How I Set Up My Work Bullet Journal
When I first started bullet journalling in 2018, I was simply thrilled about having one commonplace notebook to stash all of my notes, thoughts, plans and to-do lists. After all, this is one huge benefit of the system – being able to create trackers, collections and pages to perfectly suit how you prefer to organise your life and lifestyle.
However, since moving from my previous self-employed, business-running world to a more traditional, full-time employment routine, I’ve really enjoyed keeping a separate bullet journal solely for work. Not only does it give my overcrowded, overthinking brain some sort of physical separation, it also functions in a different way too.
My main bullet journal is a bit of a life manual. It brings together everything from my annual wishlist (this spans items, clothes, trips, experiences, recipes, essays to write…) to my read books tracker, daily to-do lists to my trip packing lists. In short, I couldn’t be without it, daily. When it came to work, though, I needed faster access to notes and more that’d get lost in my primary notebook. So, I set up a bujo specifically for my 9-5. Here’s a peek inside (and I’ve even recreated my spreads in a shareable, confidential information removed, way!).
The notebook
I chose another Notebook Therapy ‘original size’ notebook again. Really, this was by mistake – I thought I’d selected A5! – but it fits perfectly in the handbag I use on my office days, so it works. Dot grid pages, pure white, with a little slip envelope in the back.
A minimal cover page
Since this is a work bullet journal, I kept my cover page simple with a sticker and the dates that the notebook spans. Nothing too fancy!
Index
An index has been absolutely key to my bullet journal system since day dot. This is an evolving contents page, allowing you to keep track of where your pages, collections and trackers are, since typically in a bullet journal you don’t have all of these at the front. It works well in my personal bujo, but I think it’s especially great in my work notebook to log important meeting and campaign notes that I’ll need to refer to time and time again.
Future log
The future log is one of those collections that not everybody finds important. But it’s really good for my work journal because I can note down paydays, in-office days, campaign launches, team days, and other work-related dates.
Career goals
I think I’ve created one of these pages every year that I’ve bullet journaled. One page, divided into four, where I list some of my goals. For my work bullet journal, I focused on these four areas:
- Development
- Milestones
- Pay and reward
- Mindset and habits.
Of course, these will be different for every person and role, but I’ve found this to be useful for me as a copywriter. Then, I bullet point some goals!
Important things
In case you didn’t know, I’m a really forgetful person. I’m queen of forgetting my login after even a long weekend away from my work laptop! So, this page is really rather confidential, is often covered up with Post-it Notes, and conceals my email, password, colleague number, and other tidbits like our team cost centre code. Little admin things.
Annual work objectives
I also make a note of my annual work objectives in my bullet journal. This is actually recorded properly online, but I personally find it really useful to have them written out manually as well. This way, I can refer to them at a glance and continually make small actions to work towards meeting all of my objectives. At my workplace, our objectives impact one of our two reward bonuses, which is a great incentive!
Monthly dashboard
After that, we go into the bulk of my notebook. I like to start each month with a single-spread dashboard. Inspired by Megan, this is divided into four to house: a month-to-view calendar, key events, gratitude, and key moments. Now, I think this dashboard has been transformational for me at work. Obviously the month-to-view is very practical, but the page works as a minimal memory-keeping device.
When it comes to our mid-year and year-end appraisals, I no longer need to worry about remembering when I pulled off a big, successful campaign or when I enrolled on training – it’s all here. And, I love noting down work-related gratitude, like positive feedback from colleagues, or a fun afternoon in the office with everybody, or even feeling proud of myself after a big presentation.
Dailies
My dailies then rely on my bullet system! I use rolling dailies and a simplified key to create running lists of to-do’s, urgent tasks, meetings, admin tasks, training courses, and even team-related activities. I’ll share a redacted example with you:
□ Check birthday card rota
• 10.30 Creative Studio stand-up – Teams
• 15.00 [Campaign Name] kick-off call – Teams
– Buy birthday card for [Colleague Name]
□ Update [Campaign Name] deck – due 04/04/24
□ Make amends to [Job Name], feedback on ticket
□ Skeleton draft for Week 6 homepage refresh
• 16.30 1-1 with [Manager] – Room G23
– Follow up with [Colleague Name] about style guide updates
Meeting and campaign notes
As a corporate girlie, I am often in meetings and I also, excitingly, get to head up some nationwide campaigns. I’m a manual note-taker, so these are interspersed throughout my notebook and get logged in my index. I use my same minimal bullet key.