How I’m Organising and Journalling in 2024

When I filled up my 2023 bullet journal in just four-and-a-half months, I made an impulse decision to revert to a ring-bound agenda for a while. Long-term readers of Daisybutter might remember that I always used an agenda to stay organised: my parents gifted me a Dior agenda in my teenage years, then later I became a full-fledged Filofax ambassador! This adaptable, flexible method has always sung to me. In hindsight, no wonder I eventually became a bullet journalist – the technique is even more adaptable and flexible.

For the remainder of 2023, I stayed in my beautiful agenda. My binder from The Inspired Stories is gorgeous and it looks great on my desk, as well as being kitted out with plenty of slots for keeping notes, sticky tabs, receipts and other mementoes. I used a base kit from the same brand, and even designed my own dashboards and inserts. Although I could adapt my agenda, I realised that I missed the flexibility of a bullet journal.

Rejoice, one and all, for I’ve decide to head back to my bullet journalling ways in 2024. Balancing a full-time job, busy personal life, a bookstagram, blog and other projects meant I ended up toting around several notebooks again. A bullet journal had always allowed me to combine all of these functions into one! This time, however, I’m not going to let myself feel restricted by things like weekly layouts and trying to ‘end’ the notebook by the end of June or December. While some people can sit in just one notebook for the year, I think I’m surely a multiple notebook girl.

You see, my bullet journal practice includes, but isn’t limited to:

Everyday planning
Long-form journalling
List-making
Gratitude
Yearly goals
Habit tracking, mostly for gym progress!
Content planning
Gift idea tracking
Meeting notes
Work goals and notes
Monthly self check-ins.

Without further ado, let me share how I’m staying – or hoping to stay! – organised in 2024…

The Method

I have always used the bullet system in my bullet journals. For whatever reason, bullet journalling has become associated with dot grid notebooks, but the bullet journal method is actually all about using a system of bullet points to organise yourself. It expands on simple bullets and tick boxes, which you can adjust to your own needs: I typically use Ryder Carroll’s basic bullets and add a few to denote gratitude, birthdays, anniversaries and ‘currently reading’. This is also a brilliant way to ‘get into’ journalling if you often struggle with longer-form writing.

The Notebook

This time, I’ve chosen another Notebook Therapy notebook. I really love the linen-effect covers and foiled page edges, and I also love how thick the pages are. Since I write a lot, I prefer my pages to be thicker so they don’t get crinkly with lots of pen use. I usually get a good five to six months out of A5 200-page notebooks, so let’s see how long this one lasts me!

My 2024 Set-Up

Title Page

While I said that my bullet journal is primarily for function, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t matter what the journal looked like aesthetically. I’m not an artist, so I tend to create simple but effective typeface-centric title pages with Cricut vinyl. This then tends to set the tone for the rest of my bujo. For 2024, I’m going for bold lettering, much like the Kindle lockscreens I’ve been making.

Key

I’ve bullet journalled since 2017, so I have a good grasp of my own bullet system. However, having taken a seven-month break from the practice, I thought it’d be good to reinstate this so I’m clear on which bullet denotes which action or note. Of course I capture tasks with tick boxes, but I also love to note down everyday gratitude, affirmations, notes and other oddments on my daily logs. I’ve taken the liberty of mocking up what a typical daily log could look like, using my usual system.

Index

The index is an essential part of my bullet journal, allowing me to easily find monthly logs, lists or even themed journal entries. In January 2023, I adopted Megan’s threading system and it has been SO good. Effectively, this is your contents page, a manual CTRL+F.

Future Log

Another classic feature of many bullet journals is the future log. This maps out your year by month, allowing you to note down future events. The idea is to use this as your reference point when laying out monthly or daily logs, since there aren’t pre-mapped out pages. I find this also makes a great tool for ensuring that you don’t spread yourself too thinly: you can see just how many events or occasions you have each month.

2024 Wishlist

A somewhat new addition, however, is my 2024 wishlist. This is borrowed from a The Inspired Stories agenda insert, where you could write out places to visit, books to read, experiences, things to learn, projects, and more. Surprisingly, this worked well for me and I managed to tick almost all of the things from my list. For 2024, I’m going to do exactly the same.

Spending Planner

Another longtime staple in my journals is a spending planner. Here, I plot out the 12 months of the year and use the pages to pencil in upcoming expenses, so I can plan my spending in a sustainable way. This works really well for me, especially since I am paid on a monthly basis. For example, I can plot in birthdays and assign an estimated budget, add in when my skincare is likely to run out, pop in big bills and pet insurance renewal, then use the overview to book holidays during low-spend periods.

Monthly Logs

A big feature of my bullet journal is the monthly log. I enjoy capturing my months just as much as the everyday, and my time in a ring agenda this year cemented that for me. I suppose, just like at school, I’ll always find regular check-ins and reviews valuable.

In 2024, I hope to further this practice with a spot to note down a monthly intention or focus. Yearly goals always feel lofty and I seem to forget about them in recent years, but I can get on board with monthly intentions. 12 things to achieve or focus on in a year.

Then, I’ll round up each month with a short introspection, noting the highs and lows, plus logging any remarkable moments, books, games, and experiences.

Month-to-View

The month-to-view has always been pretty useful to me, so of course I am bringing these back. This time, I’ll take up more space so that I can add more than one event or appointment per day, if needed. I’m also going to pop in my workout tracker here, so I can see (and motivate myself with!) my workout split throughout the month. With a more balanced work schedule and hours, this year I want to try and get some five-workout weeks in!

Weekly Logs

I’m a fickle weekly logger, so this will probably change all the time, depending on my needs for the week. But, here is my January week one log! It includes space for my planned gym sessions, appointments and day-specific tasks that I’d like to get done. Rather than using this like a traditional planner, it is more to keep me on track with roughly what is going on when. My daily to-do lists will come in more detail in…

Rolling Daily Log

… the rolling daily log! Here is where the bullet system kicks in, allowing you to list tasks, events, appointments, birthdays, gratitude and even journal sentences. I keep a long-form journal, so really this is more of a stream of consciousness log that I’ll reference when sitting down to properly write.

So, there’s an introduction to my organisation method for 2024 and my latest bullet journal set-up! I’d love to peek inside your journals – share your links with me below!