Have you started a business, but aren’t quite sure how to stay organized?
Do you make appointments but then forget about them? Have you tried using a planner, but it doesn’t seem to help?
Try bullet journaling. It is a planner, journal, and anything you need it to be, all wrapped up into one.
Created by Ryder Carroll as a way to help himself stay organized through college, bullet journaling has taken off, and a lot of people are using it.
As a business owner, bullet journaling can help you unload minor details from your brain, so you can have the space to remember more important items. Here are a few other things a bullet journal can do for you.
- Serve as your calendar
- To-do list
- Track habits
- Financial planning
- Track social media
- Collection pages
- Brainstorming notes
- Gratitude log
- Help you develop goals
There are a lot of things your bullet journal can do for you. The above list is just a starting point for what to do. Let’s take a look at each item in more detail.
Serve as Your Calendar
Create your calendar at the beginning of your journal, and then use the rest of the pages to create weekly or daily spreads to go into more details.
Then you can write down your meetings and appointments in two places, so you will see them.
Having your monthly calendar set up will allow you to plan further out than just a week or so.
When you get to that week, you can add it to the corresponding day.
You can also use your calendar to keep track of deadlines, vacations, and other helpful information.
To-Do List
Think of your bullet journal as a running to-do list. You can make this a daily, weekly, or even a running list, that helps you keep track of the things you need to do.
Then as you finish each task, you can cross it off and move on. It helps you to see how much work you got done, along with everything else you still need to do.
Financial Planning
Don’t forget to add your monthly and yearly financial goals to your bullet journal.
This can help you make sure that you are staying on budget and it can help you tell at a glance how you’re doing financially.
You can put your monthly budget goals on your calendar page if you want as a little reminder of what you want to earn and spend.
You can put your yearly goals on their own page with a more detailed log of your spending and earning habits.
Track Habits
Habits are essential to running a business. You need to do establish good habits and break the bad ones and tracking them in your journal can help you see how you’re doing.
Put this page right after your calendar pages, that way you don’t have to flip through the rest of your notes to find it.
Pick a few things that you want to track each month and as you accomplish each task, put a checkmark by it.
Track Social Media
Tracking social media is easy in your bullet journal as well. You can create a schedule for what and when to post on each platform, along with the best times to post.
That way, you can utilize your time to its full potential and reach more people.
You can put this information in your weekly or daily calendar that way, you see it and you can remember to do what you need to do.
You could also create a new page devoted just to social media. Whatever system works best for you.
Collection Pages
Collection pages are where you store your lists of business-related items that you want to come back to and learn from. Leave room in your journal for a few pages to keep track of these.
Things you can collect include books to read, podcasts to listen to, and blogs to read.
These collection pages can go anywhere you want them to be. They don’t even need to be in a group together if you think of something else you want to collect.
Although, it will be helpful to keep a few of the pages together so you can locate them easier.
Brainstorming Notes
You can brainstorm in your bullet journal.
You can write down ideas for new products, content ideas for your website and social media platforms, marketing strategies, and anything else you can think of.
You can also keep meeting notes in your bullet journal, and then you have everything together in one place.
Your brainstorming notes can go either on your daily to-do list page or a separate blank page.
Where you put it is up to you and depends on how much you plan on writing down.
Gratitude Log
Having a gratitude log is a nice way to recap all the good things that have happened for your business.
Bullet journals are part journals, so having a gratitude log is a quick and easy way to recap each day.
You can write down five things you’re grateful for each day, or write down in seven words what happened. The possibilities are endless.
You can create a separate page for this, or you can include it in your weekly or daily spreads.
If you create a separate page for this, it will be easier to go back and see all the good things that you’ve received.
Help You Develop Goals
We’ve all heard that writing our goals down is an important step in achieving them.
Well, where else would you write them down than in your bullet journal? You have all of your other business-related items there, so it makes sense to have your goals written there too.
Everything else that was mentioned to include in your bullet journal will help you keep track of what you need to do and how you’re doing.
You can write your goals down on every monthly calendar page you have, or on their own separate goals page.
What Do I Need to Get Started?
All you need is a notebook and a pen. It is recommended that you write out your bullet journal on paper that way you don’t have one more electronic item that you need to keep track of.
There are several different types of notebooks you can get including a lined, grid, or dotted journal.
Dots and grids are easier for making boxes to check items off with, and for creating your habit tracker.
If you want to get artsy with your bullet journal, which is completely up to you, you can add washi tape, stickers, stamps, and color.
You can go on social media for inspiration. Pinterest has many ideas for layouts and themes.
You can join a few Facebook groups for bullet journaling. There are many posts on Instagram about it as well.
I’m Not an Artist, Can I Still Have a Bullet Journal?
Along with functionality, people are using their bullet journals as a way to express their creative side.
They create fancy, cute page spreads that follow a theme, and they draw fancy banners and washi tape.
Some people spend a lot of time making their journals aesthetically pleasing. There’s nothing wrong with that either.
Your bullet journal doesn’t need to have all the cute doodles or spreads to be functional.
Don’t stress out about making it look pretty. It’s more important for you to use it and for it to be functional.
Bullet journals are meant to take some of the stress out of your life, not create more.
Sources: Bullet Journal, KathKyle
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