Planners & Calendars & Journals, Oh My!

I fell in love with this little journal last week at the TALL Texans retreat (more on that amazing experience in a later blog post--I'm really still processing all.that.awesome. y'all).  I walked into the first session and spotted one of the mentor's writing in this slim antique looking journal, and it was instant attraction. 

When I discovered they were actually for sale in the little bookstore downstairs I knew I had to have one.  I just wasn't quite sure what I would use it for at the time (Okay, so I'm a bit of a journal addict. I love them. What can I say?) but I knew that little beauty was coming home with me. 

I need to say at this point that I appear to be a solidly Type B personality, but like many weird dichotomies that describe me (ambivert, right-handed, but left-eye dominant-according to my archer husband, one ear lobe attached, one free-hanging, as I discovered to my amusement during middle-school years in a DNA traits mapping exercise) I have some very Type A characteristics, too. Maybe this is because I'm an Aries & a first child?  I'm not sure, but I do know that I have been described as having a big personality and I am both ambitious and impatient as well as being introspective, creative, and reflective by nature. 

At any rate, and however you might describe me, I have tried a multitude of ways to organize myself and my time effectively through the years. None of them have been truly terrible, but none of them have been anything to write home about either. I've tried everything from spiffing up the dollar store purse calendars to the Franklin-Covey system.  I love how pretty Erin Condren's items are, and I love how easy it is to find the Day Planner stuff locally. I just never felt like I had found anything with the "it" factor I need, however. 

Fast forward to last night. 

Since I brought my little journal out of the suitcase and onto my nightstand to admire I've noticed that it is really a perfect size for list-making.  Last year (or maybe the year before---can we go with sometime in the near past?) I started looking into bullet journaling. What always scared me off was the seemingly impossible standards of beauty and perfection that everyone seemed to bestow upon them.  I mean seriously--I no longer have time to scrapbook, I don't want to scrapbook my flippin' calendar/organizer, right???

Then the lights from heaven appeared and shone down upon a single blog post that has since changed my life. 

Well, in all honesty, I was up really late and so it was my table lamp shining down upon the laptop and the blog post is awesome and has inspired me to action....which I fully believe will lead to life-changing results. 

The Lazy Genius (yes, I will totally check out her other posts, because YES! to the Lazy Genius) has written out a very simple, easy-to-follow intro to her system of using bullet journals.  She gave me permission to do what works for me without worrying if it is perfectly Pinterest-worthy, (which is fricken' exhausting, honestly).  

For the first time this bullet journaling thing looks DOABLE.  I can make up exactly what works for me as I go along.  I can be as creative (or not) as I want to be in all aspects of this journal. I can start TODAY without feeling like I am wasting pages, or that I need to be a particular point in the calendar to begin fresh. 

Whoa.  This is big, y'all. 

My perfect little journal can be found HERE and I'm excited to KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) this bullet journaling thing.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.