Tag Archives: Organize

Bullet Journaling – My Way

I began to plan for my binder at the end of last year. I used an electronic calendar (Google Calendar) and infinite number of apps in my phone for quick notes, ideas and to-do’s. On my desk I had lots of notes and post-it notes. A website I wanted to remember, a list of things I must do today (which always ended up under some other note), things I should remember to buy next time I was in Stockholm and so on. I missed things, lost my lists and notes and drove myself to more stress than necessary.
I first tried to solve it by putting as much as possible in Google Calendar, but then I got panicked once a month would look like this:

Google Calendar

(This is May of this year, and it was a pretty crazy month without my own “patch” posted, but the feeling was the same last autumn)

Out of this chaos the idea that I wanted to have everything together was born. I didn’t whant all those notes everywhere, I wanted to be more organized so that I would have a chance to feel “on top of things”.
I do not know if it was so smart to start making pages digitally, but it was what I wanted right there and then. It takes time, but the advantage is that I can easily print more of the pages I need.

About two months ago I stumbled on something called Bullet Journaling (BuJo). After a little research I came to the conclusion that my binder in a big way was what BuJo was, though perhaps a bit more ….. designed. BuJo basically is a notebook and a pen. (To read more about Bullet Journaling I recommend Bulletjournal.com. The website shows basically the way it is supposed to work.) The beauty of the system is that you get your BuJo to work for you, not the other way around, which is usually common when buying a calendar.
Just like I create pages in my binder people create incredibly beautiful pages in different BuJo’s every day. There are a lot of people you can follow on Instagram and on Facebook there are several different groups with different orientations. (You find my list at the bottom of the post)

I’m very fond of my binder, and it is still growing, but it is heavy and there is no way that I put it in my bag. Therefore I have begun a BuJo in a notebook as a supplement. In it I can easily throw down ideas, I have a number of Trackers (one way to get an overview of what you have done/feel/what-you-want) and Collections (lists) which can be good to have when I’m on the go. Among other things, I have a collection of which buses I can take when I buy cat food (which is done once a quarter, and I never remember which bus I should take).

Combining my binder and my (small) notebook I have a pretty good idea of what happens in my life. The trackers I use allows me to have an eye on if I have taken a particular medicine today, when I did my work out last (a hole here gives me a bad conscience) or how I feel on the whole. I also get a connection when I see those together. I see that I have had several negative days so it is not surprising that I also had a headache for three days in a row. When I see the connections, it is easier to deal with what is happening, but also to plan ahead. If I have several negative days, it is perhaps time to review the calendar and see if I can move that meeting or cancel something.

Before I started this, I just tried to keep up, clenched my teeth and hoped that it would slow done before it became too much.

Suggested trackers


Medicines / Vitamins
– If you easily forget your medications or don’t need not take it regulary
Social Media – Check when you put a picture on Instagram, update your blog or similar
Training – It’s so satisfying to tick a box when you done it 🙂
Symptoms – Do you have an illness or do you get migraines? Sometimes it can be helpful to keep track of how often and how much
Emotions – Panic attacks or just PMS, sometimes it’s nice to see how often or rarely anything happens
Sleep – A nap of the day or bad night’s sleep.
The weather – Just because it’s fun and looks so nice with a lot of sunny days 🙂
Take care of yourself – When did you painted my nails last, and when did you do a face mask last time? (This works as well to check the last time you had some self-time or an evening out with friends)

Just as you get your BuJo to work for you, it will be the same with trackers, if you at all want to use trackers. You make one that works for you in the way you need it/want it. My suggestions above are what I use just this month. Next month I might have removed any that I never fill in or I’ve added someone else. How they look is also completely up to you. I have made a grid this month that I fill with one or more colors. You may want to use circles, flowers or other shapes? Or maybe just run super simple and write a number (date) on a line? It is entirely up to you how you want to do and that’s the beauty of the whole system.

You will find a lot of inspiration on Pinterest or Instagram. You have to find what’s right for and appeals to you. Do you want lots of color or do you want it super easy with just a black pen? There is inspiration for everything 🙂

Instagram & Facebook

Now someone might ask why I create pages to my binder that I already have in my BuJo? Why spend so much time on the whole? Firstly, I think it’s a blast 😉 It’s relaxing for me to design new pages or doodle in the little book.
The reason I have the same pages in both places (they differ, however, on design terms) is that I transfer information when needed (eg. Trackers, I have all the trackers in the same place in the binder, the book is scattered). I also have pages in the book that’s not in the binder and vice versa. The binder is my archive and a collection point for information that does not need to move around with me. For example, I use my Silhouette only at the computer, so that information does not need to be in the notebook. That is nothing I need to bring with me when I leave home, or sitting on the sofa in the evening. Movies I want to see, however, I often write down when I see a commercial on TV or in the subway. In this situation it is not functional if I have my collection for that information at home on the desk.

Bullet Journal - Movies I want to see

 

 

More to the Calendar

The calendar I made had very small boxes, partly because I use a small format (A5), and partly because I see it more as an overview.
Here are my more useful pages for the binder . There are a total of three pages, where one page is two. 😉

helg-komihag-vecka-blogg-some

Holidays (the purple one) provides an overview of our Swedish holidays and a few other days as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day Valentine’s Day and so on.
Dates to remember (blue in front) I myself like very much. I filled in the birthdays, major events and other important dates. The pages give a quick overview of what will come.
The weekly plan (the other blue) is the one I use most my self. This one are my regular calendar. There is plenty of space to write what I do every day. If you are able to use my file for Silhouette Studio you also get a perforated corner that you can remove from when the week is over. Would you rather put the pages in a regular binder you can decorate a paper clip and use as a bookmark.

veckoplan

The file for Silhouette Studio is a print n cut. The holes at fit in the binder I have chosen, but you can easily remove these holes and put in you own.
Would you rather use a binder with Swedish holes (ore some other binder) you can download the PDF containing the same blades. They are laid out on an A4, so you print them easily on a desktop printer and then cut out your pages.

File for Silhouette Studio

PDF for printing

 

 

Quick book marks

I use quite a lot of small post-it, paper clips and clamps when I work. I love cute small accessories and often need to have a mark in a book or in a compendium when I read. Post-it in all its glory, they come in many beautiful colors, but they are not always enough.

To solve this, and reduce the amount of post-it, I started to decorate paper clips in a very simple and fast way.

Material

You need washitape in nice colors and patterns, a good pair of scissors and a lot of paper clips.

gem-tape

Tear a fairly long strip of tape and fold it lengthwise with the sticky side out. Thread the paper clip on the tape and drag it to the center.

gem-ihop

Fold up the sides so that they attach to each other. Depending on the width of the tape it can be somewhat awkward at the bottom of the paper clip.

gem-klart

Use scissors to cut small flags. I have chosen to cut a V at mine, but you can cut in other shapes if you want.
Avoid using a punch. The glue on the tape is easily caught in the punch and make it sticky. When you then use paper it can get caught and your pattern becomes ugly.

gem-match

With these paper clips you will easy match together a kit with paper clips, pen and notebook.

Material List:

My Binder

The cover of my binder is finished and I’m so looking forward to start using it. All that I need to do now is to print out my content and to ensure that the binder will fit on my desktop 🙂

My Binder

I bought my binder at Panduro and painted it white with ordinary wall paint. I used  a paint roller to get some structure.

The decorations are made of vinyl that I cut with my Silhouette. I can not share these files because they come from a group on Facebook. I changed the monogram a little by choosing a different font and put stars around it instead of dots. (see below what I used)

My Binder

On the inside cover, I put an image I created using an online course at Kit and Clowder, Mindfull Me. I will show what I used a little later.

Materials:

 

Swedish calendar for 2016

Step one in my new more organized life 🙂
A calendar with Swedish holidays, and some other goodto-rememberdays like Mothers- and Father’s Day, summer- and winter time, etc.

I will use this as an overview. The boxes are relatively small, I use A5 format, so there is not very much room for notes. For bookings and things like that I use Google Calendar. I will also add a few other pages.

Swedish calendar 2016

When I created these I realized that I never find a good calendar to put on the fridge. I‘d love to have one there, not to fill in a lot (again, that I use Google Calendar for), but to get a little overview, or just to check how many days ago I was suppose to throw out the milk.
I printed every month on thicker paper and fastened all of them with a clip. Perfect overview and you can squeeze in a birthday or three in the boxes.

Calendar on the fridge

I have made this calendar as a print n cut for those who want to use a silhouette cameo or portrait. There are holes in the cut file suit for the binder that I have selected (more about that as soon as I got the front finished). Do you want to have other holes, select ungroupe and takes away the my holes.

Calendar Januari 2016

If you would rather print the calendar and then make holes with a regular hole punch, choose to save the PDF file. It is done so that you can print on A4 and then cut out the calendar.

Calendar 2016

PDF

Cutfile

 

New Year’s resolution, Lists & Order

New year new challenges? I have a couple of challenges for myself, but otherwise I’m hoping for a quiet year.
Last year, I promised more crafts here in the blog, and it actually went really well until September. Then I just came to a stop and this is the first blog post since. The main reason was the lack of time and that the blog has become quite heavy to mange. I translate everything I write in to English, which means that each entry is written twice, and all images must be presented twice. A post takes about twice as long to write with translation then without translation. I also wanted to have more substance in the post than just show card after card after card. My guides is what is read most and therefor I will of course put some time on these. How it will be this year, I don’t know, but it will be a little less pure crafts and much more organizing.

The organization is my challenge to myself. My craft room is still in need of a good cleaning up and sorting. My webshop (only in Swedish) helps, but there is so much more to be sorted out. The rest of my life also requires a little organization, so whoever wants to will get a peek into my sock drawer, in the freezer, and indeed in the medicine cabinet.
I started with some reorganization in the fall, and were then getting information and tips online. I created a board for this on Pinterest, I now release it.
When I sat down and thought about the things that work and do not work for me and in our home, I got together a too long list for it to feel comfortable. One thing was that my desk is always too messy. I want it pretty clean to be able to work (whether it be work work, or crafting work) but the desk is always full of post-its, loose patches, pens, stuff and things.

Messy Desk

The solution to this was to create a folder with a number of different papers for different occasions. I will share the content of this binder here in the blog when I get it finished.

The blog will also be organized, but it will probably be a lot of shuffle in the background.

So, welcome to a year of crafts and organizing hand in hand!