How Bullet Journals Can Make You a Better Writer

By Madison White on October 19, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

Like many of us, you may have tried and failed at journals before. Perhaps the diary just wasn’t your thing. Luckily, there’s a whole new type of journaling that is taking the world by storm.

Introducing: Bullet journaling.

But what is that? The rest of this article will detail the ins and outs of bullet journaling, but effectively, it is a great tool to organize and decorate your life with charts, graphs and calendars.

What is it?

Effectively, bullet journaling is a way to organize any and every aspect of your life, all in one place. The content and effort you put in your bullet journal is completely up to you and will vary based on your needs and values.

Many people take up bullet journaling as a way of relieving stress by organizing their life and narrowing their effort into one, singular place. This helps with feelings of accomplishment, direction, and just plain creativity. For some people that crave creativity but aren’t necessarily great artists or writers, this may be the perfect choice for you.

What makes it different?

A bullet journal isn’t just a spewing of words and drawings made randomly. A bullet journal is planned. Granted, the contents of your journal can be forgotten or added to, but the general idea of organizing everything is central to the idea. Most often, a bullet journal contains a “key” at the start which references what parts are where, what colors are used, so on and so on. Many bullet journals will have some sort of calendar aspect.

The rest of the pages generally are used for gathering data about yourself. This could really be anything. It could be how many times you eat cake in a month or how many dogs you see each week. Anything you want to track, the bullet journal is the perfect place for your charts and graphs.

How much time should I spend on it?

This is completely up to you. Some people dedicate lots and lots of time to decorating, formatting, and filling in detailed descriptions for their bullet journals. However, some people also use it mostly for a means of organization and keep the extra stuff to a bare minimum.

I would guess that starting the journal will take the longest: the planning, the formatting, and the deciding what to put in it. After that, it is mainly just a task of keeping up to date on your entries and using the journal to its full potential.

Which notebooks work best?

This also depends on what kind of things you want to include in the journal. For some, graphs are a must so having a journal with graphed paper makes journaling a breeze. For others, they love lists so having well-spaced lines on each page is essential. For others, especially people who aren’t quite sure what they want in their journal, blank pages work the best.

You can create your own charts, lists, and graphs to the size you prefer on the blank pages. Also, if it is something you plan to take everywhere with you, be aware of the size of the journal and how easy it is to carry around.

What kinds of things should I journal?

Like I said earlier, this part is what makes bullet journaling so great: it is completely unique to you. Some Pinterest inspiration may help you along, but most bullet journals have a sort of calendar feel to keep track of each day and possibly each month. These could also just be generic lists and charts to look back on at the end of the journal.

Some examples are: my favorite things about fall, a list of jokes, or things I love about my significant other. Bullet journaling is a great way to stay organized, but it also serves as a great reflection tool to remind yourself of what truly matters.

How does this help me become a better writer?

Now, a bullet journal doesn’t give you all the freedom that a normal journal would. It doesn’t mean you can just spew your thoughts directly onto the page and forget about them. The way a bullet journal helps you is by making you think beforehand about what you’re writing. Often, this means listing things or memories with a certain theme which can be great for recollecting times you might’ve otherwise forgotten.

It also lets your brain breathe for a while. If your head is constantly cluttered with what you need to do next and what you should remember, it has less space to dive deep into more creative processes. Freeing your brain in this way really enhances the ease of creativity and could help you greatly in the long run.

So now that you know all about bullet journaling, what are you waiting for? Get out there and grab a new notebook, or perhaps even an old one, and get to work!

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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