Topic or Question: Time Stamp What is on Kari s blog?... 1:00 (Kari) I blog at stonesoupforfive.com and I mainly blog about life as a Christian and all the ins and outs of that, and I write the journal and doodle Bible studies because I do a lot of stuff on paper. I write a little about homeschooling and raising teens and all that good stuff. So, how long have you been bullet journaling?... 1:40 (Kari) Since I first saw of it, about the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. It s been really good and I like the way it can adapt and change as you go along How do you set up your bullet journal? Do you have different sections? Do you have your calendar in the bullet journal? What are the pieces and parts?... 2:11 (Kari) Let me walk you through it it s a moleskine notebook. If you go to bulletjournal.com you ll see right there, Ryder Carroll s explanation. I started doing it exactly how he set it up. Then I got on the facebook group and google+ group called bullet journal junkies and then you get all the creative ideas that people have done Do you use the grid Moleskine?... 3:35 (Kari) This is the grid composition notebook, but all my Moleskines are the grid ones. I like that it s light Is your calendar-at-a-glance glued or taped in?... 4:37 (Kari) It s just taped in. That s the one downside of the bullet journaling, is the future planning. I always need a calendar to refer to More about how Kari has her bullet journal set up?... 5:02 (Kari) It started out just as a bullet journal for planning and scheduling, and now it is a bullet journal and commonplace book. I do a lot of notetaking especially on books that I m reading Mainly, I use it for scheduling and most importantly my goals Index pages... 6:00 (Kari) Ryder Carroll says to make an index page at the beginning I ve made a grid at the beginning of the year for all the birthdays so I can refer back to it, along with anniversaries. 2015, Simplified Organization LLC Page 1 of 5
Topic or Question: Time Stamp Grid & Goals... 7:36 (Kari) One side is for my goals and the other side is my grid. I have six squares: one is for meals that I ll fix that week, one for spiritual goals, family or home goals, personal and work, and one is just notes. Each week I put that down and hopefully move toward my year long goals. Do you work on the to do list weekly?... 8:18 (Kari) One is my to do list of errands I need to run, a weekly layout. Then I write it for Monday, and then whatever doesn t get finished, it gets moved down to Tuesday The index is what I ve seen most people struggling with and wondering, is it necessary? Do I have to do an index?... 9:10 (Kari) You don t have to. I don t really refer back to it. The only page I refer back to is my husband and I are reading a series of books and I wrote a page in the order they were written. I wrote a checklist of what we had read and a brief little thing of what it was about. You don t really know what pages you re going to refer back to until you start. When do you come up with the goals and figure all that out? How does that process look for you on paper?... 10:13 (Kari) I try once a year to figure out yearly goals. I usually type out my yearly goals. I have them in the seven categories. I have them in a filing system that I refer to every week and then from there it goes into the grid of what I m doing that week. My goal is to move closer toward my end goal, a little closer each week (Mystie) Baby steps. What does a normal week look like?...12:50 (Kari) I ll show you the one I m working on this week. Somebody had this up on bullet journal junkies on Facebook, and this is my composition notebook for the week. Review... 15:30 (Mystie) For a long time I did a morning review, and I ve realized, just a recent change, that if I do that in the evening, I make a better list, it s easier to get started in the morning. (Kari) I like going to bed knowing what I m going to expect the next morning. It makes me feel like I ve finished my day and now we can start fresh. The entire system... 16:12 (Mystie) People want to hear it all. Show us all the things! (Kari) I need the system to stay together, because I m so not together. I m going to take the camera and show you What s the difference between the handwritten and post-its?... 17:29 (Kari) The post-it s are my list of returns I need to get at Wal-mart and the stuff I need to pick up at Target. As I m thinking about it, I write it down on a post it and then I can just grab it and go. 2015, Simplified Organization LLC Page 2 of 5
Do you color code?... 23:24 (Kari) I don t really, because I don t follow through on the color coding, and it gets overwhelming. I like things to be clean and simple. I like the idea of color coding. How would I start? It seems overwhelming... 25:15 (Kari) Don t try to do it all at once. Start with just the bullet journal and a calendar, or just start with the calendar if you re just starting. You can even bullet journal on that (Mystie) When you re committing to a notebook, you want to start off the right way, the first time. But it s going to take several iterations and tries for you to figure out what works for you You mix the commonplace in one notebook. Is it one page, do you just use the next page, or do you reserve sections?... 27:28 (Kari) I used to reserve pages and then I ended up with blank pages in the middle, which is fine. If I m working on something, I do a lot of thinking in my bullet journal. I just start with writing stuff down. There s a lot of messy pages in here.; lots of notes from podcasts, parenting stuff, book clubs (Mystie) So, it s like your brain dump, and planner, and everything, all in one. Do you use the bullet journaling symbols? Bulletjournaling.com has some special symbols for different things?... 34:06 (Kari) I do use some symbols; the ones I mostly use are move it forward and if it s done, I color it in if it s done. If I do have notes, I ll put a dot instead of a box. If it s not something I have to do, it s just something to remember then I ll do it The side tracked home executive is like an old school homemaking book before digital apps, using index cards. You wrote about it on your blog, do you have any tips for how you keep track of home routine type things?... 35:23 (Kari) I did the file system before I had kids. I kind of set up the cards, and then I decided to just do flylady, and then I just recently got the book again and went back and did the whole card system So, your cleaning list is not in your bullet journal, it s a separate clipboard on the wall?... 38:43 (Kari) Yes, because this kind of stuff I need in my face and I don t want to take the time to find the page Do you have your pages on other youtube videos?... 39:29 (Kari) Not all of them. I do have some on my youtube page To view Kari s youtube page, click here 2015, Simplified Organization LLC Page 3 of 5
Doodling... 40:55 (Kari) A bullet journal isn t about being pretty, it s about keeping things organized in your head, and sometimes doodles make more sense to me (Mystie) That s the great thing about paper. You can make it look the way you want it to look, and you can write things out and put things in however you want to communicate to yourself better. The Main Point... 43:49 (Kari) You can have the best system and you can have the best bullet journal layout, find one that you absolutely love more than anything, and unless you actually take the time to look at it every day and to follow through, it s just going to be a piece of paper sitting there. How often do you look at it? You ve talked about that you have a weekly review, an evening review, and what about as you re going along your day? What does using the bullet journal look like?... 44:16 (Kari) I leave it out on my desk. I glance over and see what I had to do that day, and if I hadn t got it done, it s usually enough to stop me to remind me what needs to get done Does your bullet journal live on your desk during the day or does it travel around your house with you?... 46:00 (Kari) It mainly stays on the desk because I have teen boys and they re always spilling things, or I m spilling things. I mainly keep it on my desk where there are no drinks So you re not just updating it at the end of the day, you re updating it throughout the day? You re coming back to it and looking at it and using it throughout the day?... 47:03 (Kari) It is kind of a best friend. It s good to get in the habit. I need stuff in my face or I default to the easiest. So, just having it open. It s really exciting to me to be able to check things off. (Mystie) had a similar thing using a task management digital app. If I add all the housecleaning things I m going to do to that, it s too overwhelming to see that many check lists in a day. How long did it take you to set up your system?... 49:50 (Kari) The bullet journal itself is still an ongoing thing. You can start that today! You can slap a calendar on your wall, you can start your bullet journal today by just writing down check boxes for what you need to do tomorrow. Really, it s that simple Do you have collections on your journal?.... 53:43 (Kari) Yes, I do. It s from Ryder Carroll. It s just themes. One of the new collection pages I ve started is quotes. So any time I come across a quote I like, I ll put it on the quotes page. Do things get lost in your bullet journal? Do you have a hard time finding things, or do you frequently flip through it just to see what s there?.... 56:30 (Kari) A little bit of both. 2015, Simplified Organization LLC Page 4 of 5
Do things get lost in your bullet journal? Do you have a hard time finding things, or do you frequently flip through it just to see what s there?.... 56:30 (Kari) A little bit of both. It s not really lost because I know where I can find it. I finally have got into the habit that I don t write it down unless it s going in here or going on my calendar, so I don t have scraps of paper anymore. So tabs would make a good index page substitution?.... 58:36 (Kari) Yes, I think so. Especially because most of these pages I won t refer back to, just the daily planning ones. The more you can make your planner feel like an expression of you the more you re drawn to it, the more it s going to work. You do have to work it. The more things you can do to make that journal fit you and work for you, the more it will. -Mystie 2015, Simplified Organization LLC Page 5 of 5