The world of planners and journals has been growing rapidly over the past few years. People are constantly trying to find a way to organize their lives more efficiently, from one day at a time to weeks in advance. It can be difficult for people who have never tried either type of planner before, which is why we want to help you decide: bullet journal vs planner?
Learn about the differences and similarities between these two fantastic tools to help you find the one that works best for your life.
What is a Planner?
A planner is a notebook containing an overview of the year, pages for each day or week to write appointments and events in detail. A planner can be a pre-printed template, or you can make a planner out of a plain notebook.
Planners are popular among students, entrepreneurs, busy families, and anyone who needs to have a sense of what they are doing for each day or week.
You can use a planner for a certain area in your life, or it can be a place to capture everything that is going on and make sure that there is a balance between your diverse tasks and obligations.
Planners come in dated and un-dated forms. A dated planner is meant for a single year and the entire calendar goes from January to December. An undated planner allows you to start using it at any time, as there is no date on which you have to use it.
Some planners consider Sunday to be the first day of the week, while others begin the week on Mondays. Some planners are meant to be used on a daily basis, while others allow you to write down your schedule for the entire month.
These days, digital planners are also popular. Online planners can sync across platforms, help you organize your events and deadlines with reminders, and offer collaboration capabilities.
Pros and Cons of Planners
Pros of a Planner:
- Keeps all of your life’s obligations in one place
- Helps you prioritize what is important
- It comes in many predeveloped sizes and formats, making it easy to choose a planner that fits your needs.
- Can be created digitally
Cons of a Planner:
- It can be expensive to purchase many planners, especially if they are printed and bound.
- Requires effort to maintain, as you must write things down on a daily basis. If your handwriting is usually messy or illegible, it can be difficult for you to read your planner later.
- It can be overwhelming to consistently update and maintain; if you miss a day or two it can be hard to catch up.
Types of Planners
As mentioned above, planners can be used for specific occasions or life goals. Here are some ideas for different types of planners you can use.
- Work Planner: A work planner is often used by busy entrepreneurs or people who manage their own schedule, but can also be beneficial for
- Meal Planner: A meal planner is a great tool for people who want to eat healthily or save money by cooking at home.
- Academic Planner: An academic planner can be used by students to help them organize their time and make sure they are not over-committing themselves.
- Home Chore Planner: A home chore planner is a great tool for anyone who spends a lot of time cleaning and organizing their house.
- Habit Tracker: A habit tracker is a good tool for personal development, allowing you to see which habits are most important in your life.
- Travel Planner: A travel planner allows you to keep track of your events and itineraries so you don’t miss a flight or lose any important documents.
- Wedding Planner: A wedding planner is a great tool for people who are organizing their own weddings.
- Workout Planner: A workout planner helps you track your progress and plan for the future.
How To Start Using a Planner
There are many fantastic published planners in circulation, so your first step will be to do some research and see which type of planner is best for you.
Some planners are very simple and only have a calendar in them. Other planners are very complex and have additional features like meal planning, goal-setting exercises, or even space for daily to-do lists and affirmations.
You’ll want to ask yourself how much time you have for your planner when deciding what features you would like. A planner with many features will take more time to maintain and you may not have room for it in your daily schedule.
If you find a planner that fits what you are looking for, the next step will be to decide how you want to use it. Will you only use it for your work life, or also include personal and academic events? Will you plan your meals and workouts in it, or just use the calendar?
The easiest way to develop a habit of filling out your planner is by doing it once a week. If your week starts on Sunday, fill out your planner on Saturday. If your week starts on Monday, prepare your planner on a Sunday.
This is a great balance of planning ahead without needing to map out your whole month or year. You can, of course, add appointments up to several months in advance, which will be a helpful way to “set and forget” any upcoming obligations outside of your weekly flow.
What is a Bullet Journal?
A bullet journal is a system that incorporates both journals and planners into one product. It helps people who are looking for the freedom of pen-and-paper planning with organizational tools such as calendars and to-do lists.
It also provides a space for free journaling, decompressing, reflecting, drawing, brainstorming, and more. This allows for a more holistic approach to journaling and productivity, rather than focusing on any one type of goal.
A bullet journal comes as a blank notebook or a notebook with a dotted grid. Dot grids are great because they allow you to write beautifully and can guide you as you create content, but they also allow you to use your own system and create shapes, symbols, or patterns as shorthand for different tasks.
There are many great tutorials online for how to start your own bullet journal. You can also take inspiration from the many amazing notebook artists, who create beautiful works of art in their journals.
Pros and Cons of Bullet Journals
Pros of a Bullet Journal:
- It’s customizable.
- You can use it for many different types of goals: work, personal, academic, and project-related.
- You don’t have to adhere to a specific timeframe.
- It’s a great way to develop a journaling habit.
Cons of a Bullet Journal:
- It can be time-consuming to set up.
- Requires a lot of self-discipline in order to develop and maintain the system on your own.
- It may not be a good option for people who need more structure in their lives.
How To Start Using a Bullet Journal
Bullet journals are completely customizable, so you’ll need to decide what kind of journal works best for your goals and lifestyle.
If you’re just starting out, you may want to check out some tutorial videos or printed tutorials online to see how people use their bullet journals.
You could also start by using a pre-made template to get the hang of things before making your own, or you could start experimenting right away.
Make sure to gather supplies that can bring style and function to your journal. Many people use calligraphy pens, colored gel pens, stickers, and other decorations to make their journals more beautiful and personalized.
Once you have the basics of your bullet journal system, feel free to experiment with additional formats based on your interests and personal goals.
Bullet Journal vs Planner: Which One is for Me?
A bullet journal has many similarities to a planner. They are both designed to help you keep up with your daily life by organizing it into individual days’ tasks – but there are some key differences that still make them unique.
If you are the type of person who doesn’t need to plan out your year ahead, bullet journals can be a great option. They are also helpful for people who want to experiment with journaling techniques, drawing, and doodling.
Many people find the bullet journal to be a wonderful way to make time for creativity in their lives and think outside of the box. If you’re looking to develop a laid-back artistic practice and improve your creative thinking skills, this journal may be the best choice for you.
A planner is for people who need more structure in their lives – specifically, people who need to plan out major events and responsibilities, such as birthdays or work commitments that are time-based.
A planner is also easier for newcomers because it requires less time to set up and has definitive dates and times that you can look forward to. Go with a planner if you know you have very specific and measurable goals to accomplish.
Tracking your Life Digitally & With Paper
Handwriting your goals has been proven to increase success rates, but many people also need to be able to digitally track their appointments and tasks. It can be challenging to decide which kind of system to commit to, but you can choose to use both if you’d like the benefits of both worlds.
The best way to do this is by using a paper planner and an online calendar, such as Google Calendar. With the two combined it’s easy to keep track of your day-to-day life and make sure that you can take advantage of digital features such as sharing tasks, setting reminders, and syncing with your phone.
Using this combination becomes easy with practice. Simply set up your digital planner or calendar at the same time that you write out your bullet journal or planner tasks. This can help to make sure you don’t forget an important event and give you peace of mind.
Final Thoughts
The bullet journal has evolved out of the basic structure of the planner, and both offer many benefits. There are no rules when it comes to tracking your life and you can actually take your favorite parts from each system and use them to create a custom solution that works for you.
Remember, keep it simple at first to avoid time-consuming mistakes! Then you can really start to develop and tailor the system in a way that makes it unique and perfect for your needs.