The bullet journal or bu-jo has become a hot topic in the world of planners and journaling. There’s a clearly defined system and then a whole range of different ideas and concepts it has led to. It works for anyone because it can be adapted to suit your needs.
But aside from being a trendy way to do things, are there really benefits of a bullet journal that you can see in your daily life? The answer is yes and here are some of the most common ones.
Practical benefits
Let’s start with the practical benefits because if we are going to spend our precious time learning to do something, we want to know it is worthwhile in some concrete, practical way.
Improved organisation
The most obvious benefit of bullet journaling is that you become more organised. From recording when the kids have after school class to when the dentist appointment is due, a big part of bullet journaling is very practical.
You can use a range of layouts or spreads to record important information. A daily spread, weekly or monthly can all be added. You can easily colour coordinate jobs, tasks by the person or what the event is (or who is doing it!). Because you design the bullet journal to suit your needs, it is always useful and helps with being more organised.
Who doesn’t want that?
You don’t need an expensive planner
I love a good planner and the Happy Planner is one of my favourites. But the cost can mount up, especially when you get drawn into all those gorgeous stickers and embellishments!
But with a bullet journal, you can use something as simple as one of the exercise books the kids have for school. Sure, most of the time we all enjoy having a nice quality notebook, a special bullet journal or something a little fancier for the task. But when it comes down to it, you can use anything because it is yours and designed as you need it.
Plan and track your goals
Being a business owner has taught me the importance of goals, something to work towards and use to focus your attention. But any area of life can have goals and planning them then tracking your progress is a great practical benefit of a bullet journal. You can even create bullet journal bucket lists for big life events, seasonal lists and more.
Plus if you are seeing and writing something frequently, it lodges better in your memory. The goal becomes more real, you remember it easily and that helps you use it in life to focus on what you are doing. So the goal becomes more useful!
Track your habits (and make changes)
Building or changing habits isn’t the easiest thing to do. For me, I’m terrible for not drinking enough, especially water. I just get wrapped up in what I’m doing and forget about it. But with a bullet journal, I can create a habit tracker and use it to check up on myself.
There are tons of ideas for habit trackers but the basic idea is that you track when you do or don’t do the thing you are working on. When you do go to the gym or when you don’t eat that bar of chocolate in the evening while watching the TV. whatever the habit you want to learn or change, you can track it in different ways in your bullet journal.
Emotional benefits
As well as practical benefits, there are some emotional benefits to bullet journaling that can help you with some of the issues in life.
Stress relief
First of all, you can get a lot of relief from your stress when you have a bullet journal. This includes relieving different types of stress, such as work stress, financial stress, emotional stress, or even relationship stress.
By having all of your schedules and appointments in one place, you aren’t constantly worried that you are going to miss something. When you have a way to better plan for the future and track your expenses, it helps with the financial and work stress you are struggling with.
If you use a bullet journal to record some of your thoughts and feelings, you can also use it to help spot what the biggest stresses are from these diary entries. Then you are better equipped to deal with them.
Help With Anxiety
If you struggle with any form of anxiety, whether it is a constant worry, generalized anxiety disorder, or severe panic attacks, you know that it can come on suddenly and without warning.
However, there may be certain events or situations that are leading to the anxiety and that it isn’t always quite as random as you thought. By having the bullet journal and recording your moods and daily lifestyle, you can actually pinpoint what tends to cause the panic attacks.
It might be when you have work stress or when you are around a particular person who seems to draw out the anxiety in you. It can also be due to certain foods or drinking a lot of alcohol or caffeine.
Finding Your Depression Triggers
Depression is also something that may happen at any time, but can also be triggered by someone or something. Some people have situational depression, where there is something that usually occurs to cause all of those depressive moods and feelings.
This is another thing you can determine by recording as much of your life as possible in a bullet journal. This journal is yours and should be private, because that allows you to feel free to record any emotions or feelings that you find necessary. Look back on it often to see if there are any patterns.
Clear bullet journal benefits
These clear benefits from using a bullet journal will help nearly anyone and can make quite a difference in life. It all comes down to the flexibility of the system and the ability to use it for anything you want.
