There are so many mistakes new bullet journalers make that eventually lead to them quitting. Mistakes can cause discouragement, which is never what you want while journaling. All that hard work you put into your journal goes to waste and you stop working on it. Don’t let those negative thoughts keep you from journaling.
Bullet journaling was never meant to be easy, but it is supposed to help you. Give it a chance to improve your life! It is worth it in the end when you finally figure out how to journal. Avoid these 8 mistakes new bullet journalers make so that you can continue bullet journaling for years to come!
1. Making It Complicated
Bullet journaling is so wonderful! It helps you to organize your life and to be creative at the same time. Yet, when you first start journaling, you want it to look like all the amazing spreads you find on Pinterest or see on YouTube. However, those spreads are created by seasoned journalers and aren’t always realistic for you.
It isn’t a crime to start simple! Although we all want to immediately begin making amazing spreads, it isn’t always possible for everyone. It takes time to get used to bullet journaling. The beautiful spreads you see on the Internet are all created with time and practice. You’ll get there eventually but take your time. It’s not a race!
Next, you have to consider that the more complicated you make your bullet journal, the more discouraged you’ll become. Everyone gets busy. You won’t always have plenty of time to work on journaling. Being able to fit the creation of your spreads into your schedule is not going to come to you easily as soon as your start journaling. If you start off with big expectations, you will soon have difficulties keeping up, and you’ll eventually stop journaling.
2. Expecting Immediate Success
Expecting immediate success is one of the mistakes new bullet journalers make. Bullet journaling isn’t always an easy process. You try out plenty of spreads when you first start out and you expect them to immediately change your life for the better. Sadly, that’s not how it works.
Bullet journaling takes time to get used to. No, it won’t be a simple process. When I first started journaling, it took me months to really get in the swing of it. You need to figure out which spreads work for you and which don’t.
Case in point, I started out with a space for each day of the week and occasionally a weekly to-do list. However, I work best when my schedule for the week is separated into sections. So, I was still writing my weekly to-do list in other notebooks. Eventually, I found out that I could dedicate a larger area of the page to a weekly to-do list for each of my classes (I was in school at the time). It worked so much better!
It takes time to achieve success with your journal. You won’t immediately use all of your spreads and make them work. Give it some time and you’ll find a successful bullet journaling system for you.
3. Thinking Other People’s Spreads Will Work for You
When I first started bullet journaling, I was trying out plenty of spreads. Amanda Rach Lee was a big inspiration for me. One of the main spreads I really wanted to try was her playlist for the month, where she puts all the songs she loved that month. I added it to a few of my months in the beginning, but I never filled out the spread. I’m not the kind of person who finds new songs every month. Instead, I listen to the same songs over and over again for years.
As much as I wanted it to work out, someone else’s spread wasn’t meant for me. The same applies to you! Other people’s spreads won’t always be what you need in your journal. And it can be really discouraging, but finding your own spreads is one of the great parts of journaling. It gets to be completely your own!
Other people have different needs. You might need to track the amount of water you drink every day whilst others prefer to track exercise. Just know, you can’t rely on other people’s spreads because they aren’t customized to you. When you give it enough time, you’ll find your own spreads and trackers.
4. Not Making It a Habit
One of the biggest mistakes new bullet journalers make is not making a habit of journaling every day or every few days (however often you choose). Bullet journaling is not the kind of thing you can pick up every few months. You need to work on it continuously.
In your habit tracker, you track those things so that you do them daily, which is supposed to encourage you to keep doing that activity. You track daily so that you don’t quit. The same goes for bullet journaling. You need to do it daily so that you don’t drop the activity as a whole.
Bullet journaling is expensive! You’ve already paid to get the journal and the other supplies you need, so you don’t want to quit now.
The best way to ensure you won’t quit bullet journaling is just to keep at it, even when it gets hard or you forget a day or two. It happens! Just don’t let it stop you from continuing. Bullet journaling is worth it in the end but only if you make a habit out of it. It won’t be worth the effort if you aren’t actually using it.
5. Starting With Too Much at Once
When you first start bullet journaling, you suddenly have so many options open to you. You could create spreads for your favourite movies or a cleaning schedule, etc. You see all the fancy things other journalers are doing and you want to join in too. That’s one of the mistakes new bullet journalers make!
You want to start off big, but all you are doing is cluttering your journal with spreads you will never use. It takes time to get used to journaling, especially if you want to do it daily. By adding all of these spreads, you are just putting added pressure on yourself. You will likely start to feel discouraged because you aren’t using all of those spreads.
I spend about 5-10 minutes journaling at the end of my day every night and that’s all I need. You might need more time, but try not to add too much to your journal when you are first starting. With time, you’ll see which spreads don’t work for you and which spreads you need to add. You can always add creative and fun spreads along the way. They don’t need to be at the beginning of the journal.
Essentially, you need to give yourself some time to develop what you need in your journal instead of adding a whole bunch of stuff when you first start your journey.
6. Comparing It to Others’ Work
Okay, we are all a little guilty of this one. It is so hard not to compare your work with that of others, especially when you first start out. The problem is that you aren’t giving yourself enough credit.
The people who are posting pictures of their spreads are seasoned journalers. They have lots of experience, sometimes years’ worth. It’s not fair to you to compare yourself to them. They were once where you are now. No one immediately becomes a journaling master overnight. It also isn’t fair to downplay all the time and hard work they have put into their craft.
Comparing yourself to others just keeps you from finding your full potential. Don’t let someone else’s work make you think that what you have achieved isn’t great too! Just getting started on the journaling journey is an accomplishment in itself.
Just because your spreads don’t look like the ones you see on the internet doesn’t mean they aren’t worthwhile! Your spreads are as beautiful as you believe them to be.
7. Sticking With Only One Thing
When you first start bullet journaling, you choose one way to do it and that’s it. We all just want to continue with the style we have chosen. We love our original style and because of that, we don’t want to change it. However, change is sometimes necessary.
If you start journaling artistically, you try to keep that up. You keep trying to make your spreads super artistic to keep up with your aesthetic. Sadly, life gets derailed and we change. We won’t always want to keep the same style but we get caught in a rut. We want our journal to look amazing even as we flip through it at the end of the book. Therefore, we think we have to keep up with our original style to keep that dream alive.
However, journaling isn’t about the look of it. At its heart, bullet journaling is for organizational purposes. You shouldn’t feel like you have to stick to one thing. Your original style won’t always be what you need to keep your life in order. Don’t limit yourself just because you fear change. Change is good and productive. You can allow your bullet journal to change with you.
8. Thinking It Is Over When You Take a Break
Now, you have to know that bullet journaling isn’t easy. There will be times when you want to quit or times when you are just too busy to keep up with it. When I was in school, there were some months where I just couldn’t keep up with my work and creating my spreads. Bullet journaling was always the first thing to go on my list of to-dos. And it’s probably the same for you.
It’s natural to have times where you just can’t journal. And that’s okay! One of the mistakes new bullet journalers make is when they don’t go back to it. You can’t give up!
The first few months (or even the first year) are always the hardest. You still haven’t gotten used to adding bullet journaling to your schedule. And it takes a lot of time. Yes, it might seem too hard at first. That’s why a lot of people quit in the beginning. They don’t give themselves enough time to adjust to their new schedule and lifestyle.
Even if you do need a break or you quit for a month or two, just know that you are not a failure. Everyone goes through those lulls. You just need to keep trying! It will be worth it in the end.
Bullet journaling has never been easy! Some people online make it look effortless, but so much time and effort go into those creations that you never get to see. You need to give yourself some time to adjust so that you too can start making some bullet journaling magic. Above are the mistakes you should be avoiding as a new bullet journaler so that you can go on to have a great bullet journaling experience. Have fun and let us know in the comments what mistakes you made as a new bullet journaler!
