11 Bullet Journal Tips And Tricks That Actually Work

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

Looking for awesome bullet journal tips and tricks that actually work? Then you’re in the right place. This is a list of 11 genius bullet journal tips and tricks that everyone who owns a bullet journal needs to know.

In this bullet journal tips and tricks, post we will be talking about bullet journal hacks and tips that can help you increase your productivity. So, this isn’t going to be about tips to make your journal prettier, If you want these, you can read this article to find some of those.

In this post, we will discuss tricks you can use to increase your productivity, live a well-balanced life and accomplish your goals using your bullet journal.

The Essentials You Need To Start:

Before you continue reading about bullet journal tips and tricks, these are some of the products I recommend for bullet journaling. They’re the absolute best and my bullet journalling experience wouldn’t be the same without them!

Hardcover Medium Dotted Journal

Micro-Line Ultra Fine Point Ink Pens

Multi-Purpose Washi Tape Set

Divider Sticky Notes

11 bullet journal tips and tricks everyone needs to know

1. Encode sensitive information

If you’re like most people, you like to take your bullet journal with you. and even if you’re not like most people, you may be living with family or have friends coming over and sometimes people snoop. To make sure that no one sees your sensitive information such as alcohol abuse, drug problems and other sensitive things that you may be using your bujo to document and improve, consider encoding in your bullet journal. That way, you can rest assured that no one can find out about things that you may not want to discuss as yet.

2. Bullet journal tips and tricks – Migrating

Migrating into a new bullet journal can seem hard, but it doesn’t have to be.

If you’re migrating into a new journal, try out this useful hack.

Scan your important pages and stick them to your new journal. That way, you will be migrating the exact spread into the new journal, which s great if these spreads were highly functional in your old journal just the way they are. Also, this will have you save lots of time not having to redo these spreads.

3. Sectioning out your journal

Do you often feel as though your bullet journal is ‘messy’ and is making you feel overwhelmed? The first time I tried out bullet journaling I felt like this too. This is because my journal itself was so disorganized. I would go online and find some spreads that could work for me and I would eagerly add them into my journal without thinking of ‘where’ I was adding in these spreads. Pretty soon, everything was everywhere.

Since then, I’ve found that putting everything that isn’t a weekly, monthly or daily spread in the back of my journal has allowed me to utilize my bullet journal better and it can do the same for you too.

4. Keep it simple

This may go without saying, but for many of us, it is something we should work on. That is, keep your bullet journal simple, at least in the beginning. Many of us started a bullet journal to be more organized and productive, therefore, ensure that you’re spending more time getting things done. As good as it looks to have a beautiful journal, it feels so much better to make that journal work for your intended purpose.

Therefore, one simple hack that can help you increase your productivity, is to create a section for spread inspirations in the back of your bullet journal. You can even call it spread inspiration if you like.

How to use this collection

In your allocated time for browsing, find some really cool spreads that you like and would like to include in your bullet journal. Print these out and stick them in your ‘spread inspiration’ section. That’s it! Now, you can avoid wasting hours of your time browsing and trying to get the perfect spread idea. This almost always ends up with you spending hours of unintended time online searching for more and more spread ideas. Now, with your spread inspirations section, you can quickly and easily flip through your journal to find the perfect layout to choose.

5. Beat overwhelm

In the beginning start simple, especially if your main goal is productivity. Then, once you’re comfortable, go ahead and add extras one by one. After all, although being creative is good for you and it may make you happy, mastering productivity should be your first goal as it will help you find time in your day to be creative without sacrificing anything important. Trust me, this is one of the best feelings in the world!

Many people go down the rabbit hole of decorating instead of planning. If you want to accomplish your goals, live a well-balanced life and feel productive at the end of the day, try not to spend too much time making your journal look pretty.

6. Make an organization system that works.

Do you use washi tape in your bullet journal? Washi tape serves may decorative purposes in a journal, however, it can also be used to help you get more organized in your bullet journal.

How do you do this?

Simply get some washi tape that you like (make sure the colors or patterns are completely different). Then, you decide what each color or pattern will represent and mark your pages and spreads accordingly. For example, if you can use one color for things that are urgent another color for school, one for travel, one for tasks and so on and so forth. That way, when flipping through your journal, you’re able to find anything you need without trouble.

7. Consider using two bullet journals

Sometimes, you just want to eat your cake and have it too. If you want to increase your productivity but you also want a place to doodle so that you feed your soul, then consider using two bullet journals.

One that is personal – add color and embellishments to this one. Make this one your outlet for happiness and release where you play with colors spreads and everything else that makes you excited and let your inner artist flow.

One for work/life – this one will be more basic but will be focused on getting things done. Having this journal separate will make things better. That means, that when you get this journal out for the day, you’re ready to handle business and get things done!

If you choose to use two journals though, remember that you should try managing your time properly. you can read more about this in point number 10.

8. Use habit trackers to increase productivity

Via: ashleyannlaz

Habit trackers are a great way to learn more about your self, your habits, your shortcomings and a way to figure out how you can become a better person. You should always try to include them in your bullet journal because they can:

Help promote success
Create personal accountability
Help keep you on track

Because of this, a habit tracker is a seriously amazing productivity tool.

How do they do that?

Habit trackers added to your daily spreads are a great way to keep the things you’re tracking on your mind daily. Therefore, if you add a few items that you want to start improving in your everyday life, you will be reminded to do them every day. It’s no secret that when you write things down, you tend to really focus on them. Similarly, when you’re tracking something (as in a habit tracker), you tend to really get these things done because you’re able to visually see how good or bad you’re doing.

After all, knowing that you should be filling in those little boxes at the end of the day is a great motivator and exactly what you need to increase your productivity.

Keep up your habit tracker for a while and you’ll see that you naturally begin to pick up the habits easily.

9. Use stickers and washi

Do you like decorations in your bullet journal. Chances are you often see all these beautiful bullet journals all over the internet and you want your bullet journal to look just like them. These different spreads can take a lot of time to complete and perfect, therefore, if you want a nice looking journal – minus all the time it takes to design all these elaborate spreads – consider using stickers and washi tape to beautify your spreads in no time at all!

10. Allocate time for your journal

Have you ever thought of the concept of allocating a specific amount of time for your bullet journal every day? If you haven’t and you’re finding that you spend countless hours in your bullet journal that could be spent more productively, you should definitely try doing this.

Many first-time bullet journalers spend hours creating spreads and finding inspiration and this may be you right now. However, sometimes you’ll find that you’re spending more time creating beautiful spreads than you spending crossing things off your list.

In order to combat this, consider Setting time limits each day that way you control how long you spend on your journal. For example, make a plan to spend 30 minutes on each journal you own every day. So, if you own one bullet journal, spend 15 minutes in the morning on it, and 15 minutes in the evening one it. If you own two journals, do the same. Spend 15 minutes every morning on each and 15 minutes every evening on each. This may seem like such a small amount of time to dedicate to your journal, but believe me, you will see just how much time you will have to spend doing productive things and just how far you grow from doing this in a few months.

11. Make 90% of your pages productivity pages

Make sure that 90% of your pages are productivity pages like to do list, habit trackers, week spreads, financial spreads, weight loss spreads, healthy eating spreads and so much more.

You will save time, and make yourself proud at how far you’ve come. In order to do that, you need to track the things that really matter consistently and your bullet journal productivity pages are the pace to do this.

11 Bullet Journal Tips And Tricks That Actually Work