Have your New Year’s resolutions fizzled out through February? Feeling like 2025 is already slipping through your fingers? Don’t worry – March is here to save the day (and your goals). And what better way to hit the reset button than by starting a bullet journal?
If you’ve spent any time on social media in the past ten years, you’ve likely stumbled across images of beautifully crafted bullet journals. They may be awash in highlighter, inscribed in elaborate script, or decorated with floral motifs, hand-drawn graphics, and eye-catching doodles. But don’t be intimidated by the aesthetic perfection. The good news is that at its core bullet journalling is a simple, effective way to get things done.
Rather than just a pile of to-do lists, the bullet journal method is a top-down approach to organizing all your to-do lists for the whole year. This macro-organization means you can focus on what’s important today without losing track of what you’ll need to tackle in the months ahead.
You do this by creating logs: a future log, dedicated for long-term goals, followed by a monthly log – you can start with March – and a daily log, where you jot down tasks, notes, and events for each day. But before you get to any of that, create your index, a literal table of contents for your bullet journal that may include sections for your big creative ideas, your birthday wish list and space for doodling.
Besides a bit of up-front organizing, the only other thing that may separate bullet journalling from your normal to-do listing is a bit of reflection. Taking time each week and month to review what items you took care of, which you still need to, and which you realized weren’t as important or as urgent as you first thought. And with your far-seeing bullet journal you can move those items to next month, your future log – or delete them entirely.
Speaking of reflection, that’s exactly why March is a perfect time to start your bullet journal. January gets all the goal-setting glory, but frankly, it’s overrated. New Year’s resolutions are often ambitious and, by this time of year, barely limping along if not dead on the side of the road. March, on the other hand, is like the underdog of the calendar year. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, spring is just around the corner. If you’re in the south, autumn is ready to come rushing in. Either way, compared to the stasis of early January, March brings the wind of change, the perfect time to breathe new life into your intentions.
So, think of your bullet journal as a tool to help you take a second (and better-timed) shot at New Year’s resolutions—minus the “it’s January so I’ve got to make resolutions like everybody else” pressure.
So why not crack open a fresh notebook and give it a go? After all, March is life’s way of saying, start again. You’ve got nothing to lose except the thousand sticky notes and the dozen productivity apps currently cluttering your life.
Open link: https://mishmash.pt/