I had a call with my Dad last thursday. He’s really bad with technology and struggles with basic things on his phone, but he’s been getting better with Whatsapp since Mum died. On Thursday he managed to send me photos of the dinner he’d mad for himself. His usual . onions, mushrooms and chicked, but with extra mixed frozen veggies and spaghetti, and he’s added a pasta sauce. It actually looked really good and he was clearly pleased with it. The fact he’d made the effort of figuring out how to send me photos was great and it made me well up. I was just replying when he called me so we chatted for our usual hour. On the call he also showed me christmas cards he’d written. One for Mark and Marietjie and another for Macayla. He’d used some of the cards Mum had made and had in a box, which in itself is really special, and had put a lot of effort in writing their names in a really decorative way. I still have a whole box of the cards Mum has made for me over the years, and they are so dear to me. A part of her I can keep and look back at. But what struck me was that Dad had signed the cards from him and Chloe (the dog), and it made me cry not seeing “from Mum” in them. Such small things that mean so much.

I tried a fountain pen ink sample subscription.
Read 31 books
Created an Adobe Indesign and PDF tutorial that now has 8600 view on YouTube

Books Bought
Mindful Meditation
Rags & Bones – Short Stories
Conversations with Myself – Nelson Mandela
Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo
Callanish – William Horton
Fred Green Tomatoes – Fannie Flagg
We Were Liars – E. Lockhart
Throne of Glass – Sarah J Maas
I’ll Give You The Sun – Jandy Nelson
The Executioner – Chris Carter

4 Jan – Pete got locked in bathroom
10 Jan – RIP David Bowie
14 Jan – RIP Alan Rickman
17 Jan – Walk around snowy Bletchley
19 Jan – stationerygeek.com
30 Jan – Sara Hennesey’s 40th

7 Feb – Bought paintings for bedroom and dining room from The Range
14 Feb – Whaddesdon Manor
18 Feb – Laura left AFB
18 Feb – 5 Love Languages
20 Feb – Mole removed from chest
28 Feb – Homebase sold

6 Mar – New Vivarium for Vash
7 Mar – Wine tasting @ H.M.S. President in London with AFB
10 Mar – Skin Cancer diagnosis received
13 Mar – Beili Helyg B&B, Brecon Beacons, visit Goodrich Castle on way
14 Mar – Hill Walk – Four Falls Train in Brecon Beacons
15 Mar – Penderyn Distillery
15 Mar – Marine Hotel, Aberystwyth
19 Mar – Painted tree on dining room wall
22 Mar – Brussels airport and metro attack.
25 Mar – Hill Walk – Ivanhoe Hills
27 Mar – Easter Sunday egg hunt
29 Mar – Dad’s broke leg falling off ladder

1 Apr – Dad knee surgery
2 Apr – Build cross trainer
3 Apr – Sand and stain IKEA Moppe draws to convert to apothecary drawers, Pete repaired outside room roof
4 Apr – Elena resigned
8 Apr – Dinner @ Banana Tree when I got date wrong for dinner with Laura
18 Apr – Bath plugs fit on the overflow #mindblown
21 Apr – RIP Prince
23 Apr – Left arm tattoo by Philip Milic
28 Apr – FS Awards – The Belfry

1 May – RIP Keegan van Staden
2 May – Tring Museum
4 May – Pete invited me to business conference call by accident
5 May – Won full Tombow Brush Pens set
10 May – Pete’s pay rise
12 May – Wide Local Excision * Sentinel Lymphnode Biopsy
18 May – Third Massdrop gift box 3
19 May – Mattress for guest bed
20 May – MK11 night out
21 May – Massdrop gift box 1 & 2
25 May – Morning with Digital Design Team
28 May – Parents Arrive

3 Jun – Last day working with Elena
3 Jun – Biopsy results clear
4 Jun – Family Reunion
7 Jun – Smart Metre installed
8 Jun – Orlando night club massacre
8 Jun – Berwick
9 Jun – Elgin, Scotland
10 Jun – Loch Ness, Fort Augustus, Culloden Battlefield
11 Jun – Fort George
11 Jun – Eddie’s 70th party
12 Jun – Berwick
14 Jun – Mum & Dad made shelf above desk, wall mount TV, new curtains
15 Jun – I scratched girls car at Dunelm
16 -19 Jun – Arthur & Sue visiting
18 Jun – Dinner @ Swan for Dad’s Birthday & Parent’s Ann. Arthur ill.
19 Jun – Parents 45th Anniversary
24 Jun – Brexit
24 Jun – Parents Leave

Jul – Camp NaNoWriMo – 10,000 words writing in July
3 Jul – New shed
15 Jul – France massacre
18 Jul – Resigned from AFB
24 Jul – Drink with Tom K @ The Three Trees
26 Jul – Mum wrist surgery
28 Jul – Corner cabinet for dining room
30 Jul – Lisa’d wedding, Rugeley

1 Aug – Annetjie knee replacement
5-6 Aug – Stranger Things on Netflix
6 Aug – Back to red hair
12 Aug – Shadow had his teeth removed
13 Aug – Diner & drinks @ Tom’s house
21 Aug – Pilot Vanishing Point
29 Aug – Stowe visit
31 Aug – Last day in AFB

1-6 Sep – Galway, Ireland
2 Sep – Sainsbury’s buys Argos
3 Sep – Beth & Alan’s Wedding
4 Sep – Beth & Alan’s cottage
8 Sep – Start in Digital
21 Sep – Massdrop giftbox 4
28 Sep – My first bath bomb

1 Oct – Swatched my fountain pen inks
7 Oct – Pete’s climbed Skaffel Pike
9 Oct – Made new friendship bracelet
10 Oct – Hive installed
15 Oct – Hononichi Techo
15 Oct – New fireplace grate
22 Oct – PS4 & The Last of Us
23 Oct – Walk in Emmerson Valley park with MacBook
30 Oct – Adam Hills @ MK Theatre

5 Nov – Garden shredder
9 Nov – Trump wins US election
12 Nov – Mini sewing machine
16-20 – Sigrid visit
23 Nov – switched to using a menstrual cup.
25 Nov – Hip spasm

17 Dec – New dinner set

So it started when I clicked a Book Riot article and started adding some books to my goodreads reading list, then I bookmarked the page in Instapaper, then decided to organise my Instapaper a bit and move articles in folders. Then I spotted a saved article from Lifehacker about journalling and opened it, which sidetracked me onto a bunch of articles about paper journals (Heaven!) and then finally another article about Bullet Journalling.

The rest of my night from that point on, is history. As you can see I’m easily distracted and my mind is all over the place. This is a normal everyday scenario for me, and that’s why I’m an obsessive note-taker and also why Bullet Journallying is my new favourite thing in the world, and I’ve only been doing it for about 1.5 hours. Why? Because I know it’s really going to work for me. I LOVE keeping analogue notes and scribble lists and ideas on scraps of paper all over the place on a daily basis and I’m sure this will help me keep them more organised and more productive.

Here is what I have put together so far:

I started the index after I had about 4 pages together. I’ve also included a key on the right hand side so I can quickly reference it while I get used to this system

Here is my May calendar and task list, as you can see my list is already really long and because I has already filled in the next 2 page spread I decided to move onto a smaller insert page (See next image too)

Here is the smaller insert page from the front that contains the overflow from my May task list. Is this gets to full I will migrate it to a proper page later in the sequence. (Probably as I should have from the start)

I created the June spread right after the May one. But I’m aleady regretting this as I think I’d prefer it in sequence at the very end of may’s rapid journalling activities.

The first issue I encountered with this system is there no place to record future dates, so I created a list for them that I can refer to at the start of each new month. I’ve also created a year planner purely for birthdays.

I’m already a list keeper so consolidated a few lists I already had scattered around on post-it and random places onto the next free 2 page spread.

More list consolidation.

Final list so far.

I’ve only just scratched the surface of bullet journalling and look forward to developing my own methods, but the basic structure is already a really great starting point and I can’t wait to do it more.

To learn more from the man whom invented it, check out the stunningly designed official bulletjournal.com site here.

More inspiration from other people using this method (adding more as I find them):

• http://www.misszoot.com/2014/01/06/bulletjournal/
• http://www.johncooper.me/bullet-journal-nearly-3-months-later/
• http://www.johncooper.me/bullet-journal-series-complete-package/
• http://www.johncooper.me/bullet-journal-march-2014-update/
• http://eddyhope.com/bullet-journal-future-events-solution/ (Calendex method)
• Bullet  Journal inspiration from Pinterest
• http://bump.net/2013/12/things-that-worked-for-me-2013-bullet-journal
• http://interpunctedthirty.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/bullet-journalling-six-months-on/
• https://www.facebook.com/bulletjournalfansite
• G+ The Bullet Journal Community

BTW, I still haven’t finished reading that Lifehacker article, or sorting out my Instapaper folders, but I’ve got it down on my bullet journal 🙂