Bullet Journal: First Days into the Experiment

It's kind of late for me to be at the office, and I'm already feeling a bit tired, though that might also be because I'm on the Second Day of the period and all that chunky blood loss does make me a bit zombie-ish. It's still quite a nice day, though, except that I was a tad late today and didn't get a parking spot at the closest parking lot at the office, but had to go to the one further away, AND on the way I realized I had plate restriction (I blame that bout of forgetfulness on the blood loss due to the period, because, really, the period should be good for something, other than tell you that you are not pregnant), thus I decided to wait until 7 p.m. before leaving. I'm not chancing a ticket.

The extra time I used wisely by actually studying for one of my University subjects: Service Costs. Nice, huh? And now, in the last few minutes - as my mind desperately races thinking of the lunches I have to make for tomorrow and Friday (I'll do zuccini, it's the easiest, and I love zuccini) - and the German homework I have for tomorrow - I decided to let you know how the Bullet Journal Project is going.

If you recall, in my last post I talked about the Bullet Journal, how it wasn't for me and what I have found as criticism on the Internet while I was researching the matter. Then, by the end of the post, I was actually considering the possibility of keeping an experimental bullet journal, just to see if it really was for me or not. And so the Experiment was born.

I started by fishing out an old blank notebook a friend had given me a long while ago, and which I actually couldn't really put to proper use.

Bullet Journal Project: Starting Page

This notebook is a spiral bond, blank page notebook with plastic covers. I had started using it in the past as a Book of Shadows until I moved into a larger book - also blank paged - with hard covers. so what better than this, right?

For the project I checked once again Ryder's site and introductory video making all the necessary notes for it, and then started making an Index page, a Yearly Spread - which in my case was a seven-month spread, and the first Monthly Spread, which was for June.

Here's the Index

The "Yearly Spread"

Monthly Spread

First off, the paper turned out not to be so good for this sort of experiment, as it bleeds through quite a lot. I tried first a fountain pen, but it went right through it. So the pilot pens. And the highlighters. It doesn't really bother me so much, but I put a limit at the point where the bleeding ink renders unreadable the other page.

Up blank, the pages look nice, but when on use, they look a bit... cramped.

This yearly spread can't take more... sadly.

Getting packed...

At one point I started using post-its to supply for the lack of space, but really, it didn't really do the job. Of course, this could simply mean that I would need to make my yearly spread in more pages, like a spread per quarter or per each four months... or try and make my handwriting smaller, but as it is, with just my University MAIN appointments it got all filled out. No space for my German classes, or my other notations.

I did created a spread for tracking birthdays and important gifting/card-sending holidays, which is currently only Halloween and Christmas, and indexed it, but then I thought of all the tracking lists and systems I already cram in my filofax, and the idea of transfering them by hand into my project was beyond daunting. Yes, I could print out a template and glue it into the bullet journal if I decide to keep the system, but not now.

For the journaling part itself, the idea of checking every night your day and plan the next day is lovely and nearly romantic, but very inconvenient when you get home late or tired. I really don't want to journal and write down stuff when all I want to do is curl up in bed and read a little of whatever I'm reading (currently a book on the Salem witch trials, because, really, I'm still obssessed with the topic and the city). I also developped a system for my tasks, where I use a post-it with a sort of on-going task list with things I need to get done but still don't need to be done a given day. This is easier for me than to copy every day the tasks I didn't finish, even though I just wrote them down to keep them in mind, not to have them finished that day.

filofax and bullet journal side by side.

So far, though I do enjoy the novelty and the space and the flexibility of the bullet journal, the system that still makes it the best for me is the filofax. Yes, I love the space of the bullet journal, but I love the structure of the filofax, and so far I feel like that's a lifesaver for me.

But I'll continue, at least until I fill this notebook, or get to the end of the year - whatever happens first. And you, Dear Anonymous Reader, will be able to keep track of the developing of this project, if you desire so, by the post I'll keep making on the subject.

Monday Morning Coffee

My Morning Coffee - my picture

Early Monday morning, the day is chilly and the sky looks ragged with rips of golden edged clouds and light. It's December at last, the shortest working month... hopefully. People got their Aguinaldo(*) and most have already spent it. Some are yet to receive it, some should receive it, but won't because their employers are like that. In this sense, it always fills me with sad amazement how some people are able to find all sorts of justifying as to why they are entitled not to pay what they are legally expected to, and pretend that they are the ones acting acording to the law.

My aguinaldo came and went, now I'm back to being as poor as I've always been, but at least I have no more debts on my credit card (well, there was a Black Friday and I had been in dire need of clothes and stuff!). The stuff for the Christmas Gifts is somewhere done around the 50% or so, so that's also "under control". However, my mail and my List of 13 isn't under control. Something will have to be done with that. I'm definitively lagging with the readings, so I'll have to pick up with those during lunches (saving that time for my indexed magazine), and then picking up as much as I can.

There are also other stuff to take care of, such as my personal finances, which I haven't been logging... since I arrived. What do I mean by that? Well, while in Budapest I took the habit of checking weekly all of my vouchers and log them on an Excel sheet. My bank keeps my electronical balance, but while doing this I actually saw were my money went. How much I spent on books, how much went on food, on clothes and so on. It was quite an eye opener. However once I crossed the Atlantic I stopped doing it, so now I have four months worth of vouchers I'll have to organize and log in a new Excel sheet. It would have gone like that for a long time - and eventually give up on the idea and stash the vouchers in an envelope. However as I was keeping them in one of my Ikea boxes, and since I'll be working on two smash book projects a place to park all my materials and inspirational bits is in dire need, so the bill box was selected for that. As result I had to take out all the bills and vouchers yesterday, and start by sorting them by month. The task itself was HUGE so I didn't go into sorting them by day, by card (thanks Hyne I no longer use eight cards) and then doing the logging. This will also take time, but since it's not in my list and my finances are well, I'll tackle slowly.

The smash books will start on 2013, but then there's nothing stopping me from gathering all the little accesories I'll need to make them unique and fabulous, right?

I sip my coffee, I check the binder full of uncathegorized vouchers and check my work e-mails, my list of tasks and set forward for a week of stuff to do.

(*)Aguinaldo: pronounce /ah-gi-NAL-doh/. An extra monthly payment paid by law to all workers. It's amount equals the average of the monthly payments of the last twelve months. Consequently, if someone hasn't received a salary in all of the last twelve months, those months count as if paid $0. The aguinaldo must be paid between December 1st and December 20th.