Lee Seon-joo, a supporting character from one of my favorite Korean dramas entitled Her Private Life said in one episode that art is the product of desire. And while I admit that arts (especially visual ones) aren't my cup of tea, I just found myself unexpectedly giving it a shot recently.
I started using bullet planners at the height of the pandemic in 2020 because I just wanted to try it for a change. But for someone who has always been a user of ruled daily planners, shifting to bullet journals entailed a lot of challenges especially for a neophyte like me. I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to writing along straight lines and wide spaces; something which became hard for me to do at first given that next to dates, the pages of a bullet journal (or bujo, as others call it) has nothing else but dots.
It took a few tries and maybe a few months for me to get used to it. And aside from learning how to use a bulleted system of planning my day-to-day agenda, another thing that fascinated me with bujos are in those monthly spreads. The pages of a bullet journal tend to become boring especially for those who have never tried using one. I've always been intrigued about how my friend, Beth G., who is a bullet journaling enthusiast, creates her monthly spreads, which she either writes on her blog or posts on her Instagram account. The past few months, I've been spending minutes of my day watching Instagram reels on creating and designing bujo page spreads. And despite the lack of skill in the arts and design department, I ended up giving it a shot.
For someone with limited skill in arts, creating one can be a bit daunting. But just like what I read in one online article, a bujo doesn't need to look too artrsy, or else it will deplete its real purpose. In the case of my bullet journal, while I also have the habit of designing some of its pages, I still keep it to a minimum. Most of its pages are adorned by die cut stickers which I bought from either online sellers or the ones I found at bookstores, and recently from Mr. DIY located in SM Center Angono.
Beth was right when she said that customizing a blank page of a bullet journal can be mentally satisfying. But at the same time, I maintain its purpose when I bought it at the beginning of the year; that its to help me unwind and clear my mind by writing anything and everything in it -- from my daily tasks, errands to what I think of about what's happening around me.
In the end, I may be a bit lacking with skills to prettify my bullet journal, but then, the contents and notes written in every page still represents the writer, and lover of words that I truly am.
Beth was right when she said that customizing a blank page of a bullet journal can be mentally satisfying. But at the same time, I maintain its purpose when I bought it at the beginning of the year; that its to help me unwind and clear my mind by writing anything and everything in it -- from my daily tasks, errands to what I think of about what's happening around me.
In the end, I may be a bit lacking with skills to prettify my bullet journal, but then, the contents and notes written in every page still represents the writer, and lover of words that I truly am.
