I’m so excited to start working with you on creating your own customized digital bullet journal. This project will share my digital bullet journal template and provide ideas and tips every week.
If we haven’t met yet, I’m Arisu, a digital journal lover and the blogger behind Arisu Digital Studio.
I transformed a traditional paper journal into a digital journal in 2020, and it was life-changing. Now I want to help you start your own and transform your life for the better.
In this first article, we’re going to get familiar with the concept of the bullet journal and some terminology, so you won’t get lost in the future. As well as discuss the most important question that will define your journal style.
What is a Bullet Journal?
Bullet Journal is a customizable planning system you create in a notebook. Your Bullet Journal is a place to preserve your past, track your current activities, and plan the future.
The beauty of the system is that you are the only one who decides what elements to add there, how to make your pages look, and how to organize them. How amazing is it?
This means that there isn’t a right or wrong way to Bullet Journal. There are however a few basic concepts your Bullet Journal involves around.
If you want to learn more about traditional bullet journals, you can find detailed the bullet journal by Ryer Caroll
What is a Digital Bullet Journal?
Happiness digital bullet journal covers an index
Similar to a traditional bullet journal, a digital bullet journal is an interactive notebook used on the iPad, instead of a pen and paper.
The digital bullet journal has links called hyperlinks. When you click on a link to the journal index or title, it takes you to a specific page in the journal.
For example, look at the image below. When you click on one of the tabs or bullet points, you are automatically taken to a specific journal page where you can customize it.
For more about pre-made digital Journal, please read the article “Digital Journal Vs Bullet journal”
How to Use a Digital Bullet Journal?
Create your own digital journal or buy a pre-made journal template designed by Arisu Digital Studio. I have created 30 days happiness journal with a bullet journal page template for our community and clients.
Download the GoodNotes app on your iPad and use the “+” to add the journal. Android and Windows users try the apps Noteshelf, EzPDF, Xodo, and Metamoji.
Follow the steps in the digital bullet journal guide and resources to learn how to decorate your digital journal!
How to Decorate a Digital Bullet Journal with resouce
A fast and easy way to decorate the pages of your planner is with printables or page widgets in the Arisu Creator Club resource vault.
Save the PNG or PDF file in iCloud > find the file in your cloud folder > click on the file to make the sidebar and other tools disappear.
If saving a PDF file, hold the power button and the home button at the same time to take a screenshot.
Use the blue dashes to select the parts of the printable that you want to save and click done to save the printable to the camera roll.
2. Open the GoodNotes app, and in the toolbar, select the “image icon.” Click on the pages of the planner, and a pop-up “Photos” window will appear. Select the file.
3. Resize the file to fit your digital journal or planner.
Once you have set up your digital bullet journal, I will show you some of the idea pages set up with our resources.
Digital Bullet Journal Termonigy
The digital bullet journal has the basic concept of a traditional bullet journal and adds more functions from a digital planner to make it easy to use and allow for unlimited creation. So you are familiar with the basic concept of terms
1. Bullet Journal Spreads / Collections
Think of your digital Bullet Journal as a building, and the spreads or collections you use in it are the building blocks. The beauty of the system is, of course, that there’s an unlimited amount of different pages you can use, and you can come up with your own unique pages suited to your personal needs.
2. Rapid Logging
Rapid logging is the language your journal is written in. It’s pretty simple – all your journal entries are made in short sentences and marked by a special symbol.
The basic symbols in the bullet journal are:
Dot – task
Circle – event
Dash – note
Exclamation Mark – important
You are, of course, welcome to create your own, but always keep in mind that less is more, you need your signifiers to be easy to go to.
3. Migration
Migration is a way to review. You migrate your tasks from day to day, from month to month, and then you, of course, migrate your journal to a new notebook. This process allows you to re-evaluate what things are important in your life.
Reflection pages
4. Reflections
The Bullet Journal method first and foremost is about building a better and more meaningful life. Reflections are what help you the most to achieve that.
Every time you sit down to plan, reflect on what happened the day before and think of what you could do better today. This is the way to move forward.
Having such freedom brings some difficulties as well. What pages should I add?
How to set them up? Things like that…
But don’t worry about it! I’ll walk you through the process and give you all the pointers. However, there is one thing I need you to think about right now.
If you are struggling with setting up keys, I have created PNG/PDF files of a few bullet journal keys in our freebie vault.
Why do you want to Bullet Journal?
Remember I talked about that one question that will define your digital bullet journal adventures?
A digital bullet journal is a unique tool that can help you with almost anything. So I believe that before you start, it’s important to consider what you want to get from it.
Do you want to be productive?
Do you want to be more creative on a day-to-day basis?
Are you looking for a way to track your health?
Do you want to use BuJo to organize your school life?
Or is it maybe just you giving a try to a new trend?
I recommend that you need to define your “why”. This is one of the core things you should do from the beginning. It can change over time, but it will help you each step of the way, from choosing a template or page widget to planning out your pages.
Please be aware that you should not overthink it, but just make sure you ask yourself some of these questions before our next step.
Follow the Actionable Step and Resources to create your digital bullet journal
ACTIONABLE STEP
Think about your why, maybe even make a list of the things you want to achieve or try in your digital bullet journal. I bet you already have tons of ideas.
Grab a free 30-day digital bullet journal and a happiness journal
Learn about how to set up a digital bullet journal with hand-drawn page widgets and stickers.
Join our Arisu Creator Club and get access to the Creator resource vault along with digital clipart monthly magazine
RESOURCES
If you want to use our free digital bullet journal template, please download the PDF template from our Freebie Vault.
Also every week, I will share hand-drawing bullet journal page widgets in our Arisu Creator Club Resource Vault. As our Arisu Creator Club members, you can get them from our resource vault at any time along with the monthly digital clipart magazine (Membership Subscription)
2023 digital bullet journal guide project
I am continually adding the article about the digital bullet journal setup and resources in the Arisu Creator Club week project.
This week’s project is arranged in a specific order. To learn about the digital bullet journal step process, please read the article and follow the actions in order, and do not skip any steps. It will guide you step by step through the setup.
This project is not bound by a timeline. You can complete the actions at your own pace. It won’t take you much time. From my experience, I spent my digital bullet journal set up less than a week the first time.
Each article has an actionable step. Please Do so! It’s important not to delay and implement what you learned right away.
Getting out the Most From our action steps
Use the extra resources. In each article, I’ll cover the basics, but if you want more, check all the extra resources available in our Creator Club member resource vault(member-only). There are also some PDF printable and cheat sheets available in our Freebie vault, be sure to make use of them as well.
Tag me on Instagram. If you want to share your work – be sure to tag me on my Instagram. I’d love to see your work and share it.
Be part of the community! Having a community always helps to develop and actually see how you’re not alone with your struggles. Plus it’s probably the best way to find help. You can join our Facebook group, as well as the Arisu Creator Club membership
Next week, I will share the setup process with resources, in the meantime, download our free digital bullet journal template to explore.
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