Tracking

Monthly Log Tracker 

We begin with none other than the Bullet Journal® inventor himself, Ryder Carroll.Earlier this year he shared a clever addition to the Monthly Log by adding a minimal tracker. Ryder Carroll

Daily Log Tracker

To make it easier to remember to write down what he’s grateful for and log his food, Ryder introduced us to a simple tracker for the Daily Log. 

Ryder Carroll

Monthly Tracker

This is an idea that’s been around for decades and has made its way to the Bullet Journal world due to its immense usefulness. This idea works to track habits you’re trying to build or keep track of tasks you’d rather not rewrite daily. It also works if you’re looking to do a certain habit or task on certain days by indicating the days with a dot in the box or a square outline. To reduce pressure on yourself from doing this many things daily, Kara of Boho Berry suggests to think of it as “when was the last time I did this” instead. 

@boho.berry

If you want to spice up your tracking with different styles, try out one of the many designed by Dee of Decade Thirty. 

decadethirty.com

Bookcase Reading Log

With the love of paper comes the love of reading. One idea that emerged is the bookcase reading log. When you finish reading a book, color it in and over time you get to see all the books you’ve read. I wish I knew who to credit for the idea, it suddenly popped up everywhere I looked. 

@thebulletjournaladdict

@timi_kincsesfuzet

@that_journal

Popcorn Movies

Stefania came up with this adorable idea for a visual movies to watch collection. 

@its.steph

TV Show Tracker

Anika created this magnificently simple tv show tracker and it is an easy way for Bullet Journalists to stay up to date with their favorite shows.

@andthechoices

Weekly Log

The Weekly Log is very popular in the Bullet Journal because it allows you to see the whole week at a glance with the information that matters to you. The great thing about designing your own weeklies in the Bullet Journal is that you have a lot of blank space to work with and the ability to flip the page and create a collection with anything you need to write down.

The freedom to express yourself in this wonderful notebook system and the gift of being able to create the exact thing you need is a very empowering element of the Bullet Journal. You’re not stuck with someone else’s design, you can modify or invent an idea to work for you. Here’s a beautifully simple week on a spread. 

@feebujo

Room for day and time-based events along with room to write down to-do’s, housework, meals, work, and a small weekly tracker.

@boho.berry

From reading the back of the official Bullet Journal, here is my rendition of what I thought a Bullet Journal Weekly Log might look like as a simple running list along with an addition of a mini calendar with events underneath. 

@tinyrayofsunshine

Simple vertical days with a few choice categories underneath. Great graphs and a habit tracker that looks like a crossword add useful fun to this colorful spread. 

@natnatattacks

The rolling week is a week at a glance to the side and dailies to the side. This makes it easy to have your week in view while also being able to use up as much room as needed each day.

@bujo.auslife

The ever popular Dutch door where you fold a page in the middle to store extra information for the week. 

@the.nerd.in.disguise

This running list I’ve seen come up time and again over the past few years. This is a beautifully colorful version by Yu. The way it works is by adding the columns for the days of the week and assigning tasks to the day. If it’s recurring, add boxes to that day. If migrated, draw a box to the next day you’ve assigned the task to get done.

@bluelahe

Reflection

Gratitude

To help you log your gratitude daily, Ryder designed this simple gratitude log with brackets for the daily log to write in first thing every day. Starting your day off with what you’re grateful for will help you set the tone for the day. 

Ryder Carroll

If you like the idea of logging what you’re grateful for and want to see them all in one place, the gratitude log is an idea I lovingly shared with the Bullet Journal community and it’s become a mainstay in many Bullet Journals in many different forms. It’s a great way to instantly perk you up. This is one of those fun examples of an idea shared that’s been adapted by other Bullet Journalists in a way that works for them.

I had initially shared it with 3 things to log a day across 3 pages and then Kara from Boho Berry condensed it down a spread with 2 things to log a day and that’s been a popular adaptation. Since then, many have tweaked the idea in all sorts of fun ways, I have also toyed with adding sketches and keeping it as a simple list to add as many things to it whenever I remember to update it. 

@tinyrayofsunshine

@bujo.auslife

@heartistic.jess

Review & Planning for next month

Last year, Ryder recommendeddoing a review to think about things that worked, things to leave behind, and things to try out. In addition to these, I like to brainstorm the ideas I want to try out with small visuals. These ideas caught on like wildfire to help many Bullet Journalists pause and reflect at the end of each month. 

@craftyenginerd

Journaling

There are many ways to incorporate journaling into your Bullet Journal. You can write a note in your Daily Log or flip to a spread and write out some thoughts. You could take up the practice ofMorning Pages where you write 3 pages of stream of consciousness first thing every morning or you could be more casual and journal whenever you need to get some thoughts out.

@tinyrayofsunshine

Memories

Brought to the Bullet Journal world by Kacheri of Passion Themed Life, the memories log is a sweet and simple way to log precious moments that happened throughout the month. 

@creative.pine.apple

Future Log

Ryder’s Method

The original Future Log Ryder devised is a super simple method to corral future events. 

Ryder Carroll

Alastair Method

A clever adaptation by Alastair to rapid log events and indicate which month it falls under. 

Alastair Johnson

Calendex

The slightly complex yet highly creative method by Eddy allows you to write down an event on whichever page you’re currently at and then write down the page number in the Calendex so when that day comes, you can easily flip to the page that will give you more information about that event.

Eddy Hope

Vertical months

This is a clean and simple way to visualize the months and events with a mini calendar. @journalspiration

Timeline

There are a couple main popular versions: the vertical and horizontal timelines.

Vertical

I love the stream of inspiration in this series of vertical timelines and I’m excited to be able to share with you how Bullet Journalists build and enhance each other’s ideas and make this entire system better all the while appreciating each other and giving credit for their inspiration even if their version looks different.

Dee of Decade Thirty shared this idea for a time ladder to assign events and notes to the left side of the page and tasks on the right.

Dee

Ursala took inspiration from another Bullet Journalist,María, to add little elements such as the sunrise and checking off boxes in her timeline for the Pomodoro Method.

@honeyrozes

Cristina drew inspiration from both Dee and Ursala to connect her tasks to time slots and added letters to indicate certain tasks such as lunch, chores, and dinner.

@shilen.qc

Susie was inspired by Ursala and Cristina and added her idea of a line swooping around the time related to the event it’s connected to.

@susiebjournal

Wasn’t that fun? I love seeing how ideas get further and further adapted and the kindness between Bullet Journalists to credit who they were inspired by. It’s a very lovely thing to see people appreciating one another and giving each other shout-outs. I’m very grateful to be part of such a supportive and loving group of thinkers.

Horizontal

The horizontal timeline I first saw long ago from one of the Bullet Journal communities. One of the popular ways to use this timeline is by assigning a color code to the times. Here, Kara assigned a color to certain times and then connected the tasks with the corresponding color in brackets to make it easy to glance at which tasks should be worked on during that time slot. 

@boho.berry

Here’s an idea to have the ability to plan out when to do things and have another bar underneath to log how long that event actually took. This way you’re able to improve your time management skills by planning better in the future since you’ll be more aware of how long things actually take. 

@tinyrayofsunshine

There’s also this popular time tracker collection to log what you did after the fact.

@logthatlife

____ I hope you enjoyed this beautiful visual celebration of the many talented Bullet Journalists out there! Thank you for a wonderful year!

About the Author:

Kim Alvarez is the creative behind Tinyrayofsunshine.com, where she writes about the Bullet Journal, productivity, planning, and other creative pursuits. She runs a sunshiney Etsy shop with stationery goods that will bring a smile to your face at tinyrayofsunshine.etsy.com

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