
One of my goals for this year was to reduce the number of planners I was using. I’m down from 6 to 4, so yay! Unfortunately, one of the planners I’ve decided to abandon this year is my Bullet Journal.
I love the idea of the Bullet Journal – having everything all in one place is ideal for me, I thought. What I’ve come to realize is that I’m a functional planner, not a decor or artistic planner. I use my planner(s) to keep my life organized. If they’re also pretty, that’s a bonus, but not a need. Which is how Bullet Journals started – as a functional planner.
These days, all the Bullet Journals you see are the ones where amazingly artistic people have spent what must be hours slaving over gorgeous spreads. I don’t want to spend that kind of time – writing the same calendar over and over and over, drawing (in my case, poorly) decorations, etc.

If I spent the time to draw this movie tracker, I wouldn’t have any time to watch the movies! Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest are chock-full of spread ideas like this for making your BuJo beautiful.
And that’s great. Nothing wrong with decorating your BuJo, if that’s what makes you happy. Me? I’d rather buy a preprinted planner and create stickers to make it useful (and pretty). I wanted to stick with the BuJo, I really did.
But after several months of gritting my teeth and forcing myself to use it, I decided it wasn’t worth the headache and guilt for me. I spent more time avoiding it than I did using it, which defeated the whole purpose.
Someday maybe I’ll use it again. But for now, I’m sticking with what works – and that is not using the Bullet Journal. A lesson to remember – if it doesn’t work for you, leave it and move on. Now I’m free to concentrate on other things.
I agree. I do love bullet journalling but not for the organising side. Purely because I dont enjoy the prettiest side of it. It takes up way too much time and that’s not my purpose. Found I like it for ideas etc and I’ll stick to filofax for planning and calendar. Great post
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I have definitely discovered that I am a functional planner, not a decor planner. Thanks for the comment!
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I am so not a creative person when it comes to bullet journals and every time I have attempted to use one I honestly have no idea where to start. I was given the Amanda Rach Lee Doodle Planner for Christmas – and while she admits it is not a bullet journal, it has been pre-decorated so I don’t have to. I am personalising it however by colouring in certain parts of it. I am loving it so far, so maybe it will help with my own creativity
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I didn’t even know you could get pre-decorated planners. I’ll have to do some searching and see what’s out there. Thanks for sharing!
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This is the one I have – she is pretty huge on youtube, https://shopamandarachlee.com/ there might be others out there too – I honestly didn’t even think about looking before I saw this one haha
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I knew who she was, just didn’t realize you could get the predecorated journals, though it makes sense. Those are super cute!
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