s a great way to keep track of appointments or days off since you don’t typically do the daily spreads in advance.

One of my favorite things about Boho Berry’s journal was her tracker. I think that was the reason I fell in love with this system. It’s so important for me to have a reminder of things that I want to do daily and it’s also motivating. I love being able to fill in each box when I complete a daily task. I also added a blog tracker so I could easily keep track of which blog posts I’ve done or need to do.

I include a lot of collections in my journal. This is my “Music to Check Out”, which is my most important collection. I often hear songs that make me want to check out the band’s other music but I always forget. I love having this reminder!

You can also check out my bullet journal flip through video over on YouTube.

Do you bullet journal? Tell me what you love about it!

to do

Personal

I’ve never been a goal oriented person. I have no desire to create a bucket list or any other list of things I want to do or see. If I need to do something, I do it. Maybe that thing doesn’t get completed in a timely matter but it will get done! Lately I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with things I want to do or create. Half the time I think of these right before I go to sleep and I don’t right them down, swearing that I’ll remember in the morning. Of course, I never remember! So, I bought myself a journal specifically for bullet journaling. For a long time, I was using Google Calendar to mark tasks and keep track of my life but I slowly realized that does not work for me. I love looking at my day, week, or month and having that reminder that I need to get something done but, at the end of the day, it was easy to ignore or push off to the side. I realized that I need to write things down and have a place to jot down notes.

I don’t think I’ll become one of those super creative journal/planner people, mostly because that is a lot of time and effort. I like to make things pretty for other people, not myself! The physical act of writing something down makes me remember it, which is where Google Calendar failed me. In my journal, I write down a few things each day that I want to accomplish and, hopefully, I’ll do it. I also love the bullet journal idea to keep lists or collections of things. Writing down stuff like books I want to check out or music I want to buy is so great. This month I am focusing on my blog by writing posts, brainstorming ideas, and taking pictures. I’m trying to take it in teeny tiny steps so I don’t burn myself out. So far, so good!

Do you like making goals? How do you keep track of your life?