Unless you’re one of those people who came into the world with a notepad and pens, to-do list ready to go, you could probably do with being more organised.
That isn’t a bad thing! We could all do with being more organised. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve wanted to be! But no matter what you tried, it never lasted.
Well, if you’re just starting your StudyOnline.ie journey, preparing for exams, or just generally want to be more organised, here are some tips for you!
Bullet Journals.
You might be wondering, what is a bullet journal?
Well, a bullet journal can be many things. Basically, it’s a way to plan your day, week and month by taking big tasks and breaking them down into something smaller, smaller and smallest.
It can also be used to monitor things like your own spending/finances, tracking your goals or simply just what you need to do that day.
There are a myriad of ways to layout and design your journal so that it works for you, and what you need.
For Example:
Say for example, in the month of March you wanted to… read three books, go to the gym more, and finish a new section of your coursework.
Well, then you’d take a 2-page spread of your journal and dedicate it to “March”. One page would be monthly goals, the other would be a breakdown of week by week.
So you write down your monthly goals, and maybe reminders or appointments like “hair cut, March 15th” or “car check, March 28th”.
You can also put here things like “spending log for the month” or “fitness goals” or whatever you want!
Then, using the other page you break down each week, and you divvy up tasks needed to complete your goals there. So, if you want to read three books in that month, decide which weeks you’re going to finish those books in.
If you want to cover a section of your course, break it down to a topic or two to cover in a week.
If you want to go to the gym, pick a week to go and try it out, and so on and so forth.
Then, you make another two-page spread and dedicate that to a week, and break it down day by day.
Looking at what you want to achieve month-by-month, and then week-by-week, you can break it down to what needs to be done day-by-day.
And so when you look at your goal for the week, decide “well to reach this goal by the end of the week, I need to do this by Friday. I should do x on Monday, y on Wednesday and z on Thursday and I should be up to speed!”
If you prefer, you can break your day down further to “morning, afternoon and evening” to get more of a grasp on when you need to do things, or break it down hour by hour if you really want to.
Many people like to make their journals more creative, by adding in sketches, stickers, designs and much more. Some like to add motivational quotes or phrases. There are many ways to make your journal stand out and be more than just a glorified to-do list. Some companies even make stickers for just this purpose!
While you can buy journals, like this fancy (and pricey) one from erincondren.com, you can turn any old notebook into a journal, or you can buy a beginners one from Amazon.co.uk. You can get stickers, patterned paper tape and anything else you could want on Amazon.co.uk as well!
So, if you keep track of when you need to spend money, when you spent money you shouldn’t, plans made, plans cancelled and everything in between, you’ll find yourself more organised and prepared than ever.
The beauty of bullet journals is that you can customise them to however you want. If you don’t like how you laid out March, change it for April. Add or remove whatever you want, change the layout, colour code until you’re happy with it!
