How to start a bullet journal (Ultimate Beginners Guide)

If you think you can’t start a bullet journal if you are a beginner then think again. This post will demystify the process for you and help you start your own bullet journal just like I started to paint without any previous training!

I started to go to the local school for Art class ( ok not with the kids but at night for an evening class ) I gained more confidence to continue painting to where I am today.

Check out my shop here to see how I have progressed and you can even buy one of my original pieces too!

(If this post contains affiliate links please see our full disclosure policy although I have to say I tried really hard to make it interesting and even I struggled to write it so if you really must read it you can find it here)

Table of Contents

What is the point of a Bullet Journal

A bullet journal is a way to get yourself organised and plan for your year.

The best thing about a Bullet Journal or BuJo is its an all in one type of journal so you don’t have different journals and notebooks for different things it’s all in the one place so no more scattered half-finished journals!

It’s a specific way to organise a planner.

It can also be called a BuJo.

The great thing about a bullet journal is it’s highly customisable and can be creative as well.

Things you can organise with a bullet journal include:

Helps to become organised or stay organised
Creative outlet
Loves things like scrapbooking
Daily to do’s
Savings
Long term goals
Monthly calendars
Basically, it’s up to you what you put in it!

How do I get started Bullet journalling

The basic equipment you need is Notepad and a pen.

☑️ This SPECIFIC Notepad is a great one to start

☑️Compare TOP 4 NOTEBOOKS
1.Minimalism Art
2.Dotted Grid Notebook/Journal
3.Leuchtturm1917
4.Dotted Journal by Scribbles That Matter

And Pens

☑️ These SPECIFIC Pens are great to start with

☑️ Best journals for bullet journalling

	Best Value	Best Overall	Best for Artists
Notebooks	Dot Grid Notebook	Leuchturnm 1917	Moleskine Art Sketchbook
Rating	4.8 out of 5	4.3 out of 5	4.6 out of 5
Pens	Pilot Frixion Erasable Gel Pen	Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Pens	Sakura Pen-Touch Paint Markers
Rating	4.8 out of 5	3.9 out of 5	4.4 out of 5

What is a dot-grid journal

A dot grid Journal is a journal that has dot-shaped as a grid in it. It is used for guide marks for drawing tables, templates and drawing diagrams or sketching pictures.

How do you start a beginners bullet journal

When you first start a bullet journal you are NOT striving for perfection it will take time to get to grips with all the shortcodes and layouts.

Don’t use a brand new leather fabulously expensive journal start off with something not too expensive.

First, you need to know about the terminology it’s got its own language too well not too much!

What’s the difference between an ordinary Journal and a BuJo

I have already mentioned that its a collection of different journals and notebooks all in one.

It also has an Index page (a bit like a content section in a novel ) and Section pages.

First, you decide on the sections then you create your index. And you can add to these as you go along.

Things you can track with your bullet journal

Here are things you can track with your bullet journal:

Calendar pages include daily, monthly yearly tasks, meal planning, expenses
Goals – saving money, work or exercise
Trackers- sleep, diet or fitness
Logs – future, gratitude, book lists to read
Project planners

What should you put in my bullet journal

Types of pages to add to your bullet journal depend on the things you want to track the list above gives you inspiration for the types of sections you could have in your journal.

Have a look online and below for different types of templates you would want to include in your journal. Maybe you just want to stick to a project planner for your work or meal planning and cleaning schedules and savings goals.

If that’s all you want then great you don’t need to add more!

Once you have an idea of layouts you want to use sketch them out in pencil first or you can use the Pilot eraser gel pens ( I love them it’s amazing how well they erase out to leave a blank page- they are not my go-to pen to use for my blogging work using a Bujo. )

I also love using sticky tabs like this one to mark Index pages I reference all the time these are my favourite ones just now.

Index page

This is your first page in your Bullet Journal and this is where you add each section along with a page number for each. Leave at least two pages for this section.

Key

This page shows all your signifiers and colours and what they mean.

Future Log

This is a list of your important events, goals and plans for the year on one page

Daily Log

Basically a daily to-do list of things for each day to get done

Monthly Calendar

Basically a monthly calendar of events listed on one page

Now onto your Section pages

This is where you have all your bullet journal collections.

Bullet Journal Terms

You don’t write out lots of detail in bullet journals the idea is to use a sort of shorthand in BuJo lingo – rapid logging includes things like bullets, short sentences, page numbers, and topics.

Here are some terms:

Bullets to signify tasks like dots, dash <>
Signifiers to add attention like * ! checkmark to show something is complete
Migration – check for unfulfilled tasks at the end of each month move it to a new month using this >
Threading – this is what to do with your page numbers when you have non-consecutive collections you can add the page number to the bottom. For example, say you have 5 pages 1 5 6 7 and 23 all with the same collection information you would then add →5 to page one then on page 5 add →6 to the bottom of page 5.