List: What Mandy Loves About Bullet Journaling

Bullet Journaling has taken over the Internet for those who love logging their life in cutesy ways using old-school pen and paper.  I'm one of those suckers who jumped right in and NOW I'M OBSESSED.  I use the techniques in a personal planner with colored-coded awesomeness, and use it with work for logging to-dos and meeting notes.  I'm even getting inspired to journal more (even if it's not happening technically yet, sure - the inspiration is there).

Since I can't stop / won't stop making my pseudo bullet journal the best it can be and soaking in all the tips all over the Pinterests and blogs and Googles, I must chime in with a list of what I love about it for the record:

• The foundation created by Mr. Bullet Journal himself Ryder Carroll is easy to customize to what you want to do / redo for you.  Noobs, go to this website.  It is so wonderfully simple in the "why didn't I think of that" way, able to be built up or down based on what works best for you.  Break rules, follow them to a tee, do whatever makes your list and logging life easier and enjoyable.

• There's unlimited inspiration online from other bullet-journalers.  That's what's great about the web, sharing unlimited possibilities for almost anything with others who seek such things.  I can't wade through Pinterest browsing without stumbling upon another great bullet journal layout idea or ways to "log the every day" I wouldn't have thought before.  The Internet, man.  God love ya.

• Track elements of your life you hadn't thought of before.  You don't even need a bullet journal to see and absorb its benefits in almost any aspect of everyday life.   A recent habit tracker idea may work for me outside my bullet journal, and I just may try it soon.  Another works really well with my work to-dos and tracking meeting notes.  If I was a mom, I'd be killing it scheduling all the mom stuff I'd be doing to keep my children alive and well. 

• Looking back at the previous months.  Nostalgia-lovers rejoice.  If you think reading your fifth-grade diary was entertaining, imagine what reading about your current boring (or exciting) life would be like in a few years.  You have so much more logged than your pre-pubescent self!  So much to look over as the year goes on for goal tracking, and as the years go by to make fun of yourself for.

• I'm more aware of my habits/goals.  Habit tracker apps and other generic methods I've tried burn me out after a while.  The thing I focused so hard on fades to obscurity for something else because of low accountability.  Having the physical record of what I'm doing each day / month / etc is Current Mandy's perfect accountability.  Future Mandy will thank me for tracking which goals I attempted and/or failed, which habits I accidentally formed, and which of the two I saw hills and valleys for in flattening that line of progression the best I could.