A quick chat with my sister made me stop stressing about my weekly spreads

I was showing my sister my bullet journal last weekend, and she pointed at my weekly spread and said, 'You know, it looks like you're trying to make a magazine page, not plan your week.' She's not into journaling at all, but that hit me hard. I'd been spending over an hour every Sunday drawing boxes and perfecting my lettering, only to feel bad when I didn't fill it all out. She asked why I didn't just use a simple list if that's what I actually needed. For the last two weeks, I've been using a basic two-column list for my week, and it's been so much faster and actually useful. I guess I got so caught up in making it look good for Instagram that I forgot the whole point. Has anyone else had a moment like that, where someone outside the hobby gave you a really simple fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas_roberts9d ago

Oh man, my bullet journal from a few years ago looked like a museum exhibit that nobody was allowed to touch. I spent more time picking color schemes than actually doing any of the tasks I was so artfully writing down. My partner finally asked if I was running a scrapbooking business or trying to remember to buy milk.

jessicaw119d ago

Ever have a friend just point out the obvious thing you're missing? My coworker saw my crazy detailed habit tracker and asked if tracking the tracker was my new hobby... it was a wake-up call like @thomas_roberts mentioned. I switched to just a tiny grid of checkboxes for my three real daily habits, and suddenly I'm actually doing them instead of just drawing pretty charts.