I love journals. I could easily spend an entire day at Barnes & Noble looking at journals and imagining how I'd fill their pages. I have an entire shelf dedicated to journals I've collected over the years. However, very few of them are complete. That's the plight of being a self-proclaimed journal enthusiast: you can always find a new one before you've finished the one you have. So last year, when I saw a Buzzfeed video about the Bullet Journal, I ditched the hard cover Paris-themed journal I was working on in five seconds flat.

Immediately, I went to pinterest to do some more digging. The Bullet Journal already had a growing community of people sharing all sorts of templates for weekly and monthly planners, each one more decadent than the one before. The thing that made it especially cool for me, was the fact that it didn't just have to be a planner. People were making pages to track their fitness goals, books to read, movies to watch, Summer bucket lists. Essentially, these could be your entire brain, mapped out onto it's pages.

I had a black, Moleskine dotted notebook and a set of colored pens in my hands by the end of that day. I have been using the Bullet Journal system for about a year now, and at this point, I couldn't imagine my life without it.

It's so better than any diary or regular event planner I've tried, for two reasons: It's adaptable. I can personally design each page to fit whatever I need: shopping list, class schedule, random to-do's. And each 'design' can be as simple or ornate as I want it to be. Sometimes I might be too tired to go for a super-decorative, weekly layout, so I'll just stick to lines and dates and call it a day!

““For the first time in my life, I have been setting goals, and actually sticking to them. “”

I use my journal to keep track of everything. Budgets, events, personal goals, things I want to try. It has allowed me to stop saying "someday", and start saying "today". For the first time in my life, I have been setting goals, and actually sticking to them. And if I don't? By keeping track of my progress I'm able to see what wasn't working for me-- whether I was too busy, or I simply lost interest.

I've actually learned a lot about myself through this thing! For instance, I spend a lot of money on coffee, and I'm probably too obsessed with Netflix. Also, I will stick with a new workout routine for about 12 days before I end up falling off the wagon. Whoops.

That black, Moleskine dotted notebook is the first journal that I have finished in my entire life. When I ran out of pages at the start of 2018, I went back to Barnes & Noble and bought myself the real thing. Seven months later and I still use it, every day.