Tuesday 28 March 2017

Bullet journal + Habitica

Halfway through March, I gave in to Crazy Me's pressure and started a bullet journal.

(I haven't explained about Crazy Me yet, have I? Maybe I'll write a post on her later. For now, let's just say she wants to attend a Comic-Con and travel to England and act and sing in musicals and meet famous actors like Chris Hemsworth and Benedict Cumberbatch. She wouldn't have anything to say to them, though. Also she's probably the driving force behind this blog, and she wishes I'd do those artsy photographs you other girls do. You know, the gorgeous artsy photographs? Those ones.)

I'd seen bullet journals on Pinterest. And ignored them. Because seriously, they're so... fabulous. Perfect. The writing is tiny and neat, the doodles are gorgeous. I couldn't do that.

Crazy Me put on the pressure.

Okay, so I liked them; the more I saw them, the more I wanted to do it; but I was discouraged at the same time. I'm not artsy and my handwriting is chicken-scratch and my doodles are more like scribbles.

 

 My Bullet Journal


But I did it. 
 


Probably not how you're supposed to do it, but I'm working on making it work for me. The point, after all, is organisation, not art. (Not that I'm criticizing those who have beautiful art - I want to encourage those who don't. Like me.) It isn't perfect, but I like it a lot more than I thought I would. I've even managed to get a leeetle bit artsy by getting ideas from Pinterest.

But now I have a problem: I used to write down to-do lists on scraps of paper, which I don't miss, but my 'collections' were scattered across notebooks, which I now have no purpose for. (And they're nowhere near full! *very upset*) I think this means I may not be able to justify such a large notebook collection in future... although I will need more for my future bullet journals!



While I'm talking about organising, there's another thing I use; this one is more for to-do lists and forming habits. 

Habitica 


Before I began bullet journaling (journalling? journaling?? spell-check doesn't like either!), I discovered Habitica. Its tag line is "Habitica - Your life the role-playing game". You make to-dos, daily to-dos, and habits; then when you tick one as done, you get gold and XP. With the gold you can buy armour and equipment, which can increase the rate of gold/XP you get ticking things off. Or if you tick what you've marked as a negative habit, you lose health.

I'd never tried anything like RPGing. I still wouldn't know how. But I find Habitica really motivating. I love ticking off lists, and this gives me 'rewards' for doing that. (Plus the site is clear and colourful and you get to dress up a little avatar.)

I was concerned that Habitica and my journal would double up, but they don't very much. The bullet journal is for organisation and a record, and Habitica is for motivation. So I'm keeping both for now.



Do you have methods for organising? Are you motivated by ticking lists, or not really? If you have a bullet journal, tell me! I'd love to hear any recommendations for collections or ways to improve it. :)



4 comments:

  1. I think your bullet journal is lovely! And the leaves and birds you drew around March is an excellent bit of art, in my opinion. Nice job! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aww, thank you, Miss March! Your kind words are very encouraging. (As for the art, I was inspired by a photo on Pinterest, surprisingly enough! I just can't seem to create pictures and doodles like that in my head, but I can copy them, I guess.) Do you have a bullet journal?

      Delete
    2. No. I actually don't know that much about them really. You're the second person I've heard even mention them. Haha. I used to keep a regular journal when I was younger but I was never very good at it. I always got bogged down feeling like I had to record everything. Which was much too overwhelming. And most of the stuff I had to record was pretty boring anyway.

      Delete
    3. Regular journals never worked for me, either - particularly ones with dates marked in them! (so much blank space... and when I actually wanted to write paragraphs of something there wasn't enough room.)

      Delete

rule 1: comment. or the owl will judge you
rule 2: no inappropriate language. or the owl will judge you.
rule 3: have fun. or the owl will judge you.
((rule 4: feed the owl, he likes cake))