So it’s been quite a few years since Ryder Carroll shared his ingenious method to the world that essentially changed how people got their life together. I’m a little bit late on the Bullet Journal train. When I first heard about it (not that long ago), I thought I didn’t have time to jot down my endless to-do lists and be super organized. As a sleep deprived mother of an infant and a toddler, I barely have time to shower, let alone use the washroom! The To-Do Lists are endless, my children need me, and my husband works crazy hours.  Self-care? What the heck is that?? Since my second son was born, I haven’t picked up my knitting needles in almost a year.

Truthfully, I really like the busy-ness of being a caffeine-driven mom and running a busy household. I know these years will not last forever and my kids will someday grow old enough and leave. I’ll be alone in this household with that husband of mine and I’ll be sad.. My main focus has been to try my best to give these kids the best childhood I can possible give them. It’s been consuming all of my energy as a whole and they are totally worth it. Still it’s ill advised to keep running when feeling emotionally and mentally depleted. (Rage and impatience usually directed at husband.. poor guy..)

Knitting is my recharge. My reset button that brings me peace. I use to think self-care was just selfish (“but what of the children?” I use to ask myself) I’ve read somewhere that self-care is self preservation. How can you take care of other people if you cannot take care of yourself? Totally makes sense. My youngest is 8 months old and I’m totally on board for more self care time.

In comes the Bullet Journal Idea..

This whole time, I tried to get keep all my to-do tasks in my head with a regular cleaning schedule and important dates, etc. No one else knew or understood the list. My husband doesn’t think the same way as I do so I usually tackled everything head on on my own.  We have one of those large “mom organizer” calendars in our kitchen but that only really captures important dates. The chores are endless (particularly dishes and laundry), and especially since my youngest is mobile, I really make it a point to keep those floors clean at least once everyday as he tends to put everything he finds in his mouth. The majority of the household chores/errands fall on me as I am on maternity leave right now. When I go back to working full time, things will be even more crazy busy.

So it seems the bullet journal is meant for busy people with a million to do lists. It helps to decompress the mental pressure of endless lists. There’s also many different customization options to track anything you want that fits your lifestyle. And they say you only spend however much time you want to spend on it.

Ok, sounds great.

I could spend hours looking at everyone else’s set up for inspiration. Wow people are amazingly talented out there with their beautiful lettering and doodling skills. Mine totally doesn’t look like that. I love how there are stickers specifically designed for bullet journaling for people to buy. They are super cute! Too bad I’m too cheap to be cute.

Minimalist journaling is the answer. If you want to add some colour, multi coloured highlighters and coloured pens are all you need.

I have an overview of all the cleaning tasks that need to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and as needed basis. And I incorporate my daily cleaning schedule into my “Habits Tracker” along with a self care list in mind to check off at the end of the day. I’m still playing around with the Habit Tracker layout, but it’s such a great idea. I love the idea of a mood, water intake and even caffeine tracker just for fun.  At the Monthly log, I’ve included a check mark box list of monthly tasks as well as Goals. For the month of July, I plan on picking up knitting again as part of my monthly goal. If I set myself up this way, I find I’m more likely to find time to knit even if it’s for 5 minutes in the day. I think I’m better able to organize and plan out my time to squeeze that “me time” in throughout the week. Otherwise, I would try to do too much in one day if I follow a mental list that is impossible to complete in one day.

And I never thought to write my knitting ideas down on paper.. I was always afraid I would lose that piece of paper or worried that it would be a general waste of paper… It’s actually quite helpful and inspires me to just go for it. I have a list of knitting challenges I’m hoping to kick off before the end of the year. I also have a Project Ideas collection of things I would like to knit sometime. Sure there is Ravelry and the queue list, but I have 134 items on that queue list. Over the years, that list has grown but I don’t want to take any off that list just in case I change my mind later and forget about it completely. Writing it down helps narrow it down to realistic goals.

I’m still a little sleep deprived but I believe the system works. Thank you Ryder Carroll for inspiring me to get my life together and utilize my organizational skills! I’m much less likely to just veg out on my phone with this whole system helping me keep focus on tasks on hand. I don’t even think I would be writing on this blog at all if it weren’t for this system. Productivity, here I come!

Do you use a bullet journal? Has it helped you find balance in your crazy busy lives?

Hi there.  It’s been a while. When I first started this blog 5 years ago, it was meant to be a fun space where I can share things that excited me (like knitting!!) and maybe find a sense of belonging in the growing knitting community where we can all share our excitement and inspire each other.  There are so many amazing ideas out there and ideas I want to share. I know I haven’t accomplished a lot so far.. But a lot has happened in 5 years.. (moved to two different cities for different job opportunities in less than a year, followed by working like a fresh out of college crazy career mad scientist woman who wanted to be way too involved in her career, then married my  best friend, bought a house, and had 2 beautiful healthy sons all within 5 years.) My eldest son is now 3 years old (in full day preschool) and youngest son is 8 months old and will be going to full day daycare in September. I don’t go back to work until November so I’m looking forward to having some time to myself and recover from the exhaustion that comes with life as a mom and homemaker.  I’m hoping to re-spark my passion for knitting. 2019 has been filled with dry spells where I haven’t picked up needles for months. Just too exhausted mentally.  Too much has been going on on top of running a busy household.

So every time this happens to me where I don’t knit for a long time, I almost hear the art calling for me. And even though I have everything I could ever dream of in my life, I feel there is something missing inside that only knitting satisfies and makes me feel at peace again. And I always think , “Why haven’t I picked this up earlier?” Does this make me a knitting junkie? Is it an addiction or just pure therapy?

So let’s start over. I plan on revisiting this space a lot more often than I have. I love the saying “knitting is a lot cheaper than therapy”. And I know there are so many amazing people out there who are fellow knitters/crocheters. I’ll try to make more of an effort to make this page a bit more interesting and keep my ravelry up to date. Hopefully we can inspire each other.

I understand that no one actually cares about my life and all but I feel like it doesn’t hurt to share what’s been going on and to state to that I’m ready to re-enter whatever this space will become.

Hello World!!

Thank you for reading. =D

Until next time..