My conversation with a librarian changed how I set up my weekly spreads

I was at the local library last Tuesday killing time, and this older lady walks by my journal. She stops and says "you're trying too hard to make it pretty." At first I was annoyed, but she showed me her own bullet journal - just dates, tasks, done. No colors, no washi tape, nothing. She's used the same system for 8 years and said she tracks everything from grocery lists to her dog's vet appointments. It hit me that I spend an hour decorating spreads when she spends 5 minutes. I'm cutting my setup time in half starting next month and just using a black pen. Has anyone else simplified their journal after seeing someone else's bare bones system?

2 comments

2 Comments

julia_lee18d agoTop Commenter

My brother's been using the same pocket notebook for like 6 years now and it's held together with duct tape lmao. He writes in it with a stubby golf pencil he found somewhere and his system is just "write the thing, cross it off when done." No dates, no sections, nothing fancy. I always made fun of him for it but honestly his life seems way less stressful than mine with all my colored pens and perfect layouts. I tried copying the old librarian's vibe this week and it took me 4 minutes flat to set up. Might have to stick with this.

matthews2118d ago

Wait does he even go back and look at old stuff? I'm curious if his whole system works because he just accepts once something is crossed off it's basically gone forever. That's the part I would struggle with, I feel like I need to see progress and patterns but maybe that's just overcomplicating things. My buddy tried the same thing and he said the key is actually having a really reliable place to keep the notebook so you never waste time looking for it. Always wondered if the duct tape thing is more about durability or if it's just become a weird personal thing at this point.