Minimal Bullet Journal Setup

Over the past few years, I have really struggled to stick with being consistent in my bullet journal. I start with such good intentions, but then it happens… I overcomplicate things! And in trying to recreate all of the fun ideas that I see on social media, I end up creating something that is just too much work. And then I quit.

But I didn’t want that to keep being the case. I wanted a bullet journal system that would work for me. One that would help me to be productive, organized and efficient. And one that I truly ENJOYED. So over time, I figured out a few ways to make changes that simplify my bullet journal.

And I think that these changes have made it much easier for me to be consistent. Not only that, but now I’m also enjoying the process of bullet journaling and creating something that is super helpful in my everyday life.

So today I want to share with you some of the ways that I’ve simplified the process of bullet journaling to really make it work for me! And I hope this helps you as well if you’ve ever been in that place where you’re struggling to keep up a bullet journaling habit. 

Simplifying the Initial Setup

So one of the first things that I simplified when it came to bullet journaling was my initial setup. I used to see all of these elaborate spreads and ideas that were so fun and I felt like I needed all of this stuff in my bullet journal to make it a true bullet journal.

But the fact is, there are some really fun spreads that I just never think to come back to. One I can think of is a year in Polaroids. I love that idea, but the truth is, I have a few other ways that I save photo memories… like photo albums, instagram, and photo books. So this felt like one of those duplicate pages where I was really creating more work for myself, instead of helping myself organize and simplify my life. 

My encouragement to you is this: don’t feel like you need to fill up the pages with things that won’t serve you or your goals with your bullet journal. If certain pages sound fun, then that’s great! But if you’re doing them just because you feel like you need to because you saw it somewhere else, give yourself permission to make a more simple version of a bullet journal.

Simplifying the Key Page

The second way that I simplified my bullet journaling was by simplifying the key page. I don’t use a ton of keys throughout my bullet journal, so I minimized it down to just the few that I think will be helpful for me.

Here’s what I ended up with:

Task
Task complete
Task moved
Task canceled
Important.

If you don’t feel like you’re going to need a whole page full of prompts, then don’t overwhelm yourself with it. I honestly think if I had many more than this, I may struggle to remember them and so they probably wouldn’t get used much anyway. It really comes down to, again, doing what works for you and not adding a bunch of extras just because you feel like you have to. 

The Grid Spacing Guide

The next way that I simplified my Bullet Journal was by creating a grid spacing guide. This isn’t my idea and it’s all over the Internet, but it’s SO helpful. It may look complicated, but once it’s created, it saves me so much time. It’s probably one of the most helpful pages in this setup.

I used to struggle with deciding how to set up my layouts and how my columns should be separated. But then once I decided, I still had to do the math to figure out how many spaces to make my sections and hope that I was getting it right. It took me so much time.

But by using the grid spacing guide, I am now able to easily decide how I’m going to separate my pages and then quickly look at this page to see how many spaces I need to use. One extra thing I did on this page was to write myself a little reminder that 1 = 1 square. I used to get confused if I was supposed to be counting dots or squares, so this reminder has already been really helpful for me! 

Changing My Intentions With Habit Trackers

The next way that I simplified my bullet journal was by using habit trackers as more of an overview and less of a goal. When I first created a bullet journal, I was thinking about habit trackers more in the mindset of it being New Years Eve. You know how on New Years eve you might set New Years resolutions and it can sometimes be just a giant list of basically everything that you would like to do ever? And how realistic is that that we’re going to go from not doing any of those things, to doing all of them daily? I guess this depends on your personality, but for me, this isn’t super realistic.

And it honestly kind of sets myself up to fail because when my goals are things that aren’t realistic, it’s hard to keep up motivation to continue trying. I’m much more effective with goal planning when I look at the really important things that I’d like to accomplish and then break them up into smaller goals throughout the year. 

So for my habit tracker, I’m no longer thinking of it like a giant to do every day list. Instead, I’m just picking a couple of things that I’d like to check in on my progress. Some are things that I want to do daily or as close to daily as I can. But others (like work) are kind of the opposite. I want to make sure that I’m actually taking a break from work and not getting burned out! So for that one, my goal isn’t to have every single box checked off at the end of the month. And that alone helps it to feel like a lot less pressure for me! 

Say Goodbye to Doodles (sort of)

The next way that I simplified my bullet journaling was to decide to doodle less. So I am totally guilty of watching bullet journaling videos and thinking that I need to have a theme, a specific thing I’m drawing or to doodle all over each page. But the thing is, I’m not really that into drawing or doodling. I love handlettering and painting florals with watercolor, but that doesn’t mean I can draw much more than stick people. So this part of bullet journaling was kind of stressful for me! 

Instead of trying to add details to each page, I did a couple of things. First, I bought some inexpensive botanical stickers to dress up pages that I may feel like are a little too plain. These stickers were really affordable and I’ve used them so much! I love including florals and botanicals in my bullet journal decor. This makes it super simple for me to add them, but without feeling the pressure of drawing everything!

The other thing that I did was to allow myself to be creative in my own way. For this setup, I had part of a song running through my head while I was setting up my bullet journal. So I just decided to handletter a bit of it on a random page. I love that it allows me to have a break from just daily plans and calendars and adds art into my bullet journal, but in my own way!

Stop Reinventing the Wheel

And the next way that I simplified my bullet journal was to not be afraid of NOT reinventing the wheel each time I set up a month. What I mean by that is that if something’s working really well, don’t feel like you need to change it! I think part of the reason why I wasn’t able to keep up with my bullet journal on a daily basis was because everything took me so long.

I know bullet journaling does take some time and I’m ok with giving a chunk of time to a monthly setup each month. But when it comes to setting up weekly spreads, I just don’t always have the time to spend a lot of time on them. So I need to be ok with repeating layouts and spreads when that happens.

For the month of October, I pretty much did a version of the same spread every week. And that’s because it was working really well & it took me like 5 minutes to set up! No, it’s not fancy. And yes, there are ways that I will probably tweak it to change it up in the future, but I don’t have to completely recreate the style of a weekly spread each week if what I’m doing is working really well for me! 

I guess this principle could really go for many parts of bullet journaling. If you’re struggling to find time to create any part of your bullet journal, maybe consider just picking 1 or 2 layouts and going back and doing them over and over. Once you get into a rhythm of it, you may find that it takes even less time to set up and leaves more time for your creativity to start flowing! 

Ideal Schedule Monthly Spread

Another way that I simplified my bullet journal was by creating an “Ideal Schedule” spread. I have found that as a busy mom of young kids, a homeschooler and a business owner, I don’t always have the same routine. And it’s not practical for me to plan out an entire year at a time. Which can leave me frustrated when I’ve set up a years worth of something and then everything changes.

So this spread is for me to reassess our schedule each month and not feel like I have to stick to something that I planned months ago that just isn’t working for us anymore. Yes, there will probably be some months that are the same where I just copy & paste last month’s schedule into it. But I think giving even a few minutes of time to think about how your daily schedule can serve your family in each season can be worth it. It’s really just a practice in being intentional with our time and being flexible when things need to change. 

So I hope this helped you if you’ve ever struggled to stick with an over complicated bullet journal. These things have truly changed the game for me and helped bullet journaling to become a fun creative, outlet again that actually serves me and helps me to stay organized! 

I’d love to hear how you use your bullet journal & if you have any tips that you’d add onto this. And if you’d like to see more, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel or find me over on Instagram.